Staff protests Temple firings
Thursday, June 4th, 2009
By: Tom MacDonald
tmacdonald@whyy.org
Members of Temple University's faculty and staff protested yesterday at the home of the university president's house. The protest centered around the dismissal of 19 workers.
Listen:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Several dozen protesters formed a picket line outside the Rittenhouse Square home of Temple President Ann Hart. Equipment manager Dominic Margus says a month into his 24th year on the job he was dismissed as part of budget cuts at the university. He says after almost a quarter century, the process didn't feel right.
Margus: I was allowed to go get my belongings 24 years worth of stuff, they escorted me down with a facilities operations person and gave me an hour to clean out my office.
The protesters believe the university is trying to break a union that has been without a contract for almost two years. University spokesman Ray Betzner says that's not the case and the layoffs are part of university cost cutting measures.
My understanding is that over 100 workers have been fired in recent weeks at Temple.
Temple claims that these firings were due to budget cuts, but does not share financial information publically, even though it is a state-realted institution and receives substantial taxpayer support.
It is hard to believe budget cuts are the reason for the firings as publicly Temple states it is in excellent financial shape, as evidenced during the recently dedicated multi-million dollar business school building.