Members of the Staff Union at the University of Virginia and their supporters staged a rally in front of the University Hospital's Primary Care Center on Friday.
The roughly 45 participants at the rally criticized the University administration, saying officials refused to meet with SUUVA, and claiming University health system employees have unfairly lost their jobs as a result of employee realignments.
"One hundred seventy-nine jobs have been eliminated through the hospital's realignment program, and this is while the University brags of 'no layoffs,'" said Elizabeth Coles, a hospital employee and a recruiter for SUUVA.
University Health System employees have been transferred to jobs they lack the skill to complete and then have been fired when they fail to perform well at the new jobs, Coles said.
University spokeswoman Louise Dudley said without the realignment plan layoffs may have been necessary, and that the plan was specifically designed to prevent layoffs.
The Health System was "understaffed in some areas and overstaffed in others," Dudley said. "The employees were given several options."
Dudley added that the Health System is facing budget problems as a result of rising prescription drug costs and decreases in reimbursement payments.
Coles said even layoffs would be more beneficial to those who have lost their jobs.
"Layoffs would mean severance pay," while workers who have lost their jobs as a result of the realignment plan have not received severance pay, Coles said.
SUUVA representatives also requested meetings with members of the University administration to help reconcile this and other complaints.
Virginia law forbids state agencies from entering into collective bargaining with state employee unions. University officials have cited this law, saying they are not allowed to meet with SUUVA representatives.
Law Prof. Stanley Henderson said that though he is unfamiliar with the definition of collective bargaining under Virginia law, he thinks the University administration has a good case.
"If in fact state employees want a representative to deal with the University with respect to their terms and conditions of employment, that sounds to me like collective bargaining," Henderson said.
SUUVA President Jan Cornell said, however, there is a difference between an informal meeting and the formal negotiating session that collective bargaining implies.
"Meeting is not collective bargaining," Cornell said.
Officials at William & Mary have recognized a staff union similar to SUUVA, Cornell said.
Protesters at the rally chanted and listened to speeches while carrying signs with messages such as "What about My Budget?" and "Work with Dignity."
"This is about the basic cornerstones of dignity and respect," said John McCutcheon, an activist and a speaker at the rally.
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