UNC students & workers fight cutbacks

The prospect of deep budget cuts throughout the University of North Carolina system brought dozens of workers, students and faculty members out in Chapel Hill March 26 to rally against layoffs, cuts in student services, and other cuts the university is proposing to make on the backs of workers and students.

Despite the rain, workers and students rallied in the main part of campus then marched to the Carolina Inn, an elite hotel on the edge of campus where the UNC Chapel Hill Board of Trustees was holding its meeting with the chancellor and other university administrators behind closed doors to discuss how some cuts would be made.

Chanting, “They say ‘cutback,’ we say ‘fight back,’” and, “No ifs, no buts, no education cuts,” the march snaked through campus, tying up traffic at several major intersections, before arriving at the board of trustees meeting. The marchers swarmed into the board meeting, encircled the entire room, and delivered three broad demands.

Workers and students demanded that any layoffs or furloughs should occur only at administrative levels, highlighting the fact that the university chancellor and other administrators make more than 15 times the salary of most rank-and-file workers on campus—housekeepers, groundskeepers and clerical support staff.

They demanded the university not cut costs by leaving positions unfilled, forcing one person to do the job of many, without any increase in pay; and that no cuts in student services, increases in class sizes or increases in tuition should be made.

Another demand was for full transparency of every aspect of the budget and an end to the closed meetings where administrators make their decisions about what to cut. The final demand centered around community involvement in decisions about how the university will handle the budget crisis; the protesters called for creation of a board of workers, students and faculty to participate in any decisions about the budget crisis.

University Chancellor Holden Thorp recently instructed all campus departments to make permanent 5 percent cuts. These are likely to increase as legislators hammer out the state budget over the coming months and the full magnitude of the cuts are realized. UNC System President Erskine Bowles, who served as a top aide in the Clinton White House, has promised that at least 500 workers will lose their jobs in UNC’s system because of the cuts.

This demonstration by workers, students, and faculty was a decisive rejection of UNC’s attempts to cut costs by firing workers and eliminating student services. It is a clear sign that workers and students are ready to wage a concerted fight to stop any cuts.

In comments to reporters, the chancellor and board of trustees members called the demonstrators and their demands “misguided.” What is truly misguided is these bosses’ belief that workers and students will not fight back against the cuts—and the logic of claiming that the only way to deal with this crisis of capitalism, created not by workers or students but by the bankers on Wall Street, is to lay off workers and cut student services.

North Carolina’s unemployment rate rose to an all time official high of 10.7 percent in February. That’s the fourth highest in the country. University workers know that they cannot afford to join the unemployment lines.

An ad hoc coalition of workers, students and faculty members recently formed to organize a broad fight against cuts and layoffs. This coalition is committed to building a strong movement on campus to defeat the university’s strategy of pushing all cuts on the backs of workers and students. The university bosses can expect this growing movement to stop layoffs and cutbacks to continue to grow as more and more workers and students unite to fight back.

“While one demonstration isn’t going to bring the administration to the table or make them do what we say, we’re building momentum and solidarity among workers, students and faculty. I’m confident that this organizing will pick up steam. We have the power and influence to make some changes,” said Rakhee Devasthali, a leader of Feminist Students United, part of the emerging coalition against the budget cuts.

Carroll is an organizer with Raleigh-Durham Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) and Student Action with Workers (SAW).