Classified staff’s opinion on Cox wasn’t represented
With the announcement of Joe Cox’s “non-retirement,” the media has gone to heroic lengths to praise his “accomplishments.” Indeed, one would think he was the greatest thing to happen to higher education since the advent of the microprocessor.
Of all the people interviewed, however, not one classified staff member was asked for an opinion. This doesn’t surprise me with The Register-Guard; given their own labor problems, they would like to forget the people who do real work altogether. And I suppose The Oregonian is just too big to go into much detail where something as trivial as higher education is concerned. As for the ODE — well, perhaps clerks, janitors and plumbers just aren’t sexy enough to warrant attention.
However, had some enterprising journalist deigned to inquire within the cubicles and dishrooms, or even put in a call to OPEU headquarters, he or she might have found a somewhat different point of view. Space limitations will not permit me to go into much detail, but the short list would include: increased management and decreased classified numbers to an unconscionable 1-1.4 ratio; a lowered standard of living across the board for staff; contentious relations between management and labor far beyond anything I have witnessed in my nearly 23 years here; and the plummeting of morale in general to new lows.
At the risk of sounding petulant, then: “Joe, we wished we’d never known ye.”

Bill Smee
Service Employees International Union Local 503, Oregon Public
Employees Union Steward