June 16, 2025
To: President Ken Kitts, VP of Financial and Business Affairs, Evan Thornton, and the
Board of Trustees at the University of North Alabama
From: State Steering Committee of Alabama, United Campus Workers, CWA Local 3821, and
the Committee on Civil Rights and Equity, Communication Workers of America (CWA)
Dear President Kitts, Mr. Thornton, and the UNA Board of Trustees,
We write to oppose the university’s recent decision to outsource its environmental service
workers to SSC Education Services on the following grounds.
1. SSC‘S business model undermines UNA’s stated commitment to investment in the
region. Every year, UNA releases an economic impact report that highlights its
significant contributions to the Shoals area. While SSC Educational Services claims to
be headquartered in Knoxville, TN, it is run by Compass Group based in Surrey, UK.
The British hedge fund BlackRock is its largest investor, intending to maximize profit for
its shareholders. The privatization and outsourcing of units on our regional state
campus, and the profits that will flow outside of the region to SSC and the Compass
Group, are the exact opposite of local investment.
2. UNA’s transition of employees to SSC is a betrayal of the trust employees had placed
in the university. Environmental service employees, who only made between $10 and
$11 per hour when working for UNA, were told that their wages would increase to $12
per hour under SSC. Yet they were given only two days to decide whether or not they
would sign on with SSC to keep their jobs. Many of their benefits have evaporated as
a result of this transition, including time toward becoming vested in the state pension
system, as well as accrued sick time. Some employees left hundreds of hours of
unspent sick time on the table. Health care costs for most employees will go up under
this new contract, erasing any wage increase. Many employees had been staying on at
UNA, despite low wages, for benefits that have now been rescinded. Employees are
losing the job security they had at a state institution. Under SSC, they can be fired
based on an inflexible point system. SSC told former UNA employees at their staff
orientation that their previously scheduled vacation time would not be honored and that
they now have 5 vacation days per year. Employees must work holidays (deemed “deep
clean” days) for regular pay and will receive “points” if they call off on a holiday (with
seven points resulting in termination). Many of the environmental service staff are
working mothers who will now be required to spend holidays away from their children.
3. SSC’s business model is exploitative. The company courts universities by offering initial
contracts that seem to cut costs. Yet journalism on SSC indicates that a number of
districts have rescinded their contracts over time, as SSC practiced mass layoffs and
rate hikes that led to instability as well as increased expenses. Research indicates that
outsourcing university services to private companies fueled by profit motives does not
save costs over time.
4. UNA also jeopardizes public safety by transitioning environmental service workers in
our buildings and dormitories to contract work. Faculty, staff, and students had built
relationships with our environmental service staff over the years. SSC has a reputation
for high turnover among its employees. Who will have the keys to our offices and dorm
rooms under an exploitative company that seeks to maximize its profit? Turnover
threatens our ability to know and build trusting relationships with staff. Additionally, UNA
prides itself on the beauty and cleanliness of its campus, and employees— when they
were state employees with state benefits— shared in that pride. The transition to SSC
will negatively impact the beauty and hygiene of the university’s campus as high
turnover creates a temporary work force that is not incentivized to show the same level
of work ethic and care as we saw with state employees.
5. We know that UNA will continue to try to cut costs at the bottom of the wage hierarchy
and that they will soon look to pick off other units on campus for outsourcing to SSC.
Meanwhile, UNA continues to invest in expensive capital projects and the salaries of
UNA’s top three administrators alone— the university president, VP of financial and
business affairs, and provost— tie up more than $1 million of the university’s annual
budget. According to MIT’s living wage calculator, an adult in Florence with no children
must make $19.27/hour in order to survive without government assistance. A
university that can afford to build a $65 million sports stadium and that can afford
to pay its president over $49,000 per month can afford to pay living wages and
provide better benefits for its essential workers.
Screenshot of President Kitts’ monthly payroll. Source: www.una.edu/university-spending/
In 2024, UNA was designated a “great college to work for.” Yet the resignation letters of
environmental service workers who recently transitioned to SSC management have indicated
otherwise, including the following: “The work environment, particular[ly] the way things have
been managed, has become toxic for me. It has negatively impacted my mental health, and I
longer feel I can stay in a place where I’m not respected or supported.” Our essential workers—
many of whom kept the campus running during and after the COVID-19 pandemic– deserve
better.
Many of the loyal environmental service workers who have quit during this transition to SSC say
they would return if UNA were to reverse its decision and welcome them back as state
employees with their previous benefits. We urge UNA to sever its contract with SSC
Educational Services and rehire these workers as state employees at a fair wage.
Signed,
Errol Minor, Chair of Committee on Civil Rights and & Equity, CWA District 3
State Steering Committee of Alabama, United Campus Workers – CWA Local 3821
Roman Vasquez, Chair
Alex Pieschel, Treasurer
Brooks Howe, Secretary
Lance Ingwersen, Campus Representative
Misha Hadar, UCW Local Executive Board Representative
Media Release/Roman Vasquez, Chair of the Alabama Steering Committee
