Keith Hoffmann’s Statement on Roger Williams University

The administration at Roger Williams University is making a serious mistake. They’ve violated their faculty and professional staff’s bargained-for contract, and they could be breaking the law. They’re unilaterally forcing mandatory, unpaid furloughs on union workers – some of which began today. Everybody knows that breaking a contract like this is fundamentally unfair. And the timing couldn’t be worse.

The Trump administration has waged a war against working people and organized labor throughout our country. Gutting the Department of Labor and OSHA. Weakening the NLRB’s ability to do essential work for both workers and management. Fighting against the very people who care for, teach in, serve, and build our communities.

I’d like to think that the administration at Roger Williams University isn’t trying to take advantage of this situation. But it’s well past time for them to acknowledge what’s apparent to everyone looking: What they’re doing to these employees is just plain wrong. These are the employees, represented by the National Education Association Rhode Island (NEARI), who work every day to support students, maintain facilities, and uphold the academic mission of the university. The RWU administration is trying to take money from these people’s pockets at a time when most Rhode Islanders are especially squeezed.

No one doubts that RWU is facing financial hardship, but faculty and professional staff have in the past worked with the RWU administration to meet their shared goals of educating students and keeping the university afloat when the administration has fully disclosed its financial condition. Violating workers’ contract and forcing an unpaid furlough is not a way to earn workers’ trust and support during a challenging period – particularly when many of these employees may have already performed their core classroom work for which they’re compensated through the contract.

Flagrant violations of labor agreements are never right, but when you appear to be insulating executive compensation and don’t engage in an open and honest dialogue with the people you’re making pay a steep price for a fiscal crisis, the wrongdoing and mismanagement are plain, inexplicable, and inexcusable.

The RWU administration should end this furlough, and they should end it now.

That’s why I was proud to stand with the RWU Faculty Association, the RWU Professional Staff Union, and RWU Facilities Union beside NEARI, UFCW Local 328, RI AFL-CIO, and General Assembly leaders, and demand that RWU honor their contract. As Attorney General, I’ll ensure that if we need more tools to efficiently and effectively enforce workers’ rights that have been derided by the Trump administration – wage and hour, prevailing wage, and workplace safety protections – we will partner with stakeholders and the General Assembly to get it done, just as I’ve fought for alongside AG Neronha.

Many other states’ attorneys general are already responsible for enforcing these laws and Rhode Island’s top legal official must have clear, concurrent jurisdiction with any other agency tasked with the enforcement of significant protections for workers. What the RWU administration is attempting to do may be wage theft, for which we already have a remedy. But there is no question that this moment in our state demands action at every level to fight for a safer, stronger, and fairer future for all of us.

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