OBERLIN, Ohio — Months after announcing the school was considering layoffs of more than 100 of its union workers by formally considering contracting with outside vendors for dining and custodial services, Oberlin College announced it will be eliminating all of its dining service positions on July 15.
The school previously said that roughly 52 full-time dining employees and 56 full-time custodial employees would be impacted by a change in the contract, depending on the number of positions the school is able to fill over the summer when it said the transition from UAW employees to outside vendor employees would occur.
The announcement, made at the end of June in a document obtained by News 5, listed 57 positions that will soon be terminated.
Oberlin College said that all of the employees whose positions are being eliminated are union workers. The school also said that bumping rights may exist for some of the employees.
Named in the eliminated positions are custodians, cooks, bakers, maintenance workers, cashiers and other kitchen staff.
In February, Oberlin College said it was facing “unprecedented financial and demographical challenges, including an unsustainable structural deficit” and had already changed healthcare benefits, retirement benefits and the size of the administrative staff.
Still, the school said it needed to do more to eliminate the deficit, hence the consideration to contract with outside vendors for dining and custodial services and the eventual action to eliminate all of the dining service positions.
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