Over 4 Dozen Outsourcing Opponents Chant and March in Rally
More than 4 dozen custodians, groundskeepers, their families and supporters, as well as union members and other staff and faculty of the University of Arkansas gathered Saturday afternoon, March 16, 2024, to rally against the proposed outsourcing of their jobs.
UA-Fayetteville Education Association / Local 965 organized the demonstration. We gratefully acknowledge St. Martin’s Episcopal Center at the University of Arkansas and its chaplain, Casey Anderson-Molina, for hosting the rally. The assembled had a permit to march through campus.
Below, click on an image in each row for a full-size slideshow of those three.
Marchers prepare their pickets at the sign-painting tables. (April Reisma photo)A custodial supervisor tells marchers about her concerns about proposed outsourcing. (April Reisma photo)About two-thirds of the marchers (over 32) listen to speeches. (April Reisma photo)UA Law Professor Amelia McGowan is ready to march. (April Reisma photo)5News’ Lauren Spencer interviews Brad Edwards, a housekeeping coordinator, and History Professor Mike Pierce. (April Reisma photo)Protesters pass through UA’s Pi Beta Phi Centennial Gate to enter the Fayetteville campus. (April Reisma photo)
Video of march from Arkansas Education Association
Video of march from onlooker
Rousing speech by Professor Mike Pierce. Video by onlooker
Onlooker captures end of march as final speeches about to start
A dozen protesters conclude the march outside the Administration Building. (Christy Pollock photo)President April Reisma of the Arkansas Education Association watches the last speeches of the rally and march. (Christy Pollock photo)NWA Central Labor Council President Walter Hinojosa delivers the penultimate speech at the UA Administration Building. (Christy Pollock photo)
Once again, NWA Equality hosted a few thousand to strut down Fayetteville’s Dickson Street through many thousands of cheering spectators Saturday, June 24, 2023, for the city’s 19th annual Pride Parade. Among the units was UA-Fayetteville Education Association / Local 965.
Wearing the 965 black-on-red logo Ts and carrying our banner were President Hershel Hartford, Vice President Ben Pollock, Past President Bret Schulte, Treasurer Matt Stanley and former board member Ted Swedenburg. Other 965 members paraded with other groups. For the Trans March the evening before, June 23, former board member Chad Kieffer helped walk our banner along its route, up Block Street.
Local 965 again was part of a collective of UA groups marching in Saturday’s parade together. They comprise “student organizations, departments, divisions, and groups from across campus. … [Per UA System] Board policy, this is not the University of Arkansas marching, but units from within the institution participating.” Anthony DiNicola, the inclusion liaison/ coordinator of cultural communities for UA’s Center for Multicultural and Diversity Education, again skillfully led its planning and execution.
For video news reports, local TV stations reported on the parade June 24-25:
Local 965 President Hershel Hartford (left) and Vice President Ben Pollock line up for the June 23, 2025 NWA Trans March. Photo by Chad KiefferFormer Local 965 board member Chad Kieffer frames a selfie with Vice President Ben Pollock (center) and Local 965 President Hershel Hartford as they set up for the June 23, 2025 NWA Trans March.
Some 1,200 professional support staff of the University of Arkansas had lunch May 17 on the Staff Senate at its 2023 Staff Appreciation Picnic, according to counts by the senate and Chartwells food service, which hosted the meal.
Click on any image to start a slideshow. Then click on the “i” at bottom right for complete captions.
A number of those picnickers stopped for brochures and conversation at the information booth of UA-Fayetteville Education Association / Local 965. They met local leaders as well as officials of the Arkansas Education Association, held this year at the 1021 Food Hall (formerly Brough Commons).
Our volunteers to greet UA employees included, from Local 965, President Hershel Hartford, Past President Bret Schulte, and Secretary Kasey Walker; and from AEA, President Carol Fleming, interim AEA Executive Director Liz Piccone, Aspiring Ed and ESP organizer Kelly Givens, and UniServ Liaison Renee Johnson.
Click on any image to start a slideshow. Then click on the “i” at bottom right for complete captions.
Among other highlights of the event, immediate Past President Bret Schulte presented President Hershel Hartford with Local 965’s charter from the mid-1960s. A 42-second video is available to view on Facebook.
Local 965 President Hershel Hartford displays the 1966 charter of what first was the Arkansas Public Employees Local Union 965 after Past President Bret Schulte presented it to him at the 2023 University of Arkansas Staff Appreciation Picnic, May 17 at the 1021 Food Hall.
President Hershel Hartford threw a party for Local 965 members and friends, and many dropped by for conversation, hamburgers, hot dogs, cold drinks and sides. It was UA-Fayetteville Education Association’s first-in-a-loooooong-while May Day / Workers Day picnic. We met at Fayetteville’s Veterans Memorial Park.
While chatting was generally casual, Hershel formally welcomed the diners and explained the intent, that in-person dialogue is more effective and more fun than the panedemic era’s email, text and video-chat. He noted that plans are to host a similar cook-out in the fall, on Labor Day naturally, as well as continuing well into the future.
Local 965 President Hershel Hartford discusses the University of Arkansas’s need for a strong labor union during the Local 965 Workers Day 2023 picnic May 1 in Fayetteville. Photo by Denise Firmin GarnerLocal 965 President Hershel Hartford (from left) listens as state Rep Denise Garner snaps a photo and her husband, Dr. Hershey Garner looks on as Vice President Ben Pollock hawks memberships at the Local 965 Workers Day 2023 picnic May 1. Photo by Bret Schulte
Also speaking was a longtime supporter state Rep. Denise Firmin Garner, D-Dist. 84. Her husband, Hershey Garner, M.D., later completed our membership application.
Denise is known for being a shutterbug at events such as ours, and we are proud to showcase her skills here. We are grateful.
A few dozen workers of all ages listened to eight regional union organizers at the Northwest Arkansas Labor Spring Teach-In April 8, gaining knowledge and enthusiasm from their fellows.
The program in the Ziegler Reception Room of the Fayetteville Public Library began with perhaps the newest labor movement, that of Starbucks Coffee employees. Dylan Hartsfield began organizing employees of the cafe on Wedington Drive in February 2022. Since its success and that of a Starbucks on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Dylan has become an organizer with the overall Starbucks Workers United, a division of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Walter Hinojosa, president of the Northwest Arkansas Labor Council, emceed while Hershel Hartford, president of UA-Fayetteville Education Association / Local 965, introduced the program. These two groups sponsored the teach-in.
Magaly Licolli, executive director and co-founder of the poultry worker organization Venceremos, speaks at the April 8, 2023, NWA Labor Spring Teach-In at the Fayetteville Public Library.Pete Reagan, the 14th District field service rep for the International Association of Fire Fighters, speaks at the April 8, 2023, NWA Labor Spring Teach-In at the Fayetteville Public Library.Rick Halford, regional political director of Southern States Millwright Regional Council, speaks at the April 8, 2023, NWA Labor Spring Teach-In at the Fayetteville Public Library.Jessica Akers, president of the Arkansas AFL-CIO, speaks at the April 8, 2023, NWA Labor Spring Teach-In at the Fayetteville Public Library.
Magaly Licolli, executive director and co-founder of the regional poultry worker organization Venceremos said her group is chiefly concerned with a “search for solutions” on worker safety matters. As far as chicken growing and processing, any sort of safety net set up by government is full of tangles and tears, where she cited chemical emissions and denial especially of the dangers of Covid especially in the pandemic’s early months.
Annie B. Smith, professor, University of Arkansas School of Law, outlined the basics of federal law on unions as well as the limits state laws sets, both positive and negative. Worker’s compensation law, for example covers an employee injured due to their own miscalculation, but “Workers generally do not have a right to breaks” (they’re just a common perk).
Dylan Hartsfield, an organizer with Workers United Starbucks who began with the coffee shops in Northwest Arkansas, speaks at the April 8, 2023, NWA Labor Spring Teach-In at the Fayetteville Public Library.Annie B. Smith, a professor at the University of Arkansas School of Law, speaks at the April 8, 2023, NWA Labor Spring Teach-In at the Fayetteville Public Library.
Pete Reagan, district field service representative for the 14th District (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee), International Association of Fire Fighters , gave a brief history of the Fayetteville local that began in the late 1970s. Its latest concern is the incorporation of PFAs (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in their gear to repel oil and water and prevent mold but is a carcinogen. “Our own gear is killing us.”
Rick Halford, regional political director of Southern States Millwright Regional Council discussed the close relationship between child labor and human trafficking in light of the Arkansas legislature with Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ signature revoked state law pertaining to children working, though federal laws remain in effect.
Closing out the program was Jessica Akers Hughes, president, Arkansas AFL-CIO. She sees the governments of a number of states trying to divide workers, a common tactic that in recent years uses gender, sexuality, race. “If we didn’t have power, they wouldn’t be trying to silence us,” she said.
The inaugural Northwest Arkansas Labor Spring Teach-In was held April 8, 2023, at the Fayetteville Public Library.
