CCRI Union Votes No Confidence in Hughes, Citing "Poor Management"
GoLocalProv News Team
CCRI Union Votes No Confidence in Hughes, Citing "Poor Management"
“While 16% of our members' jobs have been eliminated, high-level administrator positions have ballooned on your watch,” wrote Michael McNally, President of the CCRI Educational Support Professionals Associaton (EPSA) in a letter to Hughes and Ogden.
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NEARI Executive Director Bob Walsh acknowledged that some of the workers eliminated have been shifted to the Department of Health — but he questioned the moves.
“For the first time ever they laid people off at CCRI, many of whom are now working over at Department of Health,” said Walsh. “But there’s no guarantees of those jobs.”
Latest No-Confidence Vote
In 2018, the head of the CCRI faculty union called for Hughes -- and others in administration leadership -- to "step aside," after 82% of voting CCRI Faculty Association (CCRIFA) members voiced "no confidence" in Hughes.
As GoLocal reported, the move marked the latest in friction between Hughes and CCRI faculty.
In June 2017, GoLocal reported, "Over 50 CCRI Faculty Call Hughes’ Leadership 'Challenging and Distressing'" -- and the following month, Hughes "Criticized Faculty for Negativity."
Hughes' Response
CCRI provided the following response from Hughes
"As a result of the pandemic and a significant decline in our enrollment revenue, which accounts for more than half of our overall funding, CCRI has faced unprecedented financial pressure. In response, the college instituted extensive cost-saving measures to bring the budget into balance. These steps included a reduction in pay for senior administration staff, a freeze in filling non-critical vacancies, consolidation of course offerings, a reduction in overtime, support for the Council on Postsecondary Education’s decision to not provide budgeted salary increases for Council employees, and negotiated deferrals of salary increases for some bargaining units.
While these measures helped mitigate the financial impact caused by the pandemic, they were not sufficient to solve for the totality of the college’s significant fiscal challenges. As a result, the college made the very difficult decision to lay off 122 part-time employees and a number of full-time employees including Council employees, members of the CCRIPSA, and members of the CCRIESPA.
This has been a very challenging time for our college community and our state, and we have had to make very difficult decisions that have negatively affected our employees. Our approach to managing this crisis has always been based on transparency and preserving the institutional health of the college while causing the least possible harm to our community."
Updated December 29 1:56 PM