The Ohio State Medical Center will accept bids today for non-union custodial workers at several OSU hospital buildings, which the Communication Workers of America Local 4501 labor union says is a direct hit at the progress made during the strike this past spring.An Unfair Labor Practice has been filed by the CWA with the State Employees Relations Board (SERB), and a rally was held last Thursday in front of the OSU Medical Center in protest of the possible contracting of non-union workers. The CWA claims the OSU Medical Center’s management is attempting to reverse the progress the union made during the strike by pushing union members out of their jobs and contracting non-union workers in their place.Mark Ringer, administrative director of Human Resources for University Hospitals, said 45 percent of OSU is cleaned by non-union workers.The CWA Union Local President Gary A. Josephson said that athough many non-union workers are employed by the university, an agreement has always existed between OSU’s management and the union that the CWA will not push out non-union workers if the management does not push out union workers.However, Josephson said today’s bidding for outside contractors is one of the biggest hits against union workers at the OSU Medical Center.”It’s a declaration of war from a very rich university against poor workers,” Josephson said.However, Ringer said a need exists to contract non-union workers because the hospital is unable to maintain adequate staffing. “We have a high turnover rate, and it is difficult to recruit these types of entry-level jobs in Columbus’ tight job market,” Ringer said.Ringer also said the Medical Center’s management is not trying to push union members out of their jobs by contracting non-union custodial workers.”There aren’t individuals that would be laid off,” he said. “There would only be the reassignment of some people.”However, Josephson claims the high turnover rate of custodial work at the University Hospitals is a result of the poor conditions the management has created. Josephson also said the management is intentionally trying to drive union workers off.”They have a lack of respect for union workers,” he said. “They treat our workers like children by constantly standing over and watching them. When our union members quit, the hospital is then able to say that they didn’t lay anyone off.”By doing this, Josephson said the management at the Medical Center can claim that their hands are clean. Josephson also said the management at the Medical Center has many business problems, and the union workers are their scapegoat.”The management thinks their job is to just write checks instead of solving problems close up,” he said. “The actions of the managers should be looked into and not the workers.”Several union workers employed at the Medical Center said they were told that the non-union workers who were hired during the strike are comparably doing a better job. “With all the temp’s that came in from the strike, the management said they do a better job than us, but we bust our butts every day,” said Arthur E. McGill, CWA union member and custodial worker. Members of the CWA who work at the Medical Center are also concerned that the temporary non-union workers have not been trained properly.”The upper-level management just sends them to a floor to clean patients’ rooms,” said Bob Cordova, CWA member and custodial worker for the past five years at the OSU Medical Center. “They are not trained well, and we’re doing their rooms over for them because they’re not cleaning them properly. The administration doesn’t care if the rooms are clean,” he said.Cordova also said the progress gained during last spring’s CWA strike would cause the Medical Center’s management to retaliate by hiring more non-union workers.