Former Uloop employees file complaint
Students claim they were fired for union talks, but company disagrees
SANDRA EMERSON, Staff Writer
Issue date: 2/26/08 Section: News
Two former Cal Poly Uloop.com representatives have filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board accusing the company of illegally firing them for attempting to form a union.
Austin Garrido, a second-year computer engineering student, and Sarah Doolittle, a second-year agriculture science student, were fired from their Cal Poly representative positions in January.
The students claim they were fired because they were discussing the possibility of forming a union with other representatives after an unannounced pay cut.
Ryan Commons, the Southern California campus representative manager for Uloop, stated no Uloop employee has or ever will be fired for attempting to start a union. Uloop has not addressed this situation specifically, however.
"We came back from winter break and signed onto the company's [Web site]," said Doolittle. "We went to look at our paycheck, and it was dramatically lower than what we expected to get because they cut our pay from $10 per hour down to $8 per hour without even bothering to inform us."
Uloop.com is a Web site intended to help students find textbooks, jobs, housing and rides through a forum that is individual to each campus. Two students for each school belonging to the Web site are hired to promote the company on their campuses.
In response to the pay cut, Doolittle wrote a letter to the company stating her dissatisfaction with the company's decision and urging a response.
"They said if we work 15 hours a week for them, they would give us $10, maybe," said Doolittle. "It is very unrealistic for college students who are working two jobs already to work 15 hours a week for them. They said they would talk it out, and if we didn't like it we should quit."
After working for Uloop for the last two quarters, they decided to stay and work it out.
"We worked so hard to get where we are and to get the confirmed registrations we have right now," said Garrido.
Austin Garrido, a second-year computer engineering student, and Sarah Doolittle, a second-year agriculture science student, were fired from their Cal Poly representative positions in January.
The students claim they were fired because they were discussing the possibility of forming a union with other representatives after an unannounced pay cut.
Ryan Commons, the Southern California campus representative manager for Uloop, stated no Uloop employee has or ever will be fired for attempting to start a union. Uloop has not addressed this situation specifically, however.
"We came back from winter break and signed onto the company's [Web site]," said Doolittle. "We went to look at our paycheck, and it was dramatically lower than what we expected to get because they cut our pay from $10 per hour down to $8 per hour without even bothering to inform us."
Uloop.com is a Web site intended to help students find textbooks, jobs, housing and rides through a forum that is individual to each campus. Two students for each school belonging to the Web site are hired to promote the company on their campuses.
In response to the pay cut, Doolittle wrote a letter to the company stating her dissatisfaction with the company's decision and urging a response.
"They said if we work 15 hours a week for them, they would give us $10, maybe," said Doolittle. "It is very unrealistic for college students who are working two jobs already to work 15 hours a week for them. They said they would talk it out, and if we didn't like it we should quit."
After working for Uloop for the last two quarters, they decided to stay and work it out.
"We worked so hard to get where we are and to get the confirmed registrations we have right now," said Garrido.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Johnny Cash
posted 2/26/08 @ 11:05 AM PST
I think that is an astronomical pay cut not to be informed about, how discouraging!
On the other hand, it seems as though the story is one sided. College students appear to be "entitled" to so much, and expect a lot. (Continued…)
JohnnyC
John
posted 2/26/08 @ 11:08 AM PST
I think that is an astronomical pay cut not to be informed about, how discouraging!
On the other hand, it seems as though the story is one sided. College students appear to be "entitled" to so much, and expect a lot. (Continued…)
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