Alumni for Oberlin Values

2020 Mass Layoffs and Union-Busting

Hear from Laid-Off Oberlin Workers

“It’s All About the Dollar” is a report based on student interviews with workers laid off in 2020. While the trustees and administration would no doubt like to think the world has simply moved on, these workers are still living with the devastating consequences.

“It takes a long time to recover from. We’re two years down the road and I’m still struggling.”

“They took everything from me. My savings, my livelihood, my ability to help my family, my friends, my community. They robbed me of that, without even giving me the opportunity to know it was coming.”

"It's All About the Dollar" report cover

“The depression, the not knowing what was gonna happen or how you were gonna make it through, the anxiety. I started having horrible panic attacks.”

“That is terrifying to be that age and be literally out on the street. What did I have? Mostly custodial skills, a little bit of maintenance skills. I had worked at McDonald’s years ago and it’s like, what am I going to do?”

“It ruins the fabric of what that place is because some of my coworkers have been in their buildings, the dorms for years and years. Basically we’re like the second mothers to generations of Oberlin students. And that’s gone now.” 

Is Oberlin really all about outsourcing of labor in the middle of a pandemic? And greatly reducing over 100 families’ quality of life for generations to come?”

Read the report (PDF)

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