Due to the new exclusive contract between UNM and Pepsi, five full-time Vending Services employees will be laid off next month.
After their last day on July 12, the employees will be placed on layoff status and officially lose their jobs. Layoff status can last up to six months.
"We had a meeting with the employees and advised them what was happening and this was no surprise to them," said Dupuy Bateman, associate vice president for Auxiliary Enterprises. "They knew this was a possibility six to eight months ago."
However, knowing what was coming has not necessarily made it any easier on those whose jobs are being lost.
"Hopefully I can get another job with the University so I can complete my retirement status," said Vending Services inventory control clerk Dominick Zarrella.
"They just didn't care about what happened to us."
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Zarrella has worked at UNM for more than 10 years and only needs three and a half more years of employment to be eligible for retirement.
Stocking and servicing vending machines will now be the responsibility of Pepsi employees, said Kelly McAndrew, a Pepsi representative.
The contract, which awards exclusive vending and fountain drink rights to Pepsi, will bring the University a million dollars a year for the duration of the eight-year contract. That amount would have been smaller if the contract allowed Vending Services employees to continue stocking and servicing campus machines.
Bateman said the University was able to get more money by doing away with the Vending Services staff and having Pepsi service and stock all campus machines.
Only Pat Boyd, Vending Services supervisor, has already been placed in a new position, said Vending Services Manager Stephen Allison. But the five full-time employees who have yet to find new positions do have some benefits and options available to them.
According to the University's layoff status policy, employees who have been laid off will be given first priority when applying for a similar position with the University.
Each employee will be given a severance package upon being laid off, which can include up to 60 days pay. And if the employees get a new job with UNM, they are guaranteed a salary equal to that of their former position, according to UNM's layoff status policy.
Bob Schulte, director of Business Services/Housing and Food Services, said the remaining employees who have not found new jobs yet are receiving some help from the University in the form of rÇsumÇ writing assistance, but UNM is not actively looking for new jobs for the laid-off employees.
"We hope to place every one of these workers," Bateman said.
Employees are still wary, choosing to explore their options.
"We're all going down to apply for unemployment (benefits) this week," Zarrella said.
by Clay Holtzman
Daily Lobo
