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FREMONT — Given the choice between furloughs and layoffs, most unions choose to give up pay and keep jobs.

But one union at Ohlone College has taken the opposite tact.

The college’s board of trustees is scheduled to vote tonight on layoffs for six union members after union leaders declined a furlough.

The decision was based on principle, said Linda Evers, president of California State Employees Association, Chapter 490, which represents about 144 administrative and instructional support staff at the college.

She said that union leaders wouldn’t approve the furlough as long as the college retains less expensive nonunion hourly employees who are doing union jobs.

“It really breaks my heart “…” Evers said. “If they would follow the law like we asked them to, we would take the furlough.”

But the administration said it offered to review the hourly employees at the end the semester. It also has offered to rescind the layoffs if the union will accept the furloughs, Ohlone President Gari Browning said.

Reduced state aid has left Ohlone with a $700,000 shortfall that must be closed before the end of June.

The college, which has about 700 employees, sought givebacks from its four employee groups: professors, management, and two unions. The groups all chose concessions that included furloughs except for Evers’ union.

The six layoffs will save Ohlone about $130,000, Browning said. Four full-time and two part-time

workers will lose their jobs effective Jan. 4.

Chabot College in Hayward has not had layoffs or furloughs this year, a spokeswoman said.

Hourly employees, who work semester to semester, have been a point of contention for the union dating back several years, Evers said.

The workers, who include students and coaches, do a wide range of tasks, but some, such as interpreters, do the same work as union members, Evers said.

Under state law, Ohlone has to lay them off before laying off union members, Evers said.

The union will challenge the layoffs, she said.

Browning said the college has a new human resources chief who needs until the end of the semester to look into union’s concerns.

“We should not have hourly employees doing union work of any kind,” Browning said. “We don’t think we do, but we want to make sure.”

The union decided against the furlough after a membership meeting, but it never took a rank-and-file vote.

Evers said she has received messages from several union members upset about the idea of layoffs.

Ohlone still faces additional state cuts next year, Browning said.

The college, which is offering 10 percent fewer classes this semester and in the spring, will offer 50 percent fewer classes this summer.

Reach Matthew Artz at 510-353-7002. Read his blog at www.ibabuzz.com/tricitybeat.