CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Singing "Which side are you on, Joe?" about 35 members of a state-government employees union marched into the governor's reception room at the Capitol on Tuesday afternoon, demanding that Gov. Joe Manchin intervene in the possible outsourcing of 600 West Virginia Office of Technology jobs.

After about a half-hour wait, they instead settled for venting to Manchin spokesman Melvin Smith, who promised to relay their concerns to the governor.

It was the latest protest of the possible outsourcing of state jobs by members of the Public Workers Union UE 170, and featured Bob Kingsley, the union's national director of organizing.

At a noontime rally at the Capitol's north plaza, Kingsley accused the Manchin administration of putting the 600 government employees "on the auction block."

"They are being sold off to the lowest bidder. Does that sound right to you?" he asked the gathering, who responded with a resounding, "No!"

"If the governor and his chief technology officer have their way, the 9th and 10th floors of the building behind me will be empty," Kingsley said, referring to the Office of Technology offices located in Building 5 of the Capitol Complex.

Earlier this month, chief technology officer Kyle Schafer told legislators that any talk of outsourcing the information-technology jobs is "extremely preliminary." He said outsourcing is only one possible option to cut the state's $35 million annual spending for IT services, with in-house consolidation also a possibility.

Administration spokeswoman Diane Holley-Brown said Tuesday it is not department policy to comment on protests or rallies.

Kingsley said outsourcing the IT jobs not only would be detrimental to the employees, but to taxpayers and residents who have "entrusted their personal information to the state" -- referring to personal data and records that could be compromised if outsourced to a private vendor.

Several speakers Tuesday called on Manchin to heed the experiences of states such as Indiana and Texas, where similar attempts to outsource IT operations have been fraught with service glitches and failures, and sizable cost overruns.

"We're concerned about our jobs . . . and the taxpayers' money that will be thrown out the window," said Jennifer Ayers, a 13-year IT employee. "Outsourcing is not effective. It is turning out to be a hardship for state agencies that are trying it in other states."

Carolyn Saul, a 25-year IT veteran, urged the administration to consider consolidating state IT operations.

"We have good, hard-working employees working for the state," she said. "We believe we can achieve the goals of consolidation and efficiency without outsourcing."

Meeting with Smith, Kingsley called on Manchin to halt the pending publication of a request for bids to take over the IT operations.

"What we'd like from Gov. Manchin is a statement that these 600 jobs will not be outsourced," Kingsley said.

Barring that, he said, the UE 170 members request that the administration make public all ongoing information regarding any action pertaining to outsourcing.

During the rally, speakers said they would not let their jobs be "re-badged" to a private-sector vendor without a fight.

"We may not win this fight against outsourcing of the state information-technology jobs," Ayers said, "but at least we will go down swinging."

Reach Phil Kabler at ph...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1220.