Custodial Policy: An Open Letter to President Bacow

We are writing to you regarding the contract situation of the Tufts custodial staff on behalf of the Student Labor Action Movement and the Service Employees International Union Local 615.

The Tufts Vision Statement states: "As an institution, we are committed to improving the human condition ... Beyond this commitment we will strive to be a model for society at large. We want to foster an attitude of 'giving back,' an understanding that active citizen participation is essential to freedom and democracy, and a desire to make the world a better place."

Since being at Tufts, however, it has become apparent that this statement does not apply to the janitors. The administration has failed to acknowledge the work of our diligent custodial staff as worthy of dignity or respect.

Most students are also guilty of this oversight. Very rarely do we think of the faceless few who keep our classrooms clean and our dormitories livable. Many of them do not speak our language and therefore we do not hear of their daily struggles. We don't know how many blankets it takes to keep warm in an unheated apartment in East Boston. We don't know about the trade-offs made like choosing between a visit to the doctor and dinner. We don't hear about the parent-teacher conferences missed because of their multiple jobs. Students are too busy living their own lives of schoolwork, papers and parties to notice.

Beyond overlooking the inclusion of the custodial staff into the Tufts Community, the administration has chosen to systematically exploit and subjugate some of the most vulnerable members of our university community. Here's a condensed history of the status of our custodial staff.

In an effort to save money, the university, under President John DiBiaggio, began outsourcing its custodial staff in 1994. Prior to that, our janitors were direct employees of the University, entitled to all the same benefits as other faculty members. The outsourcing firm, UNICCO, paid workers the same salaries, but the janitors lost most of their benefits, including healthcare coverage.

In 1997, the Tufts administration decided to switch from UNICCO to ISS (which has since changed its name to OneSource) an outsourcing firm that provided services at a lower cost. (OneSource is the firm that is employed currently.) The University described their reasoning for making the change by saying that ISS would raise the "efficiency" of the custodial staff. This was code for the real reason -- ISS was cheaper because they paid the janitors less. Workers were offered their jobs under a new contract which gave them a 25 percent to 30 percent pay cut and a further reduction in benefits.

This contract was approved by the union, but under very questionable circumstances. Tufts and ISS bussed in 150 new workers under police escort, and gave them union membership to skew the vote. Former workers who refused to accept the new contract were locked out of the meeting, which was guarded by TUPD.

The current situation is rather dismal. As employees of OneSource, Tufts janitors do not receive any of the benefits of faculty members, cafeteria workers, or facilities personnel. As a result, Tufts janitors do not even earn enough money to constitute the living wage configured for the Boston area. Janitors do not receive compensation for sick days or snow days and part-time workers do not receive health benefits. On top of all this, Tufts janitors have no job security and can be fired should the University decide to switch outsourcing companies.

Tufts established a contractual system, which allowed it to claim no responsibility for the custodians. Before 1994, the university had a direct contractual relationship with its janitors. Since it began outsourcing, however, Tufts has had one contract with the outsourcing firm, and the firm has had a separate contract with the janitors. Each time that the university is called upon to improve the wages or benefits packages of the janitors, the administration says that it cannot tell a firm how to run its business. But the fact is that Tufts is the client; and whatever the client says, goes.

If the administration would commit to paying the janitors a certain wage and providing specific benefits, the outsourcing firm would have to abide by those stipulations. An example used by one of the union representatives is that if Tufts wanted the custodians to wear pointy hats, OneSource would have to make them do it. We are not asking for new uniforms, President Bacow. We're just asking that Tufts live up to its ideals and treat the custodians like the fellow community members that they are.

After analyzing both sides of the situation, some people describe our cause as pitting a moral argument against an economic one. Two years ago, you yourself referred to the situation with the custodians as "an economic issue." I guess that's easy to say when your benefits package alone is more than twice what a custodian makes in a year. It seems that you have no idea (or have since forgotten) what it's like to actually live off of a salary that is so low. Living off an $11.45 per hour job can barely bring food to the table.

Negotiations began this past week between OneSource and SEIU (in preparation for the negotiations later this year between Tufts and OneSource). The company put pressure on the unionized workers to not ask for too much, explaining that Tufts would reject the contract. "Too much," in this situation, includes sick days, boots for shoveling snow, and paid holidays -- things no one else in the Tufts community would be asked to go without.

As students, we demand that the administration make a formal, long standing commitment to a fair contract with the custodial staff. Sick days are not too much. I urge you to take the concerns of the workers, the union and the members of the Student Labor Action Movement seriously. We are committed to this cause and will gladly fight for our custodians' rights.

Sincerely,

Ariana Flores

Representative, Student Labor Action Movement



Ariana Flores is a senior majoring in Political Science.