Members of Tufts Labor Coalition (TLC) took action to ensure that Tufts custodial staff would not have to work during Christmas and New Year's Eve last Thursday after a misunderstanding between university administrators and the custodial contractor caused custodians to have their vacation cut.
Upon learning that custodians would lose two of their four days off during winter break, TLC quickly organized a rally for the following day and urged students to send emails to the administration showing their opposition to the cut vacation time.
Administrators responded quickly to the student protests. University President Anthony Monaco commented on the rally Facebook page around 5:20 p.m. that same day, referring students to a statement from Vice President for Operations Linda Snyder on the Department of Facilities Services website.
"We want to correct a misunderstanding about time off for Tufts custodians during the December holidays," Snyder said. "As always, Tufts custodians will have the same days off as Tufts employees, including Dec. 24 and 31."
Co-chair of TLC Rae Axner explained that she first learned about the apparent vacation cut during an event with Tufts custodians, who had cooked lunch for TLC members in order to thank TLC for a previous advocacy event.
TLC then reached out to the student body through Facebook and email, Axner said. Within hours, the Facebook post about the student rally had been shared about 41 times.
"It's powerful what social media can do, especially when you make it known that it's an urgent situation," Axner, a senior, said. "A lot of people shared the information via Facebook, and it reached a lot of people. When you see something and can tell that it's something that you can have a great effect on just by taking a small step and that you should do it right at that moment, I think it really gets to people."
Custodial service provider DTZ had apparently provided Tufts custodians with misinformation regarding the days that they would be getting as holidays, according to Snyder.
"A message from the president dated Oct. 30 explained what paid time off Tufts employees would receive around this year's holidays," Snyder told the Daily in an email. "On Nov. 21, we learned that a DTZ employee had mistakenly informed custodians who work at Tufts that they would not be entitled to the usual paid time off. We don't know why this happened; it was not based on any information that Tufts had provided."
At the administration's direction, DTZ informed all Tufts custodians in person by Nov. 22 about the error and assured them that they would receive the same paid time off as had been specified in Monaco's email, according to Snyder.
Axner said that many custodians were extremely upset when they had believed that they were not going to get the same paid holidays as last year.
"They're really appreciative of our help with this," Axner said. "They know that the students are in a more powerful position than they are in terms of advocating to the university."
According to an Oct. 30 email posted the Office of the President website, Monaco announced to staff colleagues that Dec. 31, 2013 would be a bonus day off for all staff.
"This bonus day will be in addition to the previously unannounced university holidays on Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 24 and 25, 2013, and Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2014," Monaco said.
The email stated that the provision of necessary services would require some staff to work on Dec. 31.
"Supervisors will be in touch with those of you who need to come in that day, and will determine whether you can identify another day to take as a bonus day or will receive comparable pay," Monaco said.
Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler, explained that these same words were also sent out to staff colleagues in 2012.
"The wording of this year's announcement about holiday time off was apparently exactly the same language as was used in the past, but for some reason the company employing the custodians misunderstood it and then provided inaccurate information to the custodians," Thurler told the Daily in an email.
Axner believes that the incident shows a lack of communication between the janitors as contracted employees and the university.
"In some ways, it was irrelevant whether or not it was a mistake," she said. "It is what [the custodians] were made to believe. They had this information for at least a few days before we did anything about it, and nothing was corrected until we had this flooding of emails to the administration."
The incident was an injustice in that the mistake was not corrected until it was brought to the administration's attention in a very public way, Axner said.
"This is part of a much larger trend," she said. "The university is one step removed from the workers, and it allows for the top-level employer, Tufts, to not have accountability for what's going on with their workers."
Axner expressed her gratitude that so many people set out to correct the mistake by sending emails to administrators, organizing the rally and spreading the news throughout the Tufts community.
"This was obviously very successful very quickly, and it's really a testament to the fact that students are powerful in numbers, even with such a small action," Axner said. "This really is a wonderful example of how we can really use our stake in the university to affect real things here."
