Editor’s note: Quotes from several C&W employees were translated from Spanish to English.
A series of layoffs and schedule changes from Cushman & Wakefield Services, the facility services company contracted by Tufts for custodial work, has caused significant consternation among workers, including a longtime supervisor who was fired following months of rising tensions.
Marci Coleta, a C&W custodial supervisor at Tufts since 1994, received a termination letter on Sept. 11. The termination was effective immediately, mandating that she return company property as soon as possible and stating that pay and any health benefits would stop at the end of the month.
According to Coleta and other custodial workers, nine employees on the afternoon shift were given an ultimatum: Transfer to the overnight shift or be laid off. Those who accepted were given three months to learn unfamiliar machinery, with the threat of termination if they did not.
Multiple workers who were laid off told the Daily, on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution, that employees were dismissed without much explanation. Several workers said they could not work the overnight shift due to health or child care. They said that despite pleas to supervisors, they were told bluntly to take the company’s offer or be laid off.
“I think that, as superiors, they should be a little more professional in explaining to people why they are being dismissed or why changes are being made,” one worker told the Daily. “As human beings, I think we deserve a little more [respect].”
Coleta believed her firing to be retaliation for calling irregular layoffs and employee overload “stupid.” Her boss, Omar Matos, had reportedly told her to just “manage” when she raised objections to the burden on workers and coercive shift changes.
Coleta asserted that the layoffs stem from the university reducing C&W’s contracted work in certain dorms, including Sophia Gordon Hall, Latin Way and Hillsides Apartments. As a result, students were instructed to begin cleaning their own apartments, according to Coleta.
Coleta said C&W made up for lost revenue by cutting employee hours for second shift workers and forcing others into the overnight shift, which C&W knew they were not able to work.
She claimed that, due to staffing cuts, she had often been forced to assign single workers to clean entire buildings, including the Science and Technology Center.
“I got more buildings than staff,” she said. “You have 10 bathrooms. You got those classrooms, you got the hallways and you have the stairs. How [are] you gonna do it?”
In a four-page complaint addressed to C&W last October, Coleta made allegations of harassment and favoritism against company managers, writing that she and other employees had been intimidated and disrespected. She describes incidents involving managers assigning easier or more desirable shifts to certain workers and examples of other employees being pushed out.
One worker corroborated Coleta’s claims, saying Matos and other managers lacked professionalism and respect but that people were afraid of speaking up due to the risk of losing their jobs.
Employees shared that they were never told if or when they would be able to return to work. Additionally, the layoff letters they received made it difficult for them to collect unemployment because they purportedly read like termination letters.
Along with Coleta, the employees also expressed frustration with their union, 32BJ Service Employees International Union, which they say is not fighting on their behalf nor communicating with the workers.
“The union hasn’t even shown its face for us up to this day. The union representative is on [the company’s] side, not ours, since she says what they’re doing is correct. But we know our rights, and we know that what they’re doing isn’t right,” one worker said.
Workers raised serious concerns about their positions being posted on the company’s job board in Curtis Hall after they were laid off, despite being told that the positions had been eliminated. Moreover, some workers alleged that new hires, including potential family members of supervisors above Marci, had been given the positions despite a lack of seniority and experience.
One worker who was laid off claims that the people sent to Boston were told to keep quiet and would be placed back in Medford/Somerville once the layoff tensions settled.
“I think maybe they laid us off just so they wouldn’t have to give us benefits, pay us vacation [time], or to not have more people with more years [with C&W],” one worker claimed.
“We have rights, we pay union dues, we have endured labor exploitation, we have families to support, children, and we have endured all of this to keep our jobs,” one worker said. “They fire us without compensation, they fire us with nothing, they simply send us home and hire new people.”
Workers described Coleta’s firing as an “injustice,” saying she had always been a strong defender of her employees and one of the few supervisors to speak out against wrongful actions taken by C&W.
“I think they got rid of her to prevent us from being reinstated in our jobs, because she knows exactly the rights of each person and she knows exactly how the university works,” the worker said.
Coleta has since taken another position at Northeastern University.
Tufts declined to comment on the matter; C&W failed to respond to the Daily’s several requests for comment.
