Tufts recently began the process of seeking bids for a new contractor to provide janitorial services for the university, sparking action from union representatives and concern from Tufts' Jumbo Janitor Alliance (JJA) about preserving the employment and benefits of existing janitorial staff.
Vice President for Operations Dick Reynolds explained that the university is initiating this process because the contract with the existing provider, ABM Janitorial Services, expired more than a year ago and the university was looking to test the market. ABM Janitorial Services acquired OneSource, the university's previous janitorial provider, in 2007.
"What we wanted to do was make sure we have the opportunity to rethink the details of a contract that we would have for janitorial services to make sure we get an up−to−date set of requirements and be able to see … if we can get a more efficient contract," he said.
Reynolds said the university has sent a generalized request for information to a number of contractors, including ABM, and expects to distribute a more specific request for proposal to three or four shortlisted candidates.
The initiation of this process, however, has raised concerns that the existing janitorial staffs' jobs, wages and benefits could be threatened, especially if the university switches to a non−union contractor.
"We want to make sure that whatever contract comes in respects all the benefits that our members have — wages, working conditions, all that stuff — that's what we're trying to make sure of and that's why we're putting pressure on the university so that they make sure whatever cleaning employer they hire keeps all these working conditions and wages," Sergio Duenas, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 615 representative for Tufts janitors, told the Daily.
ABM is a union contractor that is a signatory to a master contract negotiated with the union determining wages and benefits.
"If Tufts brings in a new company … all the janitors could lose their jobs or be hired back at starting limits or without benefits because the contract they had negotiated would be null and void," said senior Andrea Ness, now in her third year as a member of the JJA.
Wayne Langley, the higher education director for SEIU, explained that while Tufts signs an agreement with the contractor about custodial services, contractors negotiate their own terms with janitors. Union, or what SEIU 615 terms "responsible," contractors are signatory to a master contract covering approximately 12,000 workers.
SEIU 615 is calling for the university to select a contractor that is signatory to that contract or that agrees to become a signatory. Duenas said that nearly every member of the janitorial staff has signed a petition to the administration expressing this preference.
Reynolds, however, stressed that the process would not result in a switch to a non−union contractor.
"In all cases, I would expect that anybody we send the request for proposal to would be a union contractor and we would have to abide by whatever the contract terms are with the union," he said. "We would certainly expect that the people who work for the janitorial company who currently work for the university are retained, but the specifics of the decision would be up to the new contractor."
According to Langley, however, the union has received information that the university has narrowed its list down to four contractors, one of which is ABM and two of which are non−union.
Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler repeated to the Daily that the university is only considering union contractors in the search for a new provider.
Langley and Duenas said that in their meetings with the administration, they have yet to obtain such a firm commitment to that end.
"They told our workers not to worry too much, they will try to do what it is correct," Duenas said. "They didn't say ... ‘We would never hire a non−union contractor'; that's something we want to hear from them. They didn't say, ‘We will make sure all your rights and benefits are protected, we will make sure nobody is displaced.' … That's something we need to hear, and until then we're going to keep pushing."
"We did have a discussion with the [Department of Facilities Services] guy. They said they are cogent of the fact that we don't want standards reduced, but they are not making a commitment to say that they will not do that," Langley told the Daily.
Langley added that while he understands the university's decision to put out a bid for a new contract, its unwillingness to take a definite stance on whether the contractor will be union or non−union, or at least abide by the terms and conditions that are in place now for the janitors, is cause for worry.
"It is unnerving that they have not made any assurances to us directly — what's the point of doing that?" he said. "They are evasive about it, which makes everybody nervous."
He said that it was important for contracting companies to be competing on the basis of the service quality provided.
"Competition is good, but not based on wages and benefits," Langley said. "What we tell companies is that to compete, they have to provide better service for the same money. Our goal is to take wages and benefits out of the equation."
Duenas said that in addition to the petition that has been submitted to the administration, SEIU 615 is sending letters to local politicians and city councils about the matter.
It is also working closely with the JJA, which has started a petition of its own in support of the janitors that is currently circulating around the student body.
"What we want to do is communicate with the administration to … communicate the perspective of the student body and just make sure that they know that the student body is one hundred percent behind protecting the janitors' jobs," senior Philip Bene, a JJA co−chair, said.
Both Ness and Bene said that the response of the student body to their efforts has been positive.
"Everybody I've talked to has been very supportive of this," Ness said. "Students know their janitors and feel like they are part of the community and that their livelihoods and jobs should not be put at risk."
Accoring to Ness, JJA is reaching out to other student groups, for example the Leonard Carmichael Society's group of volunteers who teach English as a Second Language classes for the janitors, in the hopes of forming a coalition of supporters.
