Students join janitor's struggle at Jesuit
university
By TERESA MALCOLM
NCR Staff
Student activists at Fairfield University in Connecticut said they
were putting the values they were taught at the Jesuit institution into action
this spring when they supported the schools janitors in a struggle to
unionize. The 60 janitors are contracted through an outside custodial company.
Following student protests that culminated in an 11-hour sit-in
and a threatened hunger strike, university officials announced that the school
is establishing new criteria to govern its relationships with external
contractors.
In addition to forming a six-person committee to draft the new
guidelines, the university announced that it was terminating its contract with
the custodial company, Service Management Group, effective by the fall
semester.
This is a Jesuit institution, and weve sat through
class after class where theyve told us about social justice,
student activist Kate Ferranti told reporters at the sit-in held April 16 in
the administrative building. Thats why we think this fight is
important.
Thirty-nine students staged the sit-in outside the office of the
university president, Jesuit Fr. Aloysius P. Kelley, after presenting a letter
asking him to make sure the janitors were unionized by May 1. The protest ended
when school officials promised to consider terminating its contract with
Service Management if the company was found to have committed unfair labor
practices.
The sit-in, as well as a rally attended by about 250 people in
February, was organized by Concerned University Community Members, a social
justice campus group with about 10 members who recruited other students to join
them in the sit-in. Ferranti, a group member, described those who joined as
wonderful people, members of every honors society, members of every club
-- student leaders. The administration had to listen. It wasnt 40 failing
students sitting in the administration building yelling.
Organizers for the Service Employees International Union said that
most of the janitors working at the university are paid between $6.50 and $7.75
an hour. They said that many janitors are unable to afford health insurance
premiums, which run up to $2,000 a year.
Since January, the janitors have mounted an effort to join the
Service Employees International Union Local 531. More than 60 percent of the
janitors signed cards in favor of joining the union. However, the Bridgeport,
Conn., company has insisted on an election.
Autumn Weintraub, a union organizer, said that elections provide a
chance for employers to intimidate workers and drag the unionizing process out
for months. The more time employers have to fight the union and scare
workers, the less apt the workers are to support the union, Weintraub
told NCR.
The union has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations
Board.
At the end of April, Concerned University Community Members
circulated a flyer with a photocopy of a Service Management janitors
earnings statement that showed she earned $6.50 an hour at Fairfield University
and $6.00 an hour at another location. The reverse of the flyer cited Pope John
Paul IIs 1981 Encyclical on Human Work and declared the groups
intention to organize a hunger strike because the university
administration refuses to honor the above encyclical.
That was what changed everything, Ferranti told
NCR. They were very scared about the hunger strike. She said
by the following evening the administration contacted the group and informed
them of the universitys decision to form the six-member committee to
draft new guidelines.
We couldnt ask for anything better, said
Ferranti, who graduated in May. It helps this situation and all
outsourced workers in the future.
According to university spokesperson Doug Whiting, the committee
submitted its recommendations to Kelley and the administration at the beginning
of June. Upon acceptance, the recommendations will be forwarded to the board of
trustees for approval. Whiting expected an announcement of the new guidelines
by the end of July.
Once the new code is adopted, the university will accept bids for
a new custodial contract. Service Management will be able to submit a bid along
with other competing companies. Numerous attempts to reach a spokesperson for
Service Management were unsuccessful.
Weintraub said the students submitted to the universitys
committee a list of 19 potential contractors who have agreements with the
union. These companies are accustomed to paying workers living wages,
following grievance procedures, cleaning buildings in the most efficient way
and making sure the workers are happy, Weintraub said.
She said that the workers themselves wrote a petition and
presented it to the university committee, demanding that they be hired by the
company that is contracted under the new code and receive a living wage and
affordable health insurance.
National Catholic Reporter, July 2,
1999
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