By
Eric Staples
July 8, 2009
Salvador Castillo stood in a crowd of other former swing-shift custodians on Monday, all gathered around a single clock-in station on the south UW campus — many still sleepy eyed, and some having gotten no sleep at all the night prior.
After 16 years of working the swing shift — from 4:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. — it was the first time Castillo and many other custodians at the clock-in station had punched in at 4:45 a.m. to start work.
“I didn’t sleep,” Castillo said. “It’s real hard to adjust, but maybe in a month I will. I don’t know.”
On Monday, 35 former swing-shift custodians began their first day on the day shift, leaving 50 custodians — 25 with the highest seniority and 25 with the strongest hardship cases — remaining on the swing shift.
After more than three months of custodial protests to keep their shifts and a drawn-out negotiation process between swing-shift custodians and custodial management, the changes have taken place.
“It’s been a very difficult three months,” said James Stephen Wilson, a UW swing-shift custodian. “For many of us, it’s the most chaotic and heart wrenching [three months] that we’ve had to endure.”
While Gene Woodard, director of UW Custodial Services, said that, under the circumstances, this presents a win-win to both custodians and custodial management, he has had to make tough decisions to get to this final compromise.
“It’s been the most challenging time of my career,” Woodard said. “I really feel for those 17 people that were laid off and as of today are without a job. We’ve worked extra hard to give those folks resources and tools to find other employment.”
With the 35 custodians moving to daytime shifts, all upper campus shifts will be moved to the daytime. Buildings which had previously been cleaned on the swing shift — Physics-Astronomy Building, Loew Building, More Hall — will now be cleaned on the day shift.
Despite complaints from custodial staff that this move — along with the 17 custodians that had been laid off and worked their last day on Monday — would deter them from keeping buildings clean, Woodard said they’ve worked closely with each building to ensure the quality of cleaning won’t drop.
“We have work management software with every space we service along with the floor plan and the square footage,” Woodard said. “We understand how each of the buildings are used [and] made priorities [such as] restrooms, public areas and classrooms.”
While Wilson is safe now on the swing shift with 30 years as an employee, he acknowledges that the future is still uncertain.
“The agreement for us to be on the night shift is through June 30, 2010. But, if there should be further budget cuts, [management] said nothing is certain,” he said. “We’re thankful to be on the night shift now, but there are no guarantees.”
Woodard agreed that while 50 custodians will be keeping their shift, the future is still uncertain for even those employees.
“We’re still in the midst of changes,” Woodard said. “We’re now worried about the future budget and meeting our budget, and our projections for cost savings. If they’re off, I have concerns about the future, but for now, we’ve reduced [work areas] from 11 to eight.”
Reach News Editor Eric Staples at
news@dailyuw.com.
1 Comments
#1 Joe D.
on July 9, 2009 at 8:25 a.m.(Seattle, WA | UW Community)
Mr Woodard's words ring a bit hollow, rather than take the high road and meet with our union to attempt to find a joint solution he (like so many in UW administration) chose the adversary path, post a notice on the time clocks with a drop dead date
It is not just Mr Woodard, or facility services. The entire UW has been damaged by a lack of leadership and an over abundance of crisis management.
When faced with tumbling budgets many University presidents took the lead, they took the first furloughs and or major pay cuts to protect the campus core and lead by example.
Our president chose to pass the buck to each department head and launch a PR war to prove how much he deserved every penny of his pay and car allowance and etc etc etc.
He spent higher ed lobby day meeting with reps and senators and PROMISING admin cuts. To most laypeople that means ADMINISTRATORS, that means associate VP's and other non instructional or classroom/facility support or patient care types are cut.
Where are the long lists of program coordinators, program managers, managers, and associate directors who are gone? How many former acting deans or directors had to give back the temporary assignment pay after the post was filled and they weren't tapped? You know if a line worker covers for a lead for five days they get paid for five days extra duties, but if a deputy director in say HFS takes an acting director job they keep the extra pay when the replacement is found, like forever!
Show us leadership or show us some leaving Mr Emmert
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