Protesters gather in Red Square to protest the firing of custodians. An Huynh
Yesterday, custodians, union members, and other supporters took to Red Square to rally against the recent termination of custodian contracts.
Speakers at the rally included custodians, former custodians, union members, and Occupy Seattle activists. While the rally lacked a union’s official sanction, many expressed concern about not only the decreasing number of custodians, but also the changing work environment.
Salvador Castillo, a custodian for the past 17 years, said they’re taking a long time to hire new custodians and fill vacancies.
“Right now the big concerns are we have less custodians for the same amount of work,” he said. “We have three in each building. When someone is sick or on vacation, we only have two to the entire building.”
Gene Woodard, director of Custodial Services, wouldn’t comment on the number of vacancies, but said the department is actively searching for new employees. Custodial Services has lost about 64 custodians due to budget cuts, and he said it’s changed the way they work.
“Custodians are covering more square footage, but they’re doing things less thoroughly,” he said. “It’s a different kind of cleaning.”
Paula Lukaszek, who has been a plumber at the UW since 2003, said not only are the employees asked to do more work, but supervisors have become more strict and workers are cited for “petty stuff.”
“Most of the custodians are scared,” she said. “They hear of their fellow workers being written up.”
She said the custodians were reluctant to give their names at the rally because of this fear.
Woodard said he didn’t see any connections between custodians covering more square footage and the issues about the new work environment voiced at the rally.
United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) also held an action yesterday in solidarity with a custodial services employee let go from work in Johnson Hall. Members delivered a letter asking that the university reconsider the termination of the employee’s contract. A handful of students wore tape over their mouths to symbolize the perceived “silencing” of the employee and marched from Drumheller fountain to Johnson Hall.
While USAS members said they were supporting a custodial services employee who was denied due process, Woodard said there is no case he is aware of that has jumped straight to dismissal.
“There’s a lot of steps and a lot of staff involved in the dismissal process,” he said. “If there are flaws in the process, they’re usually addressed and the action won’t go forward.”
The changes in working conditions haven’t gone unnoticed by Amy Snyder Ohta, an associate professor of Japanese. She said things have been different for the custodial services employees in Gowen Hall where her office is since they “cut the janitors back.”
“I feel it’s demoralizing for the janitors to do a job they don’t have enough staff for,” she said. “It’s true for cleaning your own house. If you let things get dirty for longer, it’s harder to clean.”
Gizachew Kassa, who has been a custodian at the UW for 21 years, is currently on medical leave after a car accident. At the rally, he said the effects of their new work environment go beyond the employee.
“It’s not just the people fired,” said Kassa, who brought his youngest daughter to the rally. “It’s their whole families.”
Reach reporter Katherine McKeon at news@dailyuw.com.
Comments
Alex 3 months, 2 weeks ago
The following parts of the above article seem very odd to me, to say the least:
First, how can the custodian's manager, who is presumably employed by the state at a public university, not comment to our school's newspaper of record, on the number of custodian vacancies? Isn't this manager supposed to be accountable, just like the UW President or Board of Regents, to questions that The Daily thinks would be of interest to both the University community and taxpayers?
Second, given the current budget crisis, how can the same manager say that the UW is actively seeking new employees, especially since this is mentioned in the same breath when he points out that Custodial Services lost 64 custodians due to budget cuts?
Last but not least, how is it that fewer custodians, cleaning the same number of buildings on campus, and more square feet within these buildings, is a different kind of cleaning? Obviously budget cuts make this kind of cleaning less thorough, but if its true that more custodians are being fired, this article does make me wonder why the UW would let employees go, when the budget crisis has already created cleaning problems on campus.
All of this makes me think the custodian manager is wrong to say there aren't connections between budget cuts and workplace issues. If University custodians have to clean more buildings on campus with less people to help them, clearly this could lead to problems like the UW workers in this article point out.
hubbcap 3 months, 2 weeks ago
The university may be trying to get rid of its custodians so that it can hire students to do the job. After all they will work for less and they don't need benefits since most are covered by their parents or through the university student insurance. This makes them an attractive work force!
dportjoe 3 months, 2 weeks ago
This department is not alone is not seeming to value it's workers. The difference is that by the nature of their work and supervisory system, the members of my union in Building Services and the Skilled Trades have a built in networking system. Combine that with an activist core group and you see the results
What you have to remember is that WFSE local 1488 is nearly 3,000 workers on campus, in UWMC, at Harborview MC, spread in many UW clinics around the region, at Bothell and Tacoma, Friday Harbor and Pack Forrest. We are cooks,library techs, public safety officers and medical techs at HMC. We are alcohol therapists in Pioneer Square, plumbers and electricians, grounds crew, truck drivers, nursing assistants, UW p.d. Sgts and Lt.'s.
As we build activist cores in all these areas expect more rocks to be turned over and more light to be shone on major issues.
The era of what Labor Relations has told our contract teams are Rouge Managers/Supervisors is ending. If the 'Sahibs of the UW Raj won't do the job-the villagers of 1488 will (have some literary and colonial history with your labor relations on me today).
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