By Tue Tran, Editor-in-Chief -

For the past five months, members of the Boston College community have been living month-by-month, unsure of their job situation — and they aren’t just some of the recent graduates.

Custodial, grounds, building maintenance, and mailroom workers, some of whom have worked at BC for more than 30 years, have only had their contracts renewed on a monthly basis since their last three-year contract expired on May 31, 2009, according to an informational pamphlet “Contract Trouble at Boston College” distributed by Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 615.

SEIU Local 615 represents 16,000 property service workers in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, including 270 workers at BC.

As expressed by “Contract Trouble at Boston College,” the principal item of con­tention is BC’s desire to contract out work currently done by union members. This was not expected by the workers.

“BC has always treated us fairly,” John*, a grounds worker who wished to remain anonymous due to the possibility of disciplinary action, said. “But the first day of ne­gotiations, BC said, ‘This is going to be like no other negotiation at Boston College.’”

BC administration could not be reached at this time for comment.

“The economic times call for change, they [BC] said, and the change they want is the unrestricted ability to use outside contractors, part timers, temporary employees and student employees, including minimum-wage, non-union workers,” the pamphlet stated.

A particular sentence in Article 18 of the contract is at the center of the contro­versy because BC, according to John, wants it altered or completely removed. Article 18 states: “It is agreed that the right to undertake contractual services will not be exercised by the University for the purpose of eliminating work or overtime for the employees in the categories covered by the contract.”

The fear is that union members will lose hours of work per week — and possibly their jobs — to outsourcing.

John’s experience at work has changed since the contract issues began.

“Some people are petrified … Everybody is afraid of the unknown,” John said. “It’s taken its toll on people.”

Kathleen Sellers, STM ’14, has been organizing the student efforts to help the union workers negotiate a fair contract with BC. Her drive to help stems from the workers themselves.

“They smile and say, ‘Hi,’ to us and ask how we’re doing,” Sellers said. “And may­be next year, there may be a complete stranger who doesn’t bring their kids to [BC] football games, and who doesn’t care about BC as much as the other workers had. “

Richard Rhom, a Global Justice Project member and A&S ’10, has a similar rea­son why he is active in this cause.

“Last month, there was a union ‘lunch-in’ outside of Hillside, and when I saw the custodian who cleaned my dorm sophomore year, she still remembered my name,” Rhom said.

And these personal anecdotes are common among the student popula­tion, made apparent by those who are mobilized in this effort.

“It’s a really broad groups of people who care about the issue,” Sellers said. “They are not only undergraduate students. There are graduate students, professors, people in the administra­tion, and people beyond campus.”

Sellers pointed out that this issue at BC should be looked at differently than other universities who have also had this struggle.

“[The situation] doesn’t sound like Catholic social teaching, it sounds like a corporate model,” she said. “That is a reason why I’m at BC right now — not only to study it, but to live it.”

While John believes that BC’s Jesuit ideals are alive and well, it depends on where one looks.

“I think they try to teach that way, but they don’t run their business that way,” he said.

Students are organizing a teach-in titled “Students Enact Change,” sponsored by UNICEF and the GJP, to bring awareness to this issue and show students how they can help.

“The goal is to get our support­ers to both spread the word and act,” Rhom said about the teach-in. “We have strength in numbers, and should we continue growing as rapidly as we have been for the last few weeks, we will be able to protect the livelihoods of 270 people.”

Sellers says that the contract dis­pute should be solved with the workers first and foremost in mind.

“They have security and a sense of friendship, which is something that we’re supposed to care about,” Sellers said. “It’s not about the job … If we lose sight of BC as a community, we lose sight of BC at its core.”

John, wearing a BC hat and sweat­shirt, says that he loves working at BC.

“We actually like working here. It’s a pretty good place … You get caught up in the sports. You get caught up in the student activities. You can’t help it.”

This Tuesday, another negotiations meeting will take place, and the current contract is set to expire Nov. 1.