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Teach-in sheds light on contract struggles

By Gaveliers, The Gavel Media Team, on November 3, 2009 2:18 AM

By Sue Byun, For the Gavel -

Boston College Students for Workers Justice held a teach-in titled “Students Enact Change” on Nov. 2. The primary purpose of the teach-in, which involved a panel of speakers and a Q&A session, was to inform the public about the issue and its significance to the BC community at large.The organization is a grassroots coalition of various student groups, including the Global Justice Project and the College Democrats, among others, which have sided with the 270 union-represented workers who are members of the Service Employees International Union’s Local 615 chapter (SEIU). They believe the situation undermines the Catholic values of compassion and community on which BC is based.

Four speakers who each hold a stake in the issue comprised the panel: Marcus Johnson, a BC custodian and union member, Kathleen Sellers, STM ’14 and who has been instrumental in mobilizing student support, Judith Shindul-Rothschild, professor in the school of nursing, and Anthony Zuba, who represented Interfaith Workers Justice.

The main sticking point in the ongoing dispute in the contract is Article 18, under which the University is obligated to use workers already employed by the BC Facilities and Management Department for overtime assignments such as sports event cleanup, weekend dorm cleaning, and snow removal. In an attempt to cut costs, the University seeks to remove a key protective sentence in Article 18 so that it will have the unrestricted ability to use outside contractors, part-timers, and temporary employees for the purpose of reducing overtime.

According to Robert Lewis, vice president of human resources, the main reason why the University is looking to remove Article 18 is so that it can outsource cleaning for special events such as football games, in the hopes of saving money.  “We also want to be able to supplement our work force. Good management requires us to bring in outside help to get the work done in a timely manner,” Lewis said in an email.

SEIU literature stated that keeping Article 18 intact is vital to the livelihood of facilities workers and their families, as it constitutes an average of 12 percent of their annual pay.

One housekeeping worker who wished to remain anonymous said that the University has required overtime, meaning that if the need for overtime work arises, such as snow days and plumbing emergencies, BC workers are required to be available. He said that he quit his second job before being hired by BC so that he could meet their overtime requirement. Thus, it is his sole source of income.

The root of the contract dispute concerns how best to preserve job security. Workers believe job security is continuing to get overtime work, and the University believes it is best achieved by reducing overtime to save money so it doesn’t have to lay off employees.

Johnson, who spoke on the panel on behalf of the custodial, grounds, building maintenance, and mailroom workers who may be affected said, “We are very proud to work here at BC, as it is an institution that has faith and morals, but we’re disappointed that things have changed a little.” Regarding what SEUI literature calls BC’s “rigid and aggressive bargaining posture in the wake of economic recession” Johnson said, “I expect a lot more from a Christian entity than what I have seen.”

Sellers urged the audience to consider what sort of community we wanted BC to be. “Do we want it to be our actions and how we treat our people, or about economics and business?” she said. She suggested that students mobilize on the issue by joining the Facebook group of BC Students for Workers Justice.

“BC is not living up to its commitment to being a premier Catholic university if it chooses to apply itself to a model of business that serves the shareholders,” Zuba said. “We ask the president and the administration to reaffirm the values of community, service, and social justice.”

In response to such criticisms that the administration is not acting in-sync with Catholic values of community and compassion, Lewis said, “We care deeply about our employees; the pay and benefits here are among the very best for any employees doing this kind of work.  We’re trying to cut costs so that we don’t have to lay any of them off and can provide them with job security.”

When asked about his opinion on the University’s motive of preventing layoffs by reducing overtime payouts, Johnson said, “If BC wanted to save money there are other ways to do that.” He mentioned that the unionized workers offered to take a one-year raise freeze in June 2009 but the University declined it as not a long-term solution.

Under the No Strike Article, unionized workers are not allowed to protest against the University, so the coalition has been instrumental in raising awareness to BC at large and providing a voice to the facilities workers. The teach-in panel expressed much gratitude for the student turnout, which filled nearly half of the Devlin lecture hall in which the event was held.

Local 615’s last three-year contract with the University expired in May 2009, and has been extended on a month-to-month basis ever since. At the most recent negotiations meeting, which took place Oct. 27, the contract with Article 18 intact was extended to Dec. 1.

“We are hopeful that we will reach a settlement in the not too distant future,” Lewis said. “Both parties are committed to bargaining in good faith and I believe we will eventually reach a mutually satisfactory agreement.”