Custodians, Caf Workers Rally For Contracts

Eighteen months after the school system outsourced a third of its unionized custodial workforce to a private contractor, the new part-time workers have organized their own union — and are launching a public campaign for higher wages and benefits.

The custodians work for a Cleveland-based company called GCA Services Group, Inc. GCA started cleaning the schools in January 2012, after the city won a landmark contract that allowed it to privatize a third of its unionized custodial workforce. (Click here to read more.)

Now the 162 new school custodians who work for GCA have organized as part of SEIU 32BJ. On Tuesday they launched a public campaign by leafleting school system employees to help them lobby for a labor contract.

The event was one of two actions that took place Tuesday at the Board of Education headquarters at 54 Meadow St. A group of school cafeteria workers, who have just reopened negotiations on a new contract of their own, showed up to lobby the school board for more cooks and fresher food.

William Bland, Jr. and William Cotman, two part-time custodians with GCA, showed up outside 54 Meadow around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday with two organizers for 32BJ. They handed out flyers to passersby.

“Second-class status in our schools?” read the flyers. ​“Demand better for New Haven.” The leaflets asked people to call Mayor John DeStefano and ​“urge him to take the steps necessary for these workers to win a fair contact” with GCA.

Juan Hernandez (at right in photo), the statewide organizer for 32BJ, said the campaign reflects the latest development in a fight for the custodians’ rights. When they began their jobs in January of 2012, the GCA custodians didn’t have a union. With the help of 32BJ, custodians collected union cards from workers who wanted to unionize. Mayoral Chief of Staff Sean Matteson counted the cards, Hernandez said, and GCA recognized the union last fall.

Workers then moved to negotiate their first labor contract. The first labor talks took place in December 2012.

“The contract isn’t going to make anyone rich,” Hernandez said. Workers are just asking for more pay, and some meager benefits, he said.

GCA custodians currently make $14.67 per hour, which is New Haven’s minimum ​“living wage” for workers who do business on city government contracts. (Connecticut minimum wage is $8.25, and climbing.)

GCA custodians work 20 hours a week. The jobs carry no health care, retirement, sick day or vacation benefits.

Meanwhile, the 100 government employees in the city’s custodian union, AFSCME Local 287, make between $19.72 and $24.64 per hour for their full-time jobs. Their new contract, settled by a panel of arbitrators in 2011, provides them with health care, retirement, sick day and vacation benefits, while adding flexibility to union rules.

Bland said he feels the setup makes workers like him ​“second-class.”

“We’re doing the same work” for much less pay, he said.

The new contract will save the school system $4 million in cleaning costs in the current budget that ends July 1, according to schools Chief Operating Officer Will Clark. The biggest cost-cutter is overtime pay: Now, instead of being required to pay overtime for weekend basketball games, for example, the school system can hire a few GCA guys to come in. Another area of savings is that the GCA workers have no benefits.

Bland said those savings come at a human cost: Workers have little job security and nothing to fall back on when they’re sick.

Bland said he has health benefits from a second job cleaning floors at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Cotman also said he has health benefits through his primary employer, Christian Community Action, where he works as the building superintendent and helps homeless families on their path to self-sufficiency.” But they said the majority of their fellow workers don’t have second jobs.

“This is not acceptable,” said Hernandez. ​“These members are doing a great job. We’re making the schools clean for the children, but we are treated as second-class citizens. Why are we treated differently? Because we work for a contractor?”

With Hernandez as its lead negotiator, 32BJ has asked GCA for a new contract that would include benefits and higher wages. Custodians are asking for a three-year contract that would raise wages by 50 cents the first year, 30 cents the second year, and 40 cents the third. They’re also looking for health benefits, paid holidays, and paid sick days, according to Hernandez.

Hernandez said GCA has rejected the offer. The company came back Tuesday with an offer to raise wages by 29 cents over three years, without providing benefits, according to Hernandez.

“Twenty-nine cents over a three-year contract is an insult — not only to [the workers], but to the people of New Haven,” Hernandez declared. He said the vast majority, between 80 and 90 percent, of GCA workers lives in New Haven.

GCA’s Bernie Decker, who has been the company’s lead negotiator, declined to confirm the details of GCA’s proposal. Instead, he issued the following statement: ​“GCA and the union are currently in negotiations, and we have a strong desire to reach agreement. Some of the topics in these negotiations include wages, benefits and paid time off schedules, and we welcome any input that our employees may have. We remain committed to bargaining in good faith and look forward to our next session with the union.”

GCA’s current contract costs the school system $2 million per year. The union proposal would cost an extra $220,000, according to Hernandez. He said that’s not much compared to the overall schools budget, which will sum to $396 million next budget year.

Mayor DeStefano was not present at Tuesday’s school board meeting to respond to the request to jump into negotiations. His office referred comment to Clark.

COO Clark said he has heeded workers’ request for him to sit at the negotiation table. But he said workers should not try to add another external party — the mayor — to the negotiations.

“They are negotiating with GCA,” he said. ​“Their best avenue is to work with their employer.”

He said the city chose GCA in part because it has a track record of working with both unionized and non-unionized staffs.

Clark also said there isn’t much room in the schools budget for an increase in labor costs. ​“All of the savings” from the custodial workforce ​“have already been budgeted” for the upcoming year.

He said GCA workers are getting a generous wage. The median national pay for a janitor was $10.68 as of the latest count in 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

A new contract that significantly increases custodial labor costs ​“would be a leap backwards” for the school system financially. ​“We’ve made these savings,” Clark said. Partially privatizing the custodial workforce ​“was a big success.” If the labor costs go up, he said, ​“we move back to a deficit.”

School Cafeteria Workers Reopen Talks

Clark also fielded a lobby from a second union that’s seeking a new labor contract, UNITE HERE Local 217, which represents 186 cafeteria workers in city schools. The last contract expired July 1 of 2010.

Jasanea Hernandez (pictured) showed up Tuesday to address the school board. She handed Clark petitions signed by cafeteria workers, students, parents, and teachers ​“denouncing the prevalence of frozen, processed foods on school menus” and calling for more scratch cooking in schools. The union estimated some 1,500 people had signed the petitions.

The action was the next step in a campaign that a new group of union members has been carrying out with the help of UNITE HERE organizers. The campaign calls on the city to invest in its workforce by promoting more workers to higher-paid cook jobs so that they can start preparing food instead of just reheating it.

Click here to read an in-depth story on the issue.

Since the campaign launched in May, the union and the city have restarted labor talks, with new faces on both sides. On the union side, the eight-member team now includes a few new people like Hernandez, who just recently became active in the union. On the city’s side, the negotiating team now includes Lisa Egan, a former city labor relations director (and the wife of Assistant Fire Chief Pat Egan). Lisa Egan works for the same firm as Floyd Dugas does, Berchem, Moses & Devlin. Dugas is filling in as the city’s chief labor relations director until a new mayor takes office in January.

Clark said the union’s appearance Tuesday was a ​“stunt” aimed at influencing the negotiations.

The school food program has been running a deficit, he said, and adding more production staff, and more food choices, ​“adds expenses without the promise of revenue.”

“I disagree with their assessment” about the state of school food, he said. He said New Haven has leaped ahead of the country in the quest to get rid of processed food and introduce more scratch cooking. ​“I don’t take a backseat to anybody who now wants to make this their issue.”