Paul Bass Photo
Martinez, Soults, Rodriguez.
Will New Haven’s custodians share in the gradual economic recovery — or head out on a picket line?
That question faces some 500 commercial-building cleaners in Greater New Haven. They voted this past Saturday to authorize a strike if their union negotiators can’t reach an agreement when the ball drops (and their contract expires) on New Year’s Eve.
Agreement reached this week on one key portion of those talks — on health care — increased the chances that they won’t end up having to walk.
Jason Rodriguez, an Amistad High School custodian, has been reminding his colleagues in other buildings that many of them endured tougher challenges than a strike when they immigrated to the U.S.
“I know it will hurt us a little bit” if they have to strike, Rodriguez tells them. “But we’ll be better off.”
Rodriguez and other members of 32BJ SEIU still hope not to go out on strike. And progress made at the table this week increased the chances they might not have to.
The union has been negotiating a new four-year contract for area custodians with around a dozen private companies that hire workers to clean buildilngs ranging from public schools to City Hall to office buildings.
The sticking points have included an initial request from the companies to freeze wages over the four years and to require custodians to pay for part of their health insurance, said Frank Soults, a 32BJ spokesman. That would be “essentially a pay cut.”
But this week the company agreed to continue covering health insurance for full-time workers without requiring them to pay for any of it, according to both sides. The employers agreed to absorb a projected 31 percent cost increase for health insurance over the four years of the contract, according to Matt Ellis, a spokesman for the Association of Building Contractors, which represents 12 companies in the negotiations.
Ellis told the Independent Thursday that the company has put an offer for a wage increase on the table. He declined to specify that offer since negotiations are ongoing.
Union spokesman Soults said his side is “very pleased about this progress on health care,” but the side remain “far apart on wage.” “We’re ready to strike if necessary,” he said.
The negotiations are taking place at 32BJ headquarters in Hartford; the two sides are simultaneously negotiating separate pacts for the New Haven custodians and for 2,100 Hartford-area custodians.
At the 195 Church St. office tower at the corner of Church and Elm Streets, where Sonia Martinez has worked as a custodian for four hours a day for the past six years, workers would also like to see hours increased, although that’s not a part of the current contract talks.
For Martinez, part-time work’s not a problem. She receives a pension, with health insurance, for the 30 years she worked as a custodian for the City of New Haven, before the city began outsourcing that work. Martinez was able to raise two children on her own in Fair Haven in that job. By the time she retired six years ago, she earned $21 an hour cleaning Fair Haven School, where she loved interacting with students and teachers. Now she earns $12.40 an hour on the 5 to 9 p.m. shift at 195 Church.
All unionized custodians earn that wage in New Haven. For Martinez’s younger coworkers, that’s not a lot on which to raise a family. Especially since receive only part-time assignments, and therefore don’t get health insurance. Many work full-time jobs elsewhere as well — in restaurants, for instance — as well to make ends meet. As custodians, Soults said, they make less than the official poverty-line standard.
Like Martinez, Jason Rodriguez enjoys his job. And, at 30 years old, he dreams of moving up in the work world. For the past year and a half he has worked full-time as a custodian at the new Achievement First Amistad High School on Dixwell Avenue. After his eight hours there, he heads over to Gateway Community College for four hours of classes; he’s studying for a degree in business administration. He sees his wife, who works in health care, and his 3 and 8‑year-old children before work in the morning and after 9 at night.
Rodriguez, who grew up in New Haven and now lives in East Haven, said he likes the atmosphere at Amistad High. He said he likes interacting with staffers and students. He also likes the firm discipline; he prefers the place to traditional city public schools and would like to send his kids there one day, he said.
In the meantime, he’d like to see his colleagues and himself receive a raise. He has signed on as a union “brigadier,” traveling to other buildings in town to check in with custodians and encourage them to stand together to reach that goal.
Martinez, Soults and Rodriguez appeared Thrusday on WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven” program. Click on or download the above sound file to hear the full program.
