Advocate for increased wages, benefits

By Jack Nicas

In 2001, a student-driven movement to increase the wages of Harvard University janitors made national headlines and inspired significant changes in the school’s policy towards its workers. Now, seven years later, Tufts University students are attempting to replicate that success.

The Jumbo Janitor Alliance, a university-recognized student group at Tufts, is fighting to raise awareness for the custodial staff through student-led rallies and a petition to the president with over 1,300 student signatures.

Kevin Dillon, a senior at Tufts and chairman of the Jumbo Janitors Alliance, said the group is organizing because “all janitors in Boston need better wages [and] the industry as a whole needs to increase compensation to deal with rising costs of health care.”

Jeffrey Kim, a student at Tufts and member of the alliance, said Tufts University janitors are paid $14.10 per hour; $9.48 less than the living wage for a single parent with a preschool child in Boston.

Kim said 35 percent of the workers don’t receive health care benefits and many are unable to work the more desirable full-time hours. Because of this, many janitors juggle multiple jobs and are forced to travel great lengths, ‚Äútaking more time away from their families,‚Äù Kim said.

Roxanna Rivera, a representative for SIEU 615, the local union representing Tufts janitors, said that the janitors’ wages at Tufts are lower than the majority of universities in the area and ‚Äúgiven [Tufts’ high standing] in regard to the university community, we believe they can do better through the standards which they support.‚Äù

If the situation is going to improve, organizers say it must happen now. Contracts between Tufts University and One Source, the cleaning company through which the school contracts its janitors, last four years. This summer marks the end of the current agreement.

Dillon said Tufts strategically scheduled contract negotiations for the summer so “many students, a valuable resource for community action, cannot get involved in the bargaining process and pressure the university.”

As of now, SIEU 615 and One Source sit at the bargaining table in a volatile situation, said Rivera. The union is fighting for the workers demands (increased wages, more full-time work, and better health-care coverage), while One Source is looking to renew a contract with Tufts.

Rivera said, ‚ÄúBecause this is such a low-wage industry, contractors are constantly trying to underbid each other for the contract while Tufts can choose at any time to opt out. If the goal is to get the cheapest contractor, the standards for the workers are continuously cut and it’s a downward spiral.‚Äù

Nevertheless, Tufts denies involvement in contract negotiations. Dillon said, “Tufts strategically made themselves a third party by outsourcing the janitorial services in the early 1990s.”

Tufts President Lawrence Bacow’s office refused to comment for this story.

Dillon said the Jumbo Janitors Alliance has tried to work with the Tufts administration several times, but ‚Äútheir official response is that they support the workers, but can’t get involved because they believe it’s between the contractor and the union.‚Äù

“Yet, this is clearly not the case,” Dillon said, “Tufts will only accept responsibility if pressured to do so.”

Ultimately, the janitors alliance is looking to build more solidarity between janitors and students on campus, Kim said.

Yet that may prove to be easier said than done: ‚ÄúBecause (Tufts) students are coming from a very different background than the janitors, they aren’t necessarily cognizant of what the workers are going through.‚Äù

However, he said the alliance has made considerable progress in garnering support for the issue and the group is now “mobilizing people to start sending a clear message to Tufts.”

Dillon has begun a blog on the issue, www.justicefortuftsjanitors.blogspot.com, and there he calls the community to action: “You have the power to pressure the Tufts administration into taking responsibility for its workers. If you call or email president Bacow and let him know that Tufts must prove that all their talk about social justice must be backed up by action, he will listen.”

Rivera said many low-wage workers such as the Tufts janitors are invisible and providing a voice for them is instrumental in ensuring them the respect that they deserve. “I think that Tufts is such a big part of the city of Somerville, that as long as [the school] understands that the community values low-wage workers and their families, it will go a long way.”