By Colin Young, News Staff
A group of university-contracted janitors, union supporters and community members gathered on campus June 22 to show their support for workers’ rights as thousands in the city prepare to negotiate new contracts.
“Every day, thousands of workers clean our state’s centers for higher education. Many of them do not see full-time work and struggle to put together a living so that their children can have the opportunity to attend the schools they clean,” the union, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 615, said in a statement. “Although at Northeastern many of the jobs are full-time, the custodial workers there are amongst the lowest paid in the industry when compared to their peers in institutions such as Boston University and Boston College.”
In a statement released prior to the rally, SEIU Local 615 officials argued that the rate of pay for contracted workers did not improve in step with tuition increases at Northeastern.
“Standards of Northeastern’s low pay can be contrasted to their high rate of tuition increases,” union officials said. “As institutions like NEU price working families out of an education, they continue to erect new buildings and satellite campuses.”
Renata Nyul, the university’s director of communications, did not respond to multiple requests for comment about union relations at Northeastern.
With 225,000 members, the SEIU is the largest property services union in North America. SEIU Local 615 represents 18,000 property service workers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, according to its website.
Tomasa Castro is one of the janitors represented by Local 615. Casto has worked as a part-time contracted janitor for 11 years, and has been at Northeastern for three. She lives with her three children, whom she has raised as a single mother, the union said.
“I’ve done a little bit of everything to support my family — cleaning, working at beauty salon and making food to sell,” Castro, of Roxbury, said in a statement. “My children know what sacrifice is. It’s a dream for me that my children are able to study. I want something better for them.”
Local 615 officials said Castro “would love to have a full time job — this would provide stability and more income so that she’s able to help fund her children’s education and make ends meet.”
In April, Northeastern’s Chartwells workers voted to join the UNITE HERE Local 26 union. Workers said Chartwells managers psychologically abused them, yelled at them and called them names in front of coworkers and customers. One employee said he had a heart attack while working at Stetson East, but his manager refused to call an ambulance.
