SLAM backs custodial union: A resignation sparks discussion

Students passing through Dion Student Center on their way to Sunday dinner last weekend were handed bread and roses by members of the campus organization Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM). The display sought to recognize International Worker’s Day, an annual holiday celebrated on May 1.

In addition to the bread and roses, which represent a political slogan coined by Rose Schneiderman, students were handing out copies of a resignation letter from a recent St. Michael’s custodian, and asking passersby to sign a petition, which will be, presented to the president and administration “with the intention of showing that the students and St. Michael’s community demand a response to the resignation letter and that the voices of custodial union stewards be taken seriously and treated with respect,” according to Xander Shaw, ’16, an active member of

SLAM.

The custodian who wrote the resignation letter, Walter Reed, gave his two-week notice to St. Michael’s on April 3. His letter has since been distributed across campus – slipped under office doors, strewn about the St. Edmund’s lobby, and posted and shared widely on Facebook.

In the letter, Reed, a nine-year employee and daytime supervisor, cited disagreements with both management style and the handling of employees, adding that he could not “conscientiously lower [his] personal and professional standards to the practices [he is] expected to adhere to.

“I prefer to lead by being a mentor and by example, not by harassment and bullying,” Reed wrote. “I strive to encourage respect amongst staff members, not fear and retaliation. I cannot continue to work in an environment where there is no respect for me or anyone else.”

According to union stewards Graham Lebel and Pratit Gurung, these actions are recurring and have not been addressed adequately. One issue they both emphasized was that quality assurance (QA) checks are used as a harassment tool, alleging that shift managers are pressured by upper management to never give custodians a perfect score on these periodic assessments and to harshly scrutinize flaws in the custodians’ work, such as smudges left on windows. “In an ordinary situation, that’s something you could kind of brush off, but it just turns into a whole event for harassment,” Lebel said.

Other issues Lebel and Gurung found impermissible include: harsh reprimands, an exclusive workplace culture, being secretly surveilled by management, and being yelled at for union activism. Reed’s letter also alleges that he has heard coworkers called “pervert” and “useless lesbian.”

The union has 10 days after a collective bargaining contract violation is committed to file a grievance. In the situation of the alleged wrongful termination of an employee, they were granted a two week extension period to file a grievance, according to Jim Farrington, associate director of facilities at St. Michael’s. As of Monday, the last permissible day to file a grievance, they had not done so. Until a formal grievance is filed, the administration cannot address or correct the custodial management’s alleged wrongdoings. “I’m very unsure about exactly what they want changed – unless they want to circumvent going through the proper [grievance] procedures,” Farrington said.

The St. Michael’s custodians formed a union in 2012, leveraged by pay freezes, switching health plans, inconsistent pension contributions, and communication woes, according to a 2012 news story in the weekly paper, Seven Days.

Reed’s resignation letter also indicates these issues have not been mitigated adequately. “One of the reasons we organized the union to begin with to try to address all the issues that he highlighted in his [resignation] letter and they have not been addressed very well,” Lebel said.

The Vermont Workers’ Center expressed solidarity with the union by sharing SLAM’s Facebook post about Reed’s resignation letter and encouraged others to take action.

“The administration has very little respect for the folks who do some of the most crucial work maintaining the campus and taking care of the facilities,” said Matt McGrath, co-director of Vermont Workers’ Center said.

According to McGrath, unions are a way to ensure that workers receive the respect they receive, in a conceptual notion but also in a tangible notion that translates to salaries, benefits, and incentives to do good work. Since power and money are at stake, “Ultimately the administration would love to break up the union,” McGrath said.

Although concerns about this nature of disrespect has not been brought forward by other areas of campus, Shaw and SLAM said that they believe all students, faculty and staff should be concerned.

“When everyone in our campus community feels that their dignity is upheld, work is respected, and they can live with healthy mind and body — our community thrives,” Shaw said.