Recently in Custodial Category

Source: WANE (IN) Tuesday, 09 Mar 2010, 6:24 AM EST

Dozens of Fort Wayne Community Schools custodians showed up to the district's board meeting, Monday, in opposition of recent proposals to outsource services including custodial work.

 ..... "We are your first defense against illness and intruders. We are a big part of the support system in place at FWCS," said Michelle Tribolet. Tribolet is the president of local 561 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. It represents custodians at FWCS. Tribolet says the staff is "very anxious and very worried."

By Arindrajit Dube and Ethan Kaplan, Industrial & Labor Relations Review,  Vol. 63, No. 2 (January 2010), pp. 287-306.

Abstract: Outsourcing of labor services grew substantially during the 1980s and 1990s and was associated with lower wages, fewer benefits, and lower rates of unionization. The authors focus on two occupations for which they can identify outsourcing in those two decades using industry and occupation codes: janitors and guards. Across a wide array of specifications, they find that the outsourcing wage penalty ranged from 4% to 7% for janitors and from 8% to 24% for guards. Their findings on health benefits mirror those on wages. Evidence suggests that the outsourcing penalty was not due to compensating differentials for higher benefits or lower hours, skill differences, or the types of industries that outsourced. Rather, outsourcing seems to have reduced labor market rents for workers, especially for those in the upper half of the occupational wage distribution. Industries with higher historical wage premia were more likely to outsource service work.

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Source: By Tracy Jan, Boston Globe (MA), January 13, 2010

 ........ Now, the economic downturn has prompted college officials to seek the once unimaginable, the option to outsource some duties of facility workers to save on overtime costs. Doing so, officials say, would help the school preserve jobs.

But many faculty, students, and workers are questioning the move to contract out overtime work, saying it could open the door to replacing the employees with lower-wage, nonunion workers. Such a shift would run counter to Catholic traditions of social justice, they say.

By Laura Mead, Daily Press (MI) January 19, 2010

GLADSTONE - Although the Gladstone School Board has made no decisions regarding the privatization of janitorial services within the district, concern continues to grow. A Teamsters steward came to Monday's meeting armed with letters that included the signatures of over 1,000 community members, petitioning against privatization.

Source: By George Morse, EastBayRI.com (RI), 12/3/09 

EAST PROVIDENCE - In a split vote Tuesday night the East Providence City Council approved a new, three-year extension to a collective bargaining agreement with Local 2969 Rhode Island Council 94, AFSCME, AFL-CIO, a unit representing school department custodians and maintenance personnel.

..... By the time an agreement was reached, the union's concessions made them cheaper than private contractor SSC Service Solutions (a bidder for the job) by as much as $117,000 a year. Also, Mr. Barham said that since the school department looked at private groups, parents have "vehemently" opposed having private workers in schools.

Source: Steve Schultze, Journal Sentinel (WI),  Nov. 18, 2009

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker won half a loaf on his privatization push Wednesday, as the County Board finished work on the 2010 budget that will increase the property tax levy by $5.6 million.

..... The board backed Walker on outsourcing scores of housekeeping jobs but resisted the move to privatize security at the courthouse complex, though the board did agree to privatize security at the county's City Campus, at N. 27th and W. Wells streets.

Source: HometownLife.com (MI), March 27, 2009

Custodial and transportation services for the Bloomfield Hills Schools will not be privatized. Instead, the school board voted unanimously Thursday night to adopt a new five-year contract with AFSCME Local 1628, which covers the district's approximately 178 bus drivers and custodians. The new agreement, which is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2009, and runs through Dec. 31, 2013, will save about $2.1 million, according to the district.

It includes changes in health care coverage and a contribution toward health care, wage reductions, holiday and vacation day reductions and overtime changes. Wages are frozen at their new levels for the first three years of the contract, with a wage opener in contract years 2012 and 2013.

Source: by RoNeisha Mullen, The Flint Journal (MI), Wednesday June 25, 2008

The Bentley Board of Education is considering outsourcing the work of some 40 support staff members, prompting the employees to plead the case for saving their jobs. ...... In an effort to cut costs, the district is considering outsourcing services provided by paraprofessionals; custodial, grounds and maintenance crews; food service workers; secretaries; and bus drivers.

...... Decreases in state aid and declining student enrollment have forced other districts to explore outsourcing.

...... Jaquita McCrory, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees representative for the support staff at Bentley, said the outlook is good. "The board has never said they were outsourcing --Â they're just looking at options," McCrory said. "I think there's still hope. Together I'm hoping we can work this out and everybody stays where they are."

Source: by Allan Appel, New Haven Independent (CT), June 24, 2008

For the second time this year, the Board of Ed has ended a contract with a controversial Philadelphia-based company, this time for managing school buildings. The Board of Ed (BOE) nnounced Monday night that it is ending its facilities management contract with Aramark.

..... A campaign by public school unions resulted in the non-renewal of Aramark's contract as the manager of the system's food services and, last month, the decision to take that work in-house.

...... Custodians' rep Larry Dorman, spokesman for Council 4 of AFSCME (shown here with staffers Dena Fleno and Anne Peckham, in front), said, "We're pleased that the mayor, superintendent, and aldermen listened to our concerns about Aramark, and we're going to work in good faith with the new company."

Source: By Jay Pateakos, Herald News (MA), May 29, 2008 @ 09:43 PM

With the school department slated to privatize the custodial workforce at all the schools by July 1, the union representing the 16 workers set to lose their jobs said other schools across the state have tried this path and failed. The union said the Swansea school system will likely be no different.

...... The custodial union, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 93, which represents 35,000 state and municipal workers in the state, rejected the school department's final contract proposal that would have seen a 12 percent pay raise over a three-year period and an increase in shift differentials because the department sought the power in determining when custodians can return to work after an injury.