Maintenance subcontracting infuriates union

Yale thinks outsourcing will increase efficiency; Local 35 says Yale's labor practices cheat workers.

In a move that has outraged the Local 35 union, Yale has decided to subcontract custodial and grounds work at Boyd and Linsley-Chittenden (LC) Halls to non-union workers. The University says it's only an experiment, but the union sees it as a deliberate attempt to avoid the fair labor practices guaranteed by its contract.

JULIA TIERNAN/YH Yale's custodial workers complain that understaffing forces them to work outiside their job descriptions.

"We have an outside contractor responsible for [maintenance of] the swing dorm," Carlos Mercado, custodial manager for the residential colleges, confirmed. "It's being done by Fusco Management; it's completely outsourced."

Fusco is the contractor that designed and built Boyd and renovated LC. When the buildings were finished this summer, Yale subcontracted their maintenance to Fusco, who subcontracted the services to ISS, a maintenance company.

The outsourcing has angered Local 35, the union that includes Yale's custodial and grounds workers. "Those workers are denied the decent wage and benefits package that's right next door," Local 35 President Bob Proto said. Proto estimates that the non-union workers make about $7.20 an hour. Their union counterparts receive an hourly wage between $11 and $15, plus benefits and job security.

According to Yale labor relations director Brian Tunney, when the six-year union contract expired in 1996, the University was free to subcontract. "We have prudently exercised that right," Tunney said. "According to the contract, no employees can be laid off or have their hours reduced. Nobody's lost any jobs because of this."

Yale Vice President of Facilities Kemel Dawkins claims the arrangement with Fusco is an experiment. "Throughout the year, we plan to evaluate the service the subcontractor provides," he said. "Yale is interested in benchmarking the work our internal service providers provide against service providers in the exterior market in order to improve overall facilities service around campus."

But Proto sees more sinister goals in the subcontracting experiment. "Yale has started the syndrome of a revolving workforce," he said. "There's no economic justification, it's just a matter of establishing a separate workforce that prevents the bargaining unit [of union workers] from growth."

But Yale may just be trying to cut corners. "We don't want to just say, `Well, we have this new thing, we have that new thing, so we have to hire X new people,' " Joseph Mullinix, Yale's vice president of finance and administration, explained. "We're reexamining our staffing requirements, trying to figure out if there are ways to operate more efficiently."

Among the ideas discussed in the name of increasing efficiency without increasing cost is the changing of job descriptions. "This is an issue the union is very sensitive about, but we suspect there are opportunities for the interchangeability of jobs," Mullinix said. The union contract narrowly specifies what tasks workers in each area are required to perform, but Mullinix wondered, "Do we really need one group of people to sweep the sidewalks and another group to sweep the entryways?"

In fact, Yale's reluctance to hire more workers may already have blurred the lines between jobs, despite the specifications of the contract. Custodial worker Elizabeth Williams has been a University employee for about 35 years. Her job is to clean bathrooms and empty trash in five Pierson College entryways. "But I sweep the sidewalks in front of the archway, too," she said. "Grounds maintenance is supposed to do that, but they don't give them enough hours to do it, so we do it. I have to keep the place looking nice. Otherwise they report me to the union."

According to Grounds Maintenance Manager Roberto Meinrath, the college courtyards, as well as Old Campus and Cross Campus, are maintained by a total staff of seven workers, "which," according to Meinrath, "is not very many. It is a problem."

Dawkins claimed that Yale's facilities budget would have to increase to hire more union workers, and "the University budgeting process is complex." But Proto believes that more than just bureaucracy stands in Yale's way. "Yale's objective is to not expand the bargaining unit," he said. "When they realized they weren't maintaining a quality standard because they didn't have enough workers to do the cleaning, serve decent meals, and so on, they resorted to trying to establish another tier of workers instead."

At present, Fusco does not have a maintenance contract from Yale for the work the company is doing. "We're in the process of negotiating a contract," Mullinix said. "Right now, [Fusco is] working on the basis of a letter of intent." Dawkins estimates that a year-long contract will be signed "within the next several weeks."

The decision to subcontract "is not a permanent decision, but it's not impossible it would continue" when the year expires, Tunney said. If Fusco's freelancers prove they can do the job for less, the University would consider expanding the services it outsources.

According to Proto, that would be a disaster. "Without a doubt, [Yale] is the company in a company town. They're one of the largest employers," he said. "Through struggle, [the union has] forced them to provide their workforce with decent wages and benefits. We made them accountable to the city of New Haven. So now they've gotten someone else to do their dirty work."

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