Facilities talks at standstill; union holds vigil

By Troy Simpson

Negotiations between facilities union members and university administrators remain at a standstill this week, even after a federal mediator was brought in to grapple with workers' objections to outsourcing facilities jobs to a third-party company.

The union, Service Employees International Union Local 715, has been in negotiations with Santa Clara administrators since January, SEIU Local 715 Worksite Organizer Leah Berlanga said.

Students stood next to employees for a candlelight vigil outside a Holy Thursday mass, one in a series of demonstrations since facilities negotiations began.

"I don't happen to go to church on Sundays, but I do happen to go to class every day and this is what we're told that we're here for," senior Ellen Ritchie said while standing in front of the Mission Church. "We hope that we can act out what we're learning, that we're learning to apply social justice to the real world."

The last negotiations were held March 29, when Gregory Lim, the federal mediator commissioned to assist in the process, decided to put the talks on hold.

"I made a determination at the last meeting that no further progress could be made at that meeting, so we recessed the meeting at my call," Lim said.

One major stumbling block in the negotiations is Santa Clara management's decision to fill vacant positions in the facilities department with employees from an outside company, Diversified Maintenance Services.

The custodial staff has fallen from 40 to 19 members in the last three years as the result of management's decision, Berlanga said.

According to University Operations Vice President Joe Sugg, no employees have been fired in order to transfer positions to DMS, only positions that are otherwise vacated are transferred over.

According to Berlanga, Local 715 wants language in the contract guaranteeing that Santa Clara maintains its current number of facilities employees over the next three years.

"All we ask for is that if there was layoffs, you would have a job to come back to. That's why it's important to have that number. If you don't have that number, a lot of you would not be coming back if they did do layoffs," Berlanga said to the crowd of employees at Thursday's vigil.

Berlanga said guaranteeing a certain size of the custodial staff will ensure that Santa Clara does not contract out so many positions that there would be no more work for campus custodians, which could be grounds for the university to do layoffs.

Put it in writing

In a letter to the Faculty Senate Council and Staff Assembly Council members obtained by The Santa Clara, university President Paul Locatelli, S.J., said guaranteeing the size of the facilities staff is not possible.

"We see that as an unrealistic demand especially in light of the unknown economic climate and the needs of the University over the next three years and beyond," Locatelli stated.

Furthermore, Locatelli said limiting Santa Clara management's ability to decide to contract out vacant positions would prevent the university from hiring the individuals or companies whom the management judges as the best candidate for the job.

"This is also an infringement on management's ability to do the job right at the most reasonable cost," Locatelli stated.

Contracting custodial positions out to DMS is cheaper for the university than keeping an in-house staff, some say, because DMS does not offer the same wages and benefits as Santa Clara does to its own employees.

"When you work so hard to give a group of people a living wage and certain benefits for working at this university, and they are continually diminishing the jobs that were given with these guarantees, that is completely contradictory. I perceive that as an injustice," said Lauren Wray, a senior and member of Santa Clarans for Social Justice.

According to Berlanga, Santa Clara facilities employees make anywhere from $12.92 to $16.99 per hour in addition to receiving a comprehensive benefits package, which, in addition to medical, dental, life and long-term disability insurance, includes the option for employees, along with their spouses and children, to attend Santa Clara courses for free.

DMS employees' contract with SEIU Local 1877 stipulates that they make anywhere from $8.04 to $10.40 per hour, according to SEIU Regional Vice President Salvador Bustamante. However, Sugg said in an interview last month that Santa Clara requires DMS to pay its employees a minimum of $10.40 per hour.

While DMS employees do have a comprehensive benefits package, they do not receive the tuition remission program offered to campus employees, nor does Santa Clara directly manage their work or guarantee their employment, Bustamante said.

"I think that if you are directly affecting the lives of these people and yet you're not legally responsible for what happens to those employees, that's what's wrong to me," Bustamante said.

A possible strike

The South Bay Labor Council granted SEIU Local 715 an Emergency Strike Sanction in March, the effect of which is for the labor council to notify 110 affiliated unions representing over 110,000 workers of the current situation and grant Local 715 to strike if they choose to do so.

Should Santa Clara employees strike, support from other unions could include the "non-patronizing of services and refusal to cross any picket line in performance of work or for the procurement of goods/services," South Bay Labor Council Executive Officer Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins stated in a letter to Derek Woodhouse, an attorney representing the university.

"Our organizational role would be to work with Local 715 to help them determine what strategy they think would be effective, and then - work with them and contact our other affiliated unions to ask for participation in that sort of action," said Philip Bump, the communications associate for the South Bay Labor Council.

Both sides say a strike is still the last resort, but Sugg said if one were to happen, the university would be able to function as normal.

"Nobody wants a strike," but we can't leave the university hostage if the union decides to strike. We have to be prepared for that contingency even though we don't want a strike," Sugg said earlier this week.

Voicing grievances

SEIU filed an unfair labor practice charge against Santa Clara with the National Labor Relations Board, saying the Santa Clara administration has failed to bargain in good faith with Local 715, threatened employees with retaliation through reduction of existing benefits should they choose to strike, and used scare tactics "with the purpose, and with the effect, of chilling employees in the exercise of their rights."

Sugg said he could not comment on the unfair labor practice charge because it is under investigation by the NLRB.

Michael Leong, the assistant regional director for Region 32 of the National Labor Relations Board, said their office should be finished investigating the grievance sometime in the next few weeks.

"If there appears to be enough evidence, we'll put the case before an administrative law judge," Leong said. If not, Leong said the NLRB would ask Local 715 to withdraw their charge.

û Contact Troy Simpson at (408) 554-4546 or tsimpson@scu.edu.