By A. Larrison Campbell
Staff Writer

Members of United Student-Labor Action Coalition (USLAC) packed President Doug Bennet’s office Friday afternoon to discuss Wesleyan’s role in the unionization of its janitors.

The meeting grew out of USLAC members’ concern that Wesleyan was unnecessarily interfering in Service Employees’ International Union’s (SEIU) attempts to unionize the janitors.

At the meeting, Bennet said the University should not interfere with unionization, according to members of USLAC.

"We feel that Bennet should ensure that Wesleyan does not intervene in the unionization process. We suspect that they have, so the damage may already be done," said Olivia deBree ’01, a member of USLAC.

According to USLAC members, Director of Human Resources David Landsberg recommended that the janitors seek unionization through a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) supervised election in a conversation with a representative of the subcontractor, Initial Cleaning Services (Initial), which employs Wesleyan’s janitors last Monday.

According to USLAC, unions can be created in two ways: upon receipt of signed authorization cards from more than half of a unit’s employees or through an NLRB election.

"Basically [the NLRB election] is a long legal process and it can be dragged out for years," deBree said. "The extra time would allow Initial to put up an anti-union campaign and use scare tactics."

Members of USLAC interpreted this recommendation as an attempt by the University to hinder the janitors’ unionization.

"The problem is that since Initial is employed by Wesleyan, there’s a power behind that voice, and Initial will feel compelled to do [what the University suggests]," deBree said.

According to deBree, over 80 percent of Initial janitors signed union authorization cards two months ago.

Bennet released a statement reiterating the University’s policy of non-interference in its contractors’ labor relations.

"Wesleyan hires contractors based on quality of service and costs," said Director of University Relations Bill Holder in the statement on behalf of Bennet. "We do not attempt to manage the relationship between the contractor and its employees. It is solely the responsibility of the contractor to resolve the terms of employment with its employees."

USLAC maintains that the University is attempting to interfere in the unionization process.

"Almost all of the workers are Latino, three others are Polish, and none are really fluent [in English]," deBree said. "So basically they’re really easy to take advantage of."

In addition to its meeting with Bennet, USLAC has organized bi-weekly meetings between the 31 janitors and SEIU, visited workers at their homes, and gathered 1,420 student signatures on a petition.

"I’m glad that they’re doing this because it’s the only way we’re going to get help," said Edwin Gonzalez, an Initial janitor who works at the University.

Under their current contracts, the janitors earn between $6.50 and $8 an hour and lack pension benefits and job security, according to USLAC members. An optional health insurance policy deducts one fifth of the workers’ salaries.

"Because it’s just so much money, most of the workers choose not to have [the health insurance]," deBree said.

With unionization, the workers could earn a little more than nine dollars an hour after a year, as well as health benefits, pension and paid vacations, deBree said. The extra cost to the University would be approximately $250,000 per year.

"There’s nothing that says that cost should be the bottom line," said USLAC member Ari Yampolsky. "Wesleyan has a responsibility to take a moral position."

"I’ve been here two years and I haven’t had a raise," Gonzalez said. "Last year I got a vacation, and every time I asked to take it, they kept giving me a hard time, telling me they’d let me go, let me go… but now it’s come to the end of the year, and it’s too late."

"I don’t have any health insurance right now; I was working two jobs, and I had health insurance at my other job, but two jobs was too much… The pay was the same at both jobs, but I kept this one because I like Wesleyan. Right now I’m in good health, I’ll just hope I stay that way," Gonzalez said.