I currently work as a temporary custodian at M.A.T.C. (Madison Area Technical College) at the Truax Campus in Madison, Wisconsin. Hired through private staffing agency Hiring and Staff Services, I temporarily replaced a unionized worker on sick leave, and when that employee returned, I replaced a non-unionized temporary worker.
I do not plan to pursue continued employment as an M.A.T.C. custodian past April 2014, when - as has been recently decided - the union's contract expires, and they begin to get laid off through attrition.
The following is a letter to the editor which I wrote to the M.A.T.C. newspaper the Clarion; it has not been published because I have refused to cut half of its content in order to fit a 250-word limit.
Dear Editor,
I do not plan to pursue continued employment as an M.A.T.C. custodian past April 2014, when - as has been recently decided - the union's contract expires, and they begin to get laid off through attrition.
The following is a letter to the editor which I wrote to the M.A.T.C. newspaper the Clarion; it has not been published because I have refused to cut half of its content in order to fit a 250-word limit.
Dear Editor,
In the Clarion’s March 6th
issue, staff writer Kate Palmer argued that M.A.T.C. should continue employing
unionized custodial staff. The American Federation of Teachers (A.F.T.) agrees,
characterizing the alternative – private
employment of custodians – as “outsourcing”.
Among their
reasons: private companies may have lax background check standards, non-A.F.T.
custodians have different standards regarding compensation, and $17,000
annually is not enough for people with children to feed.
The arguments
seem compelling, but what do they suggest to the average young person – who has
no dependents, a sparse resume, and few specialized skills (and about a quarter
of whom have been arrested for non-violent drug crimes) – about his job
prospects with the college?
It suggests that
he has less of a right to work to earn the means to survive if he has been
arrested, and that he should not be encouraged to delegate the right to
negotiate with management on his behalf to whomsoever he chooses (be it a
private company, or a union which is more radical
in its compensation demands than the established union).
According to
Palmer, M.A.T.C. custodians perform “hard, dirty labor”. However, some
entry-level M.A.T.C. custodians are engaged in physical work for only half of
their shifts. While A.F.T. asserts that private companies suffer from high
turnover rates, quality of work, and training problems, entry-level janitorial
work requires little training, and no specialized skills.
While A.F.T.
says taxpayers are unwilling to pay taxes to workers lacking “pride in their performance”,
to keep collective bargaining at its current prevalence – rather than to offer
custodians raises for better performance, negotiating with them directly on the
basis of their own individual merits and skills – risks retention of
under-performing employees.
Additionally, A.F.T.’s
concern about the potential for imperfect maintenance under private contracting
is somewhat valid now among unionized custodial staffs. Furthermore,
A.F.T.’s concern that to cut unionized custodian jobs could lead to cutting
teacher pay is counter-intuitive, because the abhorrence of custodial department cuts could be made to appear to
justify more aggressive pursuit of
cuts in teachers’ compensation.
Differences in
the compensation standards of entry-level custodians versus teachers – and of custodians who have specialized custodial
skills – should be tolerated, because the latter set of workers are engaged in
work that is more productive than basic, entry-level custodial upkeep.
MATC should
implement efficiency recommendations the workers have made, and workers should
be given individual incentive to use spare time in their work days to find ways
to improve the efficiency of workplace tasks.
Taking these
steps would save money and effort, decreasing turnover rates and increasing job
dedication, decrease the risk of teacher pay cuts, increase chances of
custodian raises, increase compensation to taxpayers, and improve custodial
services to teachers and students.
Minimum wage
laws have been characterized as “cutting the bottom rungs off of a ladder”. In
a similar vein, the wage system is a staircase, and the continuum of individual
compensation standards is an escalator; while a broken escalator should eventually
be repaired, it should not be off-limits to stair-climbers.
For more entries on employment, unemployment, the minimum wage, and Right-to-Work, please visit:
For more entries on employment, unemployment, the minimum wage, and Right-to-Work, please visit:
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/right-to-work-laws-and-union-security.html
For
more entries on unions and collective bargaining, please visit:
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/on-monopoly-and-scott-walker-recall.html
For
more entries on Wisconsin politics, please visit:
