Tufts began negotiations to create a new plan for the operation of its janitorial staff with DTZ, the contracting agency for its janitors. The plan will complement a new contract the university signed with DTZ during the summer, according to Vice President for Operations Linda Snyder.
Whether the proposed plan will include janitorial layoffs remains uncertain, according to Snyder and Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler. Creating a new plan is a requirement of the contract with DTZ, which Tufts has already signed.
“What we’ve asked DTZ to do is to think about a plan … that would bring Tufts more in line with the efficiency and practice standards that are common in higher education,” Snyder said.
She noted that with the new plan negotiated, the administration sees an opportunity to gain significant benefits for the entire Tufts community, including increased efficiency and improved sustainability.
A greater emphasis on sustainability may include looking at the management of office resources on the Tufts campus. In particular, Snyder explained that Tufts would like to increase the amount of recycled items. In order to meet Tufts’ sustainability objectives, a new scheme of office cleaning would be needed, which could include cutting down on the number of times janitors visit offices.
Members of Tufts Labor Coalition (TLC) have expressed significant concern about the possible implications of the new plan in regard to the potential layoffs of janitorial staff members. Anna Gaebler, a board member of TLC, believes a new contract with DTZ may involve a loss of janitorial jobs on campus.
“Based on what we know from the union representatives, Tufts has decided that, in an effort to cut administrative costs, they are going to be asking DTZ … to slowly cut janitors from the campus,” Gaebler, a junior, said.
Snyder acknowledged the possibility of staff reduction. However, she emphasized that the university has not formulated a concrete plan to lay off janitors.
“We can’t say yet what the impact [of the plan] might be,” she said. “We just don’t know [about staffing issues] yet because we don’t have the [finalized] plan.”
Although the plan is not yet complete, Snyder and Thurler emphasized that it could help the university increase its environmental sustainability. According to Snyder, many other institutions have reduced the number of custodial visits to once or twice a week. To compensate, office workers are asked to take their food waste and recycling products to centralized receptacles.
She asserts that if these practices are put into effect at Tufts, the recycling rate will improve and the amount of non-recycled waste will decrease. This scheme would help direct janitors to concentrate their work on more important tasks, such as cleaning the Mayer Campus Center, according to Snyder.
Snyder and Thurler also underscored increasing efficiency in the development of the new plan. According to Snyder, the ever-rising costs of tuition make this an especially critical issue.
“We need to make sure that, as we run the campuses, that we run them as efficiently as we possibly can so that as much of [Tufts’ revenue] as possible can go into the direct functions of the university: teaching, research, learning,” she said. “If we were wasteful in our stewardship of operations and maintenance funding, that would be counter to your interest as a student and the university’s interest.”
Gaebler noted that the proposed new policy is problematic in several ways in the opinion of TLC. She explained that none of the janitors have been informed of this policy yet, even though cuts could potentially come in the next few months. In addition, she said that the entire idea of firing janitors whose livelihoods depend on their work is unethical. She also noted that a smaller janitorial staff could result in overwork for the remaining workers.
“All of the janitors are already overworked on campus,” Gaebler said. "Many are responsible for cleaning a whole building by themselves, and by cutting more of them, it’s just going to make it harder … and, in terms of student interests, it will result in a much dirtier campus.”
Snyder said that efficiency improvements, however, would not result in a dirtier campus due to a decreased and less capable janitorial staff. Rather, a maximization of the efficiency of the workforce will be underscored, with one of the goals being to keep tuition affordable.
“Students … have to pay tuition, and we hope that as students think about this coming dynamic, that students will understand that what we are trying to do is keep the university as affordable as we can, because that really matters,” she said. “And for us to spend more than we should on supporting a function and driving up the cost of education, we would not be being responsible.”
Overall, Gaebler explained that TLC believes the university should determine another way to cut costs, rather than laying off janitors. She acknowledged, however, that the details of possible janitorial layoffs are still unclear to TLC.
According to Thurler, the details are still being developed, but should be completed in the coming months.
“We expect to have a plan from [DTZ] by the end of this year,” Thurler said.
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