Op-Ed: A Tufts for all

Negotiations for a contract for university custodians are underway between Tufts University's cleaning contractor Cushman & Wakefield Inc. (C&W) and 32BJ SEIU — the largest property service union in the country. These are the hardworking men and women who help to make Tufts a top-notch university while supporting their families and local businesses. At a time of increasing economic inequality, continuing to invest in good middle-class jobs will make Tufts University stronger and help the entire Boston region thrive.

With total net assets of $2.2 billion, unrestricted operating revenues of $813 million and a growing endowment, Tufts is in a strong position to continue offering hardworking Bostonians access to middle-class jobs that our communities need.

In this context, Tufts’ commitment to create much-needed full-time jobs is of vital importance.  Far too often, employers deliberately make what could otherwise be decent jobs part-time ones in order to avoid their responsibility of paying health care for their workers. When this happens, workers either lose income or take on multiple part-time jobs, and spend less time with their families and in their communities.

Think of C&W custodian Selida Pol, who currently serves at Tufts University. For years, Selida worked three part-time cleaning jobs to make ends meet. This meant random schedules, lots of lost time commuting from one job to the next and very little sleep in between. This situation took a toll on Selida’s ankles, which had deteriorated over the years. Access to a full-time job at Tufts with employer-paid healthcare and a predictable schedule changed everything. Now she has more time to take care of her frail health, help her community and build her union.

Of course, Selida and her coworkers also aspire to bargaining a fair wage increase, maintaining and promoting affordable family health care and ensuring that Tufts janitors have stronger contractual protections against indiscriminate layoffs. In this strong economic environment, getting to a contract is more than possible. Working together, we can win a strong contract with raises and protected benefits.

Unlike machines, computers and raw materials, janitors are so much more than a line item on an expense ledger. They are real people with real stories. Most are immigrants who work long days and nights to provide for their families. They have come to the United States willing to work hard in order to give their children a better life. They represent what is great about our country — the idea that if you work hard, you will be able to get ahead.

But the road to the American Dream is not paved with gold. Greater Boston is a place of wealth and innovation, but also terrible inequality. People in the top five percent make 18 times as much as households in the bottom 20 percent. The income gap continues to grow in Boston, making it the most unequal city in America. And without good paying union jobs, the gap will become a chasm.

For far too many workers, it is increasingly difficult to live and work a middle-class job and be able to afford to live here.  In wealthy states like Massachusetts, no one should have to work two or three jobs and still not be able to make ends meet.  When parents don’t spend quality time with their children, they leave the corner store to make the meals and the TV becomes the babysitter. As Mayor Walsh said: “We cannot tolerate a city divided by privilege and poverty.” A city where the very rich thrive and the rest of us struggle shouldn't become a permanent reality. Tufts can be an agent for positive change in our communities. Let’s get to work to make it possible.

 

With more than 155,000 members in 11 states, including 18,000 in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, SEIU 32BJ is the largest property services union in the country. Roxana Rivera is the vice president of 32BJ SEIU. Roxana can be reached at mobilize@seiu32bj.org.

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