2008 Woodie Awards
Custodians demand UNICCO clean up act
After a year of working under new management, employees demand respect
Nicole Fortuna
Issue date: 3/26/07 Section: News
"We care about people. We are a family business. We take great pride in that."
These are the words of Steve Kletjian, the CEO and chairperson of UNICCO, an integrated facilities services that provides maintenance to various organizations. As of January 2006 West Chester University employed UNICCO, but after one year, a set of grievances was presented by custodial workers in regards to the management's inability to accommodate the workers according to custodial employees,.
On Tuesday, March 6, 2007 employees of West Chester's custodial department met with Director of Custodial Services Michael Quigg and Greg Cuprak, director of facilities, in a fairly-distant meeting room in Sykes Student Union to discuss some issues of concern. One issue that was disucsse was that of those who work in the academic buildings, according to Rene (Menerva) Johnson, a WCU custodial employee of 14 years, are not trained in the residence halls despite the fact that most of the employees in the residence halls have more seniority than those in academic buildings. This points to another issue of distribution of employees throughout the campus and how five employees leaving a total of 38 were sent to SOMPAC. A grievance was raised on how the positions have not been filled at the residence halls.
According to Quigg, instead of filling the positions, the management "re-distributed the work." Those positions will not be filled.
However, the members expressed that by not filling positions, this disrupts the schedule and proper cleaning methods because vacant positions in the residence halls are not being filled.
"We want to show our best work," Charlotte Smith, a residence hall custodial employee said.
"We're 60, 65 years old and you still have us [working] in the showers," Johnson said.
Quigg said however, when considering staffing levels, there are people who call out on a regular basis, and he cannot provide temps for those paid positions.
These are the words of Steve Kletjian, the CEO and chairperson of UNICCO, an integrated facilities services that provides maintenance to various organizations. As of January 2006 West Chester University employed UNICCO, but after one year, a set of grievances was presented by custodial workers in regards to the management's inability to accommodate the workers according to custodial employees,.
On Tuesday, March 6, 2007 employees of West Chester's custodial department met with Director of Custodial Services Michael Quigg and Greg Cuprak, director of facilities, in a fairly-distant meeting room in Sykes Student Union to discuss some issues of concern. One issue that was disucsse was that of those who work in the academic buildings, according to Rene (Menerva) Johnson, a WCU custodial employee of 14 years, are not trained in the residence halls despite the fact that most of the employees in the residence halls have more seniority than those in academic buildings. This points to another issue of distribution of employees throughout the campus and how five employees leaving a total of 38 were sent to SOMPAC. A grievance was raised on how the positions have not been filled at the residence halls.
According to Quigg, instead of filling the positions, the management "re-distributed the work." Those positions will not be filled.
However, the members expressed that by not filling positions, this disrupts the schedule and proper cleaning methods because vacant positions in the residence halls are not being filled.
"We want to show our best work," Charlotte Smith, a residence hall custodial employee said.
"We're 60, 65 years old and you still have us [working] in the showers," Johnson said.
Quigg said however, when considering staffing levels, there are people who call out on a regular basis, and he cannot provide temps for those paid positions.
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