At Providence College, Edward Caron, vice president of college relations and planning, sees no role for PC to play in the collective bargaining process between cleaning workers and the large subcontracting firm that employs them. This is precisely the kind of disconnect that union activists hope to overcome as they seek better wages and conditions for the workers.

Service Employees International Union, Local 134, is in the process of renegotiating its contract with UNICCO, a large facilities services company based near Boston, which boasts of 1000 customers, including more than 50 colleges and universities. Although PC hires its own physical plant workers, cleaners are "100 percent subcontracted to UNICCO," Caron says.

Union representative Karen McAninch is frustrated the union can't communicate directly with the college, and she claims that they "treat the cleaners like they don't work there." A case in point is Teresa Rivero, who, after cleaning PC dorms for 12 years, earns $8.36 for working the nightshift. The workers represented by Local 134 are predominantly immigrants who speak very little English. Many hold other jobs to help make ends meet. Though friendly with the students, Rivero says that she and her colleagues "have been marginalized by the administration. All we ask for is an honorable salary."

At the start of the year, UNICCO laid off nine of 50 PC workers, offering the remaining cleaners a three percent wage
increase and a new health insurance
plan that would provide increased co-
pays for medication and a $250 co-pay
for a hospital stay. With this new plan, employees would make $296 per week before taxes. Five meetings with UNICCO have produced no movement toward
a better proposal, leading McAninch
to believe there will be little progress
"unless the college gets more involved."

Because universities avoid responsibility for wage negotiations by contracting companies like UNICCO, union leaders encounter difficulties in dealing with these middlemen. Without PC's involvement, explains McAninch, "We can't get to the source of the problem." A UNICCO official declined to comment.

Workers and union leaders hope to raise community pressure to change the situation; a student day of action is planned for April 4. The potential impact is evidenced by the success of the living wage campaign at Harvard, which has won the promise of improved conditions for workers. A similar effort is taking place at Brown. According to a September 2000 study of housing rates and living standards by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (www.nlihc.org), $12.30 is considered a living wage in Providence. A citywide living wage campaign is also being led by groups such as DARE (Direct Action for Rights & Equality) and Rhode Island Jobs With Justice.

Right now, the PC workers are "hanging in there," says McAninch, with the hope of reaching agreement with UNICCO by the end of the school year. They remain optimistic, she says, because "most people know you can't live on $8 an hour."

Issue Date: March 29 - April 4, 2002