GCA's Custodians Speak With One Voice: "We Want A Union!"

Custodians Call on GCA Services to Create Better Jobs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 4, 2010

(NASHVILLE, TN) — At a time when Nashville’s families are struggling more than ever to make ends meet, GCA Services, the contractor that provides custodial services for Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), slashed cleaners’ wages by an average of $4 per hour (a 30% pay cut), reducing hundreds of families’ incomes to near poverty levels.

An overwhelming majority of custodians that clean Metro Schools have said that they want to form a union with SEIU Local 205 and are seeking recognition from their employer, GCA Services, to begin negotiations.

The MNPS custodial and groundskeeping work was moved from in-house to outsourced work this past July. Despite school board officials and GCA Services promising publicly and in writing that the custodians would receive a ‘comparable wage’ to what they had been earning as direct MNPS employees, their wage was reduced by nearly one-third. In addition, health insurance is now out of reach for many custodians as the new plan under GCA Services requires a $5,000 deductible, which is too expensive for custodians earning as little as $9 an hour.

“MNPS custodians are standing up for all hard working families in Nashville by calling for employers to be responsible and provide good jobs that you can raise a family on,” said Doug Collier, president of Service Employees International Union Local 205, based in Nashville. “Now that the custodians have freely decided that they want union representation, we expect GCA to honor their commitments and begin bargaining with SEIU in good faith immediately,” Collier said.

Adding to the retirement crisis facing many Americans, the GCA Services offered pension plan has only a 1% employer contribution, destroying the retirement plans for many school cleaners.

Workers are facing a bleak future as U.S. and foreign companies drive wages down and workers out of middle class jobs, cutting pensions and benefits. Service sector jobs like those GCA Services provides will account for 96 percent of all job growth between now and 2018.

Background:

This past July, more than 650 custodians who had worked as public employees—many of them for decades—were laid off and had to re-apply for their jobs. Director of Schools Dr. Jesse Register’s budget called for the district’s custodial and grounds keeping services to be outsourced to private contractors.

Public opposition to the outsourcing plan was expressed by parents, students, clergy and elected officials and despite a controversy over GCA’s history of hiring convicted criminals and sex offenders, GCA was awarded the contract.

Preceding the contract award, school officials promised publicly and in writing that the current MNPS custodians would have ‘the first opportunity’ for jobs with the new contractor. Nearly 200 of the eligible 600 custodians were actually hired by GCA. Hundreds of MNPS custodians were never even called in for interviews by GCA.

Custodians face disrespect at work under GCA supervisors, an increased workload, understaffing, and are not provided the proper equipment to do their job.

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With 2.2 million members, SEIU is the fastest-growing union in North America. In Tennessee, SEIU Local 205 represents public and private sector employees in West, Middle, and East Tennessee - including in Metro Nashville Public Schools.