SEIU Member Awarded "Custodian of the Year"

Michael Hayes, senior custodian at Glendale Elementary, was honored as this year's "Custodian of the Year" by the Metro Nashville Public School system.

Hayes, a native Nashvillian, began working for MNPS when he was 17 years old and has been with Metro for 31 years.  He joined SEIU Local 205 as soon as the union came into the school system and he had a personal motivation for joining.  "My wife forced me to join," Michael remembers with a laugh.  "I didn't know a whole lot about unions, but she educated me on why joining was a good idea.  In a perfect world, workers wouldn't need a union, but sometimes no matter how hard you work or how much you love your job, things can go wrong even if you haven't done anything wrong.  You can never tell when you're going to need the union representing you."

Mike's duties range from cleaning the school building to unloading trucks to cutting the grass.  "Sometimes people forget that it takes a whole team - not just teachers - to educate our children.  I take pride in my work and I'm honored to get this award," Mike says.