SJSU custodians join Teamsters

Union to clean up 'at-will' status

By: Tara Duffy

Posted: 5/12/08

The custodians at SJSU will join San Jose's Teamsters union after a 13-10 vote early Friday morning.

Frank Harms, Jr., a Teamsters representative, said that up until then, the custodians didn't have representation nor contracts and were considered at-will employees.

An at-will employee is someone who has signed a contract stating his or her employer does not need any reasonable cause to terminate the employee.

Pat Lopes Harris, SJSU's media relations specialist, said she did not feel that the university should be responsible for giving a reaction about the issue because the custodians are not directly employed by it.

According to Harms, Aramark, a professional services company, employs the custodians.

"We want to give them better wages, a voice, especially the women, as well as the men," said Stacy Alvelais, a Teamsters representative.

"We wanted to give them a voice in the workplace," she said.

One SJSU student felt that unions help protect employees' rights.

"I think unions are good," said Perry Uzunoglu, a second year animation illustration major. "The workers get to work together to protect themselves. Otherwise they would have to fight individually."

"It feels excellent to join the Teamsters union," said Pascuel Hernandez de Ventura, a custodian at SJSU, through a translator. "It makes me more motivated than before. Before, (with) the political atmosphere in the business, it was very difficult to speak your mind. But now, we can vote. Plus, the benefits are nice."

According to the Teamsters' Web site, there are 1.4 million members in the United States. The Teamsters union includes laundry, bakery, warehouse and waste management workers, among other occupations.

Harms said joining the Teamsters would be beneficial to the custodians because "they didn't have anything on paper. If they have a contract, they can know what days of the week they will have off. If they have a problem, they can call their business representative to help them."

Harms said he feels unions are good for workers to join because they hold an employer responsible for his or her actions.

"If you are promised a raise, you have to get a raise," he said. "You have a contract, in black and white. You know where you stand."

Alvelais said that she felt many of the custodians were underpaid.

"These are the men and women who clean and sanitize SJSU and keep things well kept," she said. "Some were working for only $8 an hour. It took some custodians years to break the $10 mark. We want to give them better wages. These are human beings. Everyone should have workers rights."

Although the custodians are now officially part of the Teamsters union, there are still a few loose ends to be tied up.

"Now we will negotiate a contract," Harms said. "So now they will tell the union what their concerns are, and it is then negotiated from there."

"I think it's good," said Renata Garaykhanov, a freshman who is double majoring in business and art. Eight dollars an hour is not enough for anybody, especially in San Jose. It's great that they are stepping up to take the initiative to try and change something."