Four Custodians Rehired

Five days after a union-led protest, Harvard Facilities Maintenance Operations (FMO) rehired four custodians who had been transferred to another cleaning service company.

Senior Harvard labor officials met Wednesday with a representative from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 615—which charged that Harvard had violated a seniority clause in its contract with the union—and agreed to return the four women to the jobs that they had held with FMO.

Late last year, Harvard transferred the four workers to 1033 Mass. Ave., which houses the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and the Harvard University Police Department. Earlier this month, FMO contracted the jobs in that building out to University Cleaning Company (UNICCO), a large corporation that provides facility services.

While this change in management effectively ended the four workers’ employment at Harvard, they were rehired by UNICCO with the same salary and benefits.

At a rally last Friday, nearly 50 Harvard staff, students and union workers accused Harvard of neglecting to defend their job security.

Mary Ann O’Brien, a spokeswoman for the Office of Human Resources, noted that negotiations “were already well under way” before the protest.

Courtney Snegroff, the union organizer who met with Harvard officials, called the Wednesday’s agreement a “victory on several fronts.”

Snegroff expressed her satisfaction that FMO will once again service 1033 Mass. Ave. and that Harvard has agreed to reverse what she called a violation of Harvard’s contract with the union.

The contract stipulates that Harvard apply the “principles of seniority” in its employment decisions—under the contract, FMO must give preference to employees with long histories at Harvard.

Director of Employee and Labor Relations William Murphy, who participated in the negotiations on Wednesday, called the agreement a “good outcome for everyone.”

One of the rehired workers, Vanette Saintilus, echoed Murphy’s sentiments.

“I feel good,” she said. “I have been working at Harvard for a long time [and] am happy to have my job back.”

According to Snegroff, the four women—Helena Talbot, Elsa N. Guevara, Isabel Rivera, and Saintulus—will return to their previous posts soon.

—Staff writer Daniel J. T. Schuker can be reached at dschuker@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Anton S. Troianovski can be reached at atroian@fas.harvard.edu.