Cut Budgets Responsibly

In July, Harvard Medical School announced that it would lay off the 31 janitors working for the subcontractor American Cleaning Company. The layoffs were expected to be complete by August 17th, but  thanks in part to student, worker, and community protest, the plan for the layoffs was postponed until mid-September. Now that the expected layoff date is coming around, the Harvard community is uniting once more in protest against the layoffs.

When Harvard University initially subcontracted work out to organizations like American Cleaning Company, they could be paid less and given fewer benefits than direct hires. Due to a push for the Wage and Benefit Parity Policy instituted in 2002, subcontracted workers now receive the same compensation that directly hired workers do. All of Harvard's workers, directly and indirectly hired, are promised decent jobs under this policy.

Today, there is no real reason for the Medical School to value its directly hired workers over its subcontracted ones. All workers employed at the Medical School and at all other Harvard-affiliated institutions work as equal members of the Harvard community, and no part of the Harvard community, especially not those among the lowest paid, should be singled out to bear the brunt of budget shortfalls. The Medical School claims to be dealing with a $40 million operating deficit, and yet tries to justify the decision to go through with layoffs by saying that the job cuts will save the institution upwards of $1 million.

Students at the Medical School have joined with the union that represents the subcontracted and directly hired workers, the Service Employees International Union 32BJ District 615. A petition has already been organized, and so far there have been three rallies in support of the workers’ cause. The last rally was held on Labor Day, and several hundred union members and supporters showed up to protest the layoffs. Medical students have cited concern not only for the fired janitors and their families in the current economy, but for the janitors who will be left to take on the work in place of those who were fired. Although an associate dean has claimed that the remaining workers “are not being asked to take on additional duties,” the cut of a third of the janitorial staff seems like a likely way to lower janitor morale and general cleanliness at the Medical School. That’s something that should be avoided on all of Harvard’s campuses, but that would be especially concerning at the campus charged with health and well-being.

Harvard Student Labor Action Movement members join with the medical students, SEIU members, and workers at all other Harvard institutions to ask that the layoffs not happen, and that the Harvard Medical School consider other more effective, more just avenues to make up the $40 million deficit. Without access to the information about the school’s operating budget and expenses, we can only hope that analysts will be honest and innovative in their efforts to do so.

As a non-profit institution that benefits from tax exempt status and incredible regional influence, Harvard has a responsibility not only to research and education, but to creating an economically just community that values even its sanitary workers as much as its prestige. To this end, please join SLAM and the janitors of HMS at a rally at the Harvard Club on Tuesday, September 17, at 5 p.m. to ask Harvard Club members to support the janitors facing these layoffs. Rallies and other forms of action will continue until Harvard Medical School agrees to respect all its janitors as valued members of its community.

Sidni M. Frederick ’17 lives in Wigglesworth Hall. She is a member of the Harvard Student Labor Action Movement.