Rumors amongst the custodial staff at Tufts University of potential job cuts prompted many student activists at the university to take action.

Members of the group known as the Tufts Labor Coalition and other students to take staged a sit-in on Dec. 9, 2014, which lasted to the evening hours of the next day.

Vice President for Operations Linda Snyder and Patricia Campbell, executive vice president at Tufts released an announcement, “Custodial Services at Tufts,” in November, which outlined the current status of the recently signed contract between Tufts and DTZ, the outside contractor for Tufts janitors.

“When we eventually have an actionable plan, DTZ will put forth its best efforts to ensure that custodians whose positions at Tufts are adversely affected by the moves toward more full-time workers or increased efficiency will receive full consideration for other openings within DTZ,” Snyder and Campbell said in the release.

The Tufts Labor Coalition, which stemmed from the Jumbo Janitor Alliance that was already present on campus, expanded about five years ago to support all labor struggles and create a sense of community between the workers and the students, said Lior Appel-Kraut, president of the coalition and a sophomore at Tufts.

The mission of the TLC over the past semester has been to express to the university administration that there “should not be job cuts” and to pressure the administration to release information on the affair, Appel-Kraut said.

“Janitors were afraid because there was no hard info,” she said.

Prior to the sit-in, an agreement was reached between the Tufts Labor Coalition and the university administration, Appel-Kraut said.

Although the administration did not promise complete job security for janitors in the future, there was a small victory for the labor coalition in the form of no cuts being made to the staff until at least April, Appel-Kraut said.

Other changes besides labor cuts have come to the attention of the TLC in light of the recent events, including issues such as janitors having to do more intense work expanding over larger areas, Appel-Kraut added.

Outside of the sit-in event that was happening, other students organized outside rallies to continue to gather support and raise awareness for the issue at hand, said TLC member Nicole Joseph, a first-year student at Tufts and an organizer of the rallies.

The rallies were planned in advance, and although rain and unfortunate weather put a damper on the activity on the first day of the sit-in, that did not stop the group from rallying three or four times on the second day of the protests, said Joseph.

At the rallies, students and janitors joined forces in attracting attention to the cause by using noisemakers, megaphones and even chants in both Spanish and English so that everyone was involved, Joseph said. Janitors even brought tents to the event to stay with the students and really become involved with the events organized by the TLC, and janitors from the Boston campus also came to participate in the rally.

A huge goal of the protests was to raise awareness of the issue, and by storming social media and organizing these events, the TLC achieved the support of their fellow students as well as the attention of the administration, said Joseph.

“I wanted to make sure that people were getting involved and showing support,” Joseph said.

In the upcoming semester, meetings will be held every two weeks with the school’s administration to discuss planning and how the relationship with janitorial staff is progressing as April is approaching, Appel-Kraut said. In addition, open forums with students and DTZ, in which feedback is to be expected and future plans discussed, will be held.

TLC plans to keep the administration accountable in the upcoming months, as well as compiling a list of other ways to cut the budget if the situation calls for it, Appel-Kraut said.

“I’m hopeful,” Joseph said. “It’s been evolving.”

Published on January 15, 2015 at 12:01 am

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