The University's Campaign for Justice for the Miami Superintendent is a nine-week strike that runs from 28 February to 3 May 2006. It features a prominent custodial worker at Miami University in Coral Gables, Florida challenging UNICCO (a company that provides maintenance, facility management, and cleaning and cleaning services for industrial facilities, offices, retail, and education). Workplace action focuses on achieving fair wages, affordable health insurance, and better working conditions for employees of Employee Service Employee (SEIU) employees.
Video University of Miami Justice for Janitors campaign
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Before the strike at UM, a Boston-based company, UNICCO (now UGL Limited), has attracted negative attention for some of its business practices. From 1999-2001, four deaths and one serious injury to UNICCO employees were reported in separate incidents, and in 2003, two employees were killed in an incident at work in Boston. Investigation of these incidents indicates that UNICCO violated various workplace standards and resulted in the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health placing UNICCO on the "Dozen Gross Work Safety and Safety Report." The 1999-2000 salary survey conducted by Chronicle for Higher Education found UM custodial workers to be the second lowest in payments ($ 13,120/year) and UM to one of only 12 universities among the 195 surveyed whose custodial wages did not exceed the poverty line US federal.
David Liberman, senior vice president for business and finance at UM at the time, stated, "we do not ask any questions about their business... [and] allow them to pay whatever they want to pay as long as they can recruit and retain workers , and still make money at the end of the day. "
In response to this report, the UM Faculty Senate began addressing this issue in October 2001. In two separate resolutions, adopted on 24 October and 12 December of that year, the faculty senate recommended to President UM Donna Shalala that the university needs to change the policy for the company that provides labor contract. This recommendation was not taken into consideration at the time.
Maps University of Miami Justice for Janitors campaign
Campaign
The formal organization of public hygiene workers by the International Service Workers Union (SEIU) began in February 2005. SEIU has been the main organizer of the "Justice for Janitors" campaign. SEIU sought help from South Florida Interfaith Worker Justice (SFIWJ) at the start of a campaign in Florida, which marked the start of an important partnership between religious movements and organizations. During the fall of 2005, the allies were found in the group, Students Toward a New Democracy (STAND), which sought to "create an activist culture within a historically apathetic student body." To improve the ability of STAND, SEIU took students from Harvard (who previously conducted a successful three-week wage campaign), and students from Georgetown University to help teach organizational tactics to UM students.
Attack and protest
After the majority of them agreed on an unfair practice strike against UNICCO on February 26, 2006, janitors officially broke down. To show solidarity with striking workers, more than a hundred UM professors and faculty held off-campus classes in places such as churches, homes and even parks so as not to disrupt campaign campaigns. Of the 200 UM janitorial staff, SEIU reported that about half participated in the strike early on. UNICCO, however, denied this claim, confirming that the SEIU exaggerated the numbers, and that 148 of the 206 workers had reported to work the previous day. At the same time SEIU announced that notification of a ten-day strike has been issued to UM medical school, with the potential for addition of 200 janitors for action work.
On March 28, members of the campaign launched a two-pronged action in an attempt to gain media attention. First, a group of seventeen people (composed of union members, students, clergy, and community members) formed a human chain along Route 1 of the US outside the UM campus, blocking traffic. When these seventeen were arrested, another group (consisting of seventeen students and ministers of the campus) occupied the Ashe Building which became the UM receiving office. After a thirteen-hour occupation, Shalala agreed to meet with students, workers and SEIU.
Fasting at Freedom Village
Beginning April 5, the campaign features a hunger strike and fasting (held in "Merdeka Village" - the name given to the campaign's campaign base). The hunger strike began with workers, some of whom had previously participated in hunger strikes in their former Cuban home country. In addition to eight workers, seven students joined the hunger strike. SEIU initially opposed this form of protest because of the obvious health implications involved, but as they began to support the idea of ​​a hunger strike, they also provided nurses in the Freedom Village to monitor the safety of their fast. After more than two weeks, some people who took part in the strike were hospitalized. Instead of ending a hunger strike altogether, the leaders decided to recruit others to fast (such as SEIU president Andy Stern and executive vice president Eliseo Medina). The UM strike strike attracted national attention, including visits by some political leaders and laborers outside the city to support the strike. Prominent people such as President of South Christian Leadership Conference John Edwards; Teamster President James P. Hoffa; and civil rights leader Charles Steele, Jr. make a campus visit to show support.
strike resolution
On May 1, 2006, it was announced that UNICCO and SEIU had reached agreement that an independent American Arbitration Association (AAA) would determine whether or not the majority of UNICCO's super-guards at UM wanted to unionize. UNICCO finally agreed to use a check card check (as opposed to the secret ballot system they originally did for lobbying). The agreement establishes a code of ethics governing how both employers and unions will interact with workers during the process. The two sides agreed not to interfere with the workers' decisions as to whether they would form a union or not.
Agreement
SEIU received super-majority approval (over 60%) from 425 UNICCO workers at Jackson Memorial Hospital UM and UM for association. The UM cleaners returned to work on May 3, 2006, signaling the end of their nine-week attack. After the vote, the janitor of UM Maritza Perez (who had worked for UNICCO for eleven years) said, "I will return [work] with my head held high, protected by a rare union name in the state of Florida."
University response
On January 17, 2006, when the SEIU began to step up efforts at the MW, Shalala's president issued a statement addressing the university's non-official application rules. His letter emphasizes the university's commitment to remain neutral on labor issues between UNICCO and SEIU. As the movement began to gain significant momentum by the end of March, UM announced a new policy setting higher standards for companies contracted by universities. This results in a minimum wage setting of $ 8.00 per hour; recognition of the performance and duration of service on the pay scale; and affordable health insurance offerings to university employees. In a April 12 press release (after the administration's raid by protesters), Shalala condemned the demonstrators' actions, stating: "It is a STAND student organization that conveys the message that [the outside demonstrators] are not welcome on campus today."
Response by the government agency of the University
The strike was the subject of several movements by university government agencies, including those passed on 28 March by the Faculty Senate, which urged the MW to establish that its contractors provided decent wages, health insurance and a fair workplace. The resolution further states that should the UNICCO contract not be extended by the MW, that successful bidders should hire workers currently employed by UNICCO at UM. Another resolution, this one by UM Student Government, is the mandate of 19 April "strongly" disagreeing with recent campus disruption by some pro-strike organizations (ACORN, JWJ, SEIU, and STAND), and who asked them to end the interruption soon. Actions by these groups are mentioned in resolutions including UM student harassment, class disruption taught by Shalala, unauthorized entry on private property, and "damaging the back door of the Ashe Building with graffiti".
Results affect employees
In addition to the SEIU selected as a MW union, the preliminary policy changes adopted by MW at the end of March 2006 were maintained, along with some additional improvements.
Student self-discipline
About 20 University of Miami students allegedly involved in pro-union activities received official notice to appear before a university Dean for allegedly that they were being investigated for "major offenses". The SEIU Representative requested an amnesty for the students as part of a negotiated settlement on May 1, but was informed that the request was non-negotiable.
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