But last Tuesday, the school district emailed the union with a message: The staffing crisis is so severe that the district “is not on track to hire enough custodians to cover fall cleaning tasks.” To backfill empty positions, the district would put out a bid to hire non-union custodial and cafeteria workers “on an as-needed basis,” signing new contracts as “temporary, stop-gap measures to the staffing crisis.
The school district’s email to the union said it would begin accepting proposals today, Sep. 25. The contracts would start on Nov. 20 at the earliest.The union, in its response, pointed to a clause in itsstipulating that the school district “shall not subcontract bargaining unit services” by certain workers, including “custodial services, student nutritional services” — the two units outsourced in the request for proposal.
Anthony Mills, a custodial supervisor who has been with the district for 12 years, called the move “mismanagement” by the district after failing to hire permanent, union workers. He said the use of lower-paid, temporary workers could become more common as the district struggles with its finances. “It’s a big threat because once they get this first batch of people in, they’ll just push us all the way out the door,” he said. “That kind of labor comes cheap right there, so you can hire and fire a person very, very quick with that kind of management.”
School district custodians are already paid less than their counterparts in city government: A city custodian has a base salary of
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