Construction workers have suffered untold trauma over the past year, including the loss of employees due to the coronavirus. This new treaty recognizes the value of our work and the pain of our victims, she said. New York City public school staff oversee 1,500 school buildings across the city and have been instrumental in cleaning and disinfecting school buildings during the pandemic. Several other energetic and powerful unions, including Teamsters Joint Council 16, Local 1199SEIU and IUOE Local 94, as well as a group of elected officials, made it clear at the march and rally on Sixth Avenue earlier this week that they were fully prepared to support the cleaners at 32BJ Construction Services if they went on strike. 32BJ entered into the new contract with the employees` employer, New York City School Support Services (NYCSSS), less than two weeks before the contract expired on 30 June. She has worked in all schools in Moorestown`s public system, but this year she worked at William Allen Middle School as a senior housekeeper and responsible for all the keys to the school. While students and teachers were 100% remote, school cleaners and artisans maintained buildings to serve as COVID testing sites and daycares and food distribution centers. The school board voted this summer to end its agreement with a union operator for care services and end jobs held primarily by Latinos who have worked there for decades. 32BJ expects members to formally ratify the new treaty by the end of January. New York, NY – More than 20,000 construction workers across the city will remain on duty throughout the holiday season after their union and the organization that represents landowners and contractors reached an agreement in principle on a new four-year contract Friday. Ortega and all the other workers continued to clean up the schools while they were closed during the pandemic and during the summer. She took only one month off when her first son was born in March 2020 and returned at the end of April.
She was still working in the months most affected by COVID-19, even though she had a newborn at home. Last May, the Burlington County School District began offering the clean-up contract, a process it conducts every four years. Four companies offer this year – two companies with unionized workers and two without unions – and out of 28. In June, for the first time in decades, the school district decided to award the contract to Healthcare Services Group, a Bensalem-based company that employs non-unionized workers who bid at low prices, said Luz Gã¡rate, district director and complaints manager at the Service Employees International Union. Local 32BJ. In addition, the new contract also provides better language for protection against sexual harassment and discrimination, as well as an annual premium of $500 for workers who need to operate boilers, hydrants or sprinkler systems in buildings of 55,000 square feet or less. The workers were represented in the negotiations by the 32BJ union, based at 25 West 18th Street, New York, NY, 100011. With 175,000 members in 11 states, including 85,000 in New York, 32BJ SEIU is the nation`s largest union of real estate service providers. Shirley Aldebol, vice president of 32BJ and director of the New York City School Department, said that at the height of the pandemic, school cleaners and artisans were entering covered school buildings from head to toe with personal protective equipment, risking their lives and those of their families. The tentative agreement came after construction workers at 32BJ marched down Sixth Avenue and voted on Wednesday, Dec.
18, to approve an industry-wide strike if no agreement was reached before the existing contract expired at the end of the year. «While students and teachers were 100 percent remote, school cleaners and artisans were maintaining buildings that were to be used as COVID testing sites and childcare and food distribution centers,» Aldebol said. «I am very pleased that we have been able to secure long-awaited contract enhancements to show the more than 5,000 school cleaners and artisans the respect and appreciation they deserve, which is in line with their sacrifices over the past year.» At the height of the pandemic, school cleaners and artisans entered school buildings covered from head to toe with personal protective equipment, risking their lives and those of their families, she said. In times of pandemic, health insurance is more important than ever, but for Ortega, who was the main provider of his household and provided medical care to his family with his job in schools, losing his insurance also meant losing access to his prenatal exams. After months of searching for answers, the union will meet with the school board on Wednesday to discuss the layoffs. The union is asking the district to renew the contract and put all workers back in their jobs. «All I wanted for Christmas was a strong new contract, not just for my family, but for the families of all my siblings in the union, and I`m so glad we have it now,» Kristinia Bellamy, a building cleaner and member of the bargaining committee, said in a statement. Felix de los Santos, 57, a maintenance worker at Moorestown High School, says they had changed companies three times during his 12 years working in the school system and were all interested in retaining existing staff. The new contract includes the establishment of a new protocol to resolve workplace issues, an increase in employee contributions to the Supplementary Retirement Savings Plan (SRSP) by $0.09/hour for a total of $0.59/hour, and an agreement to require the DOE to post job offers in the buildings, as well as sending emails to members in the building. in which vacancies or newly created positions occur.
In addition, the new contract also provides better language for protection against sexual harassment and discrimination, as well as an annual premium of $500 for workers who need to operate boilers, hydrants or sprinkler systems in buildings of 55,000 square feet or less. School construction staff play a crucial role in cleaning and disinfecting school buildings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they continued to work, even though schools were closed for face-to-face teaching, and took on additional tasks to implement enhanced disinfection protocols to combat the novel coronavirus. The starting salary for cleaners in NYC public school buildings is $27.87 per hour and $30.45 per hour for artisans, and both receive family health benefits paid by the employer and a pension fund. According to 32BJ vice president Kevin Brown, this happened because the Moorestown School District did not give «instructions» to the companies that applied for the maintenance contract to maintain salaries and benefits. Brown said new businesses in New Jersey typically retain school district workers because it`s convenient. State law requires every school worker to pass a security clearance from the New Jersey State Police, and because existing workers have already been selected, it`s easier for companies to continue their jobs. Shirley Aldebol, vice president of 32BJ and director of the New York City School Division, said the long-awaited improvements to the contract show the more than 5,000 school cleaners and artisans the respect and appreciation they deserve, in line with their sacrifices over the past year.
On June 30, when the 27 unionized employees went to work in the schools, they were told that their contract would not continue and that they would have to hand over their identification and leave. The workers were employed by ABM in New York. Previous companies that had the maintenance contracts still kept the same workers, but not the new HCSG company, Gã¡rat said. This group of workers, all of whom were biPOC and mostly Latino — some who have been working in the school system for two decades — lost their jobs. De los Santos and many of his colleagues tried to apply again for his previous job in the same school system with the new company, but most did not hear from HCSG or were rejected. Only five workers have been able to get their jobs back so far, but with fewer benefits, de los Santos said. He has also looked for other jobs, but they don`t offer salaries as close to each other as before, or benefits. The Inquirer has contacted the HCSG and Moorestown Township Public Schools several times. An HCSG spokesman declined to comment. The Acting Principal of Moorestown and the School Board Secretary also did not respond to repeated calls for comment. When students in the six schools in moorestown Township`s public school district began classes on Sept. 8, 27 of their cleaners and caregivers had been laid off from their jobs, losing their income, health care and other basic services.
Donna Perez is a Queens-based artisan and said construction workers have gone through unspeakable trauma over the past year, including the loss of employees due to the coronavirus. «This new treaty recognizes the value of our work and the pain of our victims,» Perez said. «I am grateful to our union 32BJ for continuing to fight for us in difficult negotiations where we have not always felt respected by our employer. It feels good to be able to go to our colleagues now and tell them about the long list of contractual improvements we have been able to achieve. We needed this win after such a difficult year. Donna Perez, a craftswoman from Queens, said she was grateful to the union for making its way through difficult negotiations where we didn`t always feel respected by our employer, adding that after such a difficult year, school staff needed victories. .