Thursday Thirteen #115: Thirteen Reasons why you should support the custodians of SEIU Local 503 in their struggle for a fair contract with Portland Public Schools
The school custodians in my children’s school district, Portland Public Schools, have gotten a raw deal. First they all got fired. Then they got hired back (years later, after most had found other permanent work). Now comes the district with an offer, that isn’t an offer at all, it’s an insult: You’re getting a thirty-percent pay cut.
People, life does not have to suck. Stand up for yourselves and stand up for others. Here is a guest post from Anne T., one of my political friends from Portland, Ore.:
Thirteen Reasons why you should support the custodians of SEIU Local 503 in their struggle for a fair contract with Portland Public Schools. You can start by signing the petition at SEIU Local 503’s site. Or you can write or call the board yourself. Or go to a board meeting and speak in support of the custodians. Or all of the above.
1. “Portland Public Schools spent $9,700 (in one month) on interim superintendent Ed Schmitt, who’s telecommuting from Australia for four weeks—without actually working. ” (Note: That’s $60.62/hour and he’s not doing anything.)
– Beth Slovic 10-17-07 Willlamette Week
2. “….let us keep the issues where they are. The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers.”
– from Martin Luther King Jr.’s final speech
3. “When you say fiscal responsibility, it seems to me that you really mean rich people keeping their money.”
– Alice Adams
4. “If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts.”
— Molly Ivins
5. “The essence of trade unionism is social uplift. The labor movement has been the haven for the dispossessed, the despised, the neglected, the downtrodden, the poor.”
— A. Philip Randolph
6. “The labor movement means just this: It is the last noble protest of the American people against the power of incorporated wealth.”
– Wendell Phillips
7. “An injury to one is an injury to all”
– The Wobblies aka International Workers of the World
8. “Those… who are disruptive of the educational setting or who endanger the safety of others will receive corrective counseling and be subject to disciplinary sanctions.”
– Portland Public Schools Policy 4.30.010 (Ed. note: Does this policy apply to management? Because I have a few people I want to turn in.)
9. Custodians routinely clean up old food, vomit, urine, feces, and worst of all, glitter.
10. The school sizes have grown, thanks to Vicki Phillips’ vision, while the number of custodians has been cut.
11. Cathy Mincberg, PPS’s Chief Financial Officer and a key figure in this custodian’s contract is known quite well for her anti-union views. While in Houston she lobbied the legislature to “remove all teacher hearing rights and eliminate teacher contracts.”
12. Have you ever been a custodian or a house cleaner or a mother? Then you know that these people deserve a raise and better working conditions instead of the drastic cuts proposed by PPS management.
And because this is Wacky Mommy’s site I had to include this quote:
13. “We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure.”
– Cesar Chavez
Thanks for the inspiration from all those leaders who have gone before us.
Wow, you have a fight going. Best of luck, my prayers are with you all there’s not much more important then education for our children.
October 18th, 2007 | #
Anyone who has to clean up glitter for a living deserves a raise, not a pay cut.
October 18th, 2007 | #
And because over 100 years ago, Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves.
You know, the more distasteful a job is to you, the more you should pay a person to do it.
October 18th, 2007 | #
great lsit, happy Thursday. Custodians do the dirty work adn they deserve a raise
October 18th, 2007 | #
I support all unions. They have had a real uphill battle especially with employers wanting to cut health benefits. I don’t live in Portland but if I did I’d be on the phone supporting those custodians.
October 18th, 2007 | #
Wow. You really put a lot of thought into this post. You should really be proud of yourself! This is a great way to spread the word and hopefully bring about some change for these hardworking people! Kudos!
October 18th, 2007 | #
I will pass those compliments along to Miss Anne! We posted late cuz she was working so hard on it.
October 18th, 2007 | #
It’s unbelievable how much these guys have been jerked around by the district. PPS has a pattern of low-balling the unions with smaller work forces. They just tried this with the maintenance workers, and eventually coughed up 1% a year.
Meanwhile, our kids go to schools where drinking fountains and soap dispensers don’t work, and the custodial staff has been cut to the bone.
Wake up PPS! You’re cutting off your nose to spite your face!
October 18th, 2007 | #
Good going, Anne, you closet radical! Why don’t you write something like this for me? If I lined up enough guest bloggers, I wouldn’t have to do anything. Writing’s hard work, you know.
Except I don’t do TT’s.
October 18th, 2007 | #
“glitter”..the absolute worst thing to clean up. The custodians are the hardest working people I know. Here’s a quote from “Weeds”..when asked why she was broke all the time…one of the characters said…”WHY! Because I’m working a middle class job in the Bush economy.” The custodians, at $10 an hour won’t even qualify for middle class….Poverty level perhaps. And paying more for their health care,too, rest assured. Only ones left to ream now are the teachers…stay tuned for that one.
October 18th, 2007 | #
And I thought Ruidoso was bad!
October 18th, 2007 | #
When I was student teaching (music) 25 years ago, I remember my mentor teacher said, “When you get your first job, make sure you make friends with the custodian. You are going to need his help every time you have a concert.”
I never forgot that. When I walked into my son’s school last spring and saw a reinstated PPS custodian (I recognized his PPS ID badge), I almost cried, because for me he represented my former colleagues finally being made whole after the District had screwed them over so badly. Marriages and families broke up because of that illegal layoff. And now this. PPS truly has no shame!
October 18th, 2007 | #
I hope enough people in your area complain about this and can bring about change.
I just wanted to let you know you’ve been gifted with a ’sweet treat’ over at my blog!
October 18th, 2007 | #
A year or two after the custodians were fired and replaced by contract workers I spoke to a parent who had been touring schools for Kindergarten. She decided not to send her child to public school because during a school tour she noticed the bathrooms were so dirty she felt it was unhealthy. I’m so glad we have PPS custodians back and I’m thankful to see the support they are getting from parents and teachers during their contract negotiations. Thank you to Anne and Nancy for publicizing the petitiion, and to everyone else who has signed it!
October 18th, 2007 | #
Have you read anything by Han Suyin? Get the “crippled tree” “a mortal flower” and the other one, I can’t remember and I am supposed to be working… The trilogy is out of print, but still available. It documents Chinese history, but is not at all tedious or hard to read. She tells her own family history, her childhood and adult story. Her writing style is beautiful, and it is one of the things I have read that made me realise that “history will teach us nothing”. Or is it, “history repeats itself?”
October 19th, 2007 | #
YOU ROCK!!! You know I am currently working for another local of that purple union, right? Those janitors work so hard, they deserve our support. I heart you!
October 19th, 2007 | #
Mallory,
You’re right, I do rock. I, too, am a member of SEIU Local 503. (When I am Gainfully-Employed Government Worker, that is.)
October 19th, 2007 | #
Offering a pay cut like that is disgraceful.
October 19th, 2007 | #
You’ve convinced me! Best of luck!
Thanks for visiting my fungi TT.
October 20th, 2007 | #