Justice for Stanford Janitors

To: Stanford University, UGL UNICCO Janitorial Services

Justice for Stanford Janitors

We the undersigned members of the Stanford community have recently become aware of an injustice against workers at Stanford University. As many as 70 workers are at risk of being unjustly fired or losing their seniority and benefits. UNICCO, a staffing agency, won the recent contract bid to replace the previous staffing agency, ABM, beginning December 1st of this year. On November 10th, about half of the 148 janitors working under ABM received letters saying they may not continue working for Stanford under UNICCO. UNICCO has encouraged many of the workers who received this letter to reapply for work, but as new workers, without seniority, and therefore with lower wages and benefits.

This is unacceptable. Workers should retain their employment and the wages and benefits associated with their seniority rights through a subcontracting transition. UNICCO and Stanford are blatantly violating the Northern California Maintenance Contractors Agreement with Service Employees International Union, Local 1877, the union that represents the workers. The agreement states that the incoming Employer shall recognize the work time and overall employment service of all permanent employees retained at the job location... for all purposes including seniority, sick leave and vacation benefits, so that no employee will lose any such benefits because of the change of Employers.

We love our current janitors. Many of them have been working at Stanford for 10-15+ years, and we really appreciate all the hard work they do. They are an integral part of the Stanford community and should not be punished because of a transition in subcontractors. We demand that Stanford and UNICCO continue the employment of all the janitors currently employed by ABM with the same seniority, wages, and benefits that they held under ABM.