College students joined custodians and union workers from area universities in Harvard Square on Friday afternoon to support Harvard University custodians who said they are earning less than custodians at neighboring universities.
Supported by custodians from Boston University, Boston College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard custodians demanded a better contract that includes higher wages and more hours.
People at the rally said even custodians who have worked at Harvard for many years are not receiving seniority benefits. Because they are only given part-time jobs at Harvard, they are forced to work multiple jobs to support themselves and their families.
Daniel Mejia, a Harvard custodian who works in a sociology building with 14 other custodians, said he can only work part-time at Harvard and also has to drive a hospital van to make ends meet.
“We’re looking for more opportunities for full-time jobs,” he said.
According to BU custodian Mike Gallagher, Harvard custodians make between $13.50 and $14.00 an hour, while custodians at BU, MIT and BC make about $17.75 an hour.
Many people who attended the rally said they could not understand how a school with what they said was a $26 billion endowment could pay their custodians less than $20 an hour and refuse full-time positions.
Gallagher said he came to the rally not only to support the Harvard workers, but because it was in BU’s interest as well.
“It could happen to us,” Gallagher said. “It lowers the standards for everybody.”
Harvard students marched alongside union workers with noisemakers and signs that read “Trick or Treat for Justice,” “Harvard Can Do Better,” “I Support Harvard Workers” and “¡Justicia Ahora!” [“Justice Now” in Spanish].
Harvard students have always been supportive of the custodians at their university, Gallagher said.
Harvard sophomore Jack Morley said he came to the rally on Friday to support higher wages for custodians and the right for Harvard custodians and security guards to unionize.
Harvard security guards work for Allied Barton Security Services, the third largest security company in the country, which only enables their workers to join unions of the company’s choice, said Lauren Jacobs, director of organizing for Service Employees International Union Local 615.
“They need to recognize the right of the officer to join a union of their choice,” she said. “This is a working-class community, and they can’t continue to have low-wage, dead-end jobs.”
SEIU Local 615 President Rocio Saenz said the union has 16,000 members in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.
Vice Mayor of Cambridge Marjorie Decker began her speech to the crowd with, “Shame, shame, shame, shame!”
Her words were translated in Spanish, and the crowd repeated them in unison.
“What is this really about?” she asked. “It can’t be about money, because Harvard is one of the richest places in the world.”
Decker said because of low wages, custodians are forced to choose between rent, food and heat.
“The right thing doesn’t always make [the] Harvard [administration] move,” she said. “Find a visible, vocal way to make them respond.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
