School staff say Recovery School District has failed them

By Zoe Sullivan
Contributing Writer

Purple t-shirts, many with a variation of the classic “Rosie the Riveter” image showing white, Latina and Black women flexing their biceps, clustered in the shade next to the Recovery School District’s (RSD) main building on the morning of May 8. The crowd of mostly women held signs with the Service Employees Inter­national Union (SEIU) logo and slogans such as “part-time wages don’t pay full-time bills.” The crowd of union members, labor advocates and community activists had come to support 12 custodial workers who were fired on May 1. According to a press release from the union, 10 of these custodians had been cleaning schools for at least five years.

Aramark, the Pennsylvania-based firm that took over the contract to clean RSD schools in April, did not respond directly to questions emailed by The Louisiana Weekly about the working conditions described by the union members and the circumstances of their termination. The company’s spokes­person, Karen Cutler, did offer the following statement: “All of our employment decisions are fully compliant with the terms and conditions of the union’s collective bargaining agreement. As such, the union was aware of the recent decisions made with regard to these employees, and is also aware of our intention to replace all 12 full-time positions.”

SEIU President Helene O’Brien told The Louisiana Weekly that when Aramark took over the contract from the previous company, Sodexo, “[these workers] were transferred directly over from Sodexo. They retained their positions, they retained their wa­ges…and that was important to do because the transition happened in the middle of a school year.” Recognizing that an argument could be made for firing on poor work performance, O’Brien also underlined that “our union contract did not make it very hard to fire bad performers. If someone is sleeping on the job, they will lose their job.”

The firing gave the union an opportunity to highlight issues that other school workers are experiencing with Aramark. In her speech during the rally, O’Brien explained that RSD cafeteria workers now have to contend with part-time positions, some of which require a split shift that begins at 8am and ends at 9, starting again an hour or two later.

Recovery School District spokes­person Kizzy Payton responded to email inquiries about the situation explaining that Aramark had been selected over the previous firm based on price and quality. Asked whether the RSD would intervene with Aramark on behalf of the workers, Payton responded that: “the discussion is between SEIU and Aramark. The Recovery School District does not have a position on this matter.”

“What did we do wrong? I never had a write-up. I never had none of that,” former custodian Kim Lewis told The Louisiana Weekly. She went on, explaining the custodians’ significance to the school children: “we’re not just custodians. You’re not just destroying our lives, you’re destroying the children’s lives, too.”

One of Lewis’s former colleagues, Nicole Molette agreed. “You tell us that we have to be screened and background checked, yet…you let these temps come in…you don’t know who you letting around the kids. They could be convicted rapists.”

This article was originally published in the May 14, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper