Workers who service Howard facilities and the Service Employees International Union (32BJ SEIU) protested layoffs and working conditions during their lunch break last week in front of the Mordecai Wyatt Johnson Administration Building. A group of students gathered in support of the workers in below-freezing temperatures.
On Feb. 20, workers, including carpenters, plumbers and electricians, are now contracted under Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis (CBRE) after being with Thompson Hospitality for nearly ten years. According to the workers, the third-party contractor under Howard, CBRE, made layoffs and changed workers’ healthcare plans.
In an email sent to the university through The Office of University Communications, Rashad M. Young, senior vice president and chief administrative officer, expressed that the university respects and appreciates union and union-represented workers.
“The SEIU members involved in these negotiations are not employees of Howard University and the university has no role in the negotiations between CBRE and the SEIU,” Young said.
Young asserted that the university recognized the worker’s self-advocacy.
“We respect the rights of the unions and union-represented workers to advocate for their interests. We encourage all participants to engage on our campus in a manner that is safe and respectful of our campus community,” Young said
CBRE declined to comment on the protest, citing commentary restrictions that pertain to “active negotiations.”
32BJ SEIU is a workers’ union with more than 175,000 members in 12 states and D.C., according to its website. Their mission is to work toward a diverse, effective, politically independent, and democratic organization of workers to change lives for the better and improve their communities.
Julie Karant, SEIU media representative, said CBRE fired seven of the longest-serving workers in February and replaced “their quality affordable health insurance with an unaffordable plan.”
“CBRE even demanded the fired employees be escorted off campus, some of whom are sick with cancer as they lose their health insurance,” Karant said.
Following the layoffs, the remaining workers said they are left to work harder and longer hours, servicing over what they said were 60 buildings on Howard’s east and west campuses, along with other buildings Howard maintains around Washington, D.C.
The workers exposed the layoffs, stating they went from having three locksmiths to one, and eight plumbers to two. According to the workers, the University currently has three electricians. CBRE did not confirm these numbers in time for publication.
Terrance Bates, a plumber, said that for the last three weeks, he and his coworker, Raj Sims, have worked 15-hour shifts, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Sims, the lead plumber, said that emergencies like bursting water lines are more likely to occur in extremely cold weather. Consequently, a plumber’s job is potentially 24 hours, and all of the Howard facilities rely on just him and Bates.
Sims spoke about the consequences of CBRE’s layoffs. He said he spends most of his hours at work away from his family.
“We have to extend our hours and be away from our families. I have a newborn. I’m away from my wife and my 17-year-old because I had to cover somebody’s contractual obligation for the client who’s not showing me any love,” Sims said.
Bernard Hackett, the union representative, said that the workers simply ask for fair treatment under the contracting company.
“It’s not that we’re saying—give us something that we don’t deserve. We’re asking for the things we need to be able to provide what you all as students need,” Hackett said.
Hackett also addressed the possible consequences of contractor layoffs.
“If you have a cold building, if you have a building that has issues with the water, these are the guys that do this work, and if they don’t have enough people to actually do the work, how long would it take to get heat in your building? How long would it take for you to have the proper running water inside the buildings that you use?” Hackett said.
Curtis added that along with the layoffs and healthcare swap, CBRE is not supporting current workers.
“We need material, they are not buying material for us,” he said. “They’re trying to work us extra hard knowing that we don’t have the support that we need with extra manpower.”
Hackett said that when the union planned the protest, it was important to them that Howard students were involved. He said they have seen the various actions that students have been involved in over the years.
SEIU asked students to sign a board that displayed their slogan, “I AM A MAN,” to show solidarity.
“I AM A MAN,” has been used for civil and workers’ rights for decades. The slogan is recognized from the sanitation strike in 1968, which brought Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis.
Hackett spoke about the social significance of the slogan and its importance within activism.
“We wanted to bring the same concept to the university students and the community at large, and we wanted to use the same slogan that they did then,” Hackett said.
Hackett went on to speak about the slogan’s simplicity, and what it represents.
“It wasn’t about money and it wasn’t about frivolous things to working families, but it was simply them being looked at as ‘I AM A MAN,’” Hackett said.
Current students and tours of prospective students passed by the protest, and some signed the board to show solidarity. Around ten students stayed and listened to the workers share their stories.
Maxwell Long-Craine, an Africana studies major from Houston, Texas, came out to support the workers. He said he recognized that workers support students like him by keeping their facilities running.
David Green is a junior political science major from Connecticut. Green stressed the importance of worker solidarity in the fight against administrative and executive power.
“The real threat to worker solidarity, to workers’ standard of living and their fair wages is going to be that administrative power, that executive power, that controls the money, that controls the funding, and that’s making the decisions,” Green said.
Copy edited by Camiryn Stepteau
