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The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents St. Joe’s cleaners, has reached a tentative agreement with the cleaning and maintenance company Arthur Jackson to increase the cleaners’ hourly wage rates at St. Joe’s. According to Traci Benjamin, SEIU’s communications specialist for local 32BJ, the agreement now has to be ratified by union members.
Rose Weldon, a member of St. Joe’s cleaning staff since 2001, said she was told by her union representative on Oct. 18 that hourly wages for St. Joe’s cleaners would be raised to the same rate as workers across the city within four years.
Currently, 32BJ workers contracted to workplaces at other locations in Philadelphia earn about $18 per hour, while workers at St. Joe’s earn less than $15 per hour.
The current lower hourly pay rate for St. Joe’s cleaners is the result of a “rider” in the contract between The Arthur Jackson Company and St. Joe’s.
“I’m excited,” Weldon said during her lunch break in Bellarmine Hall. “It’s a long time coming. I’m just excited they are going to do the right thing.”
According to Benjamin, details of the tentative wage agreement for St. Joe’s cleaning staff have not yet been released “because the workers have not had an opportunity to get the full ratification where they come in and discuss the contract and the changes.”
The St. Joe’s agreement comes after 32BJ SEIU reached an initial, tentative agreement for all 32BJ members with The Arthur Jackson Company’s representative, Building Operations Labor Relations (BOLR) on Oct. 15, averting a potential strike. Union members have yet to ratify this agreement as well, Benjamin said.
Weldon was elected 32BJ shop steward in 2008, which means she serves as the representative for the approximately 50 cleaners who work on St. Joe’s campus and are represented by the SEIU.
Weldon attributed the tentative agreement to a rally held on campus on Oct. 10, where St. Joe’s faculty, staff and students joined 32BJ members and advocated for the cleaners to receive wages equal to Arthur Jackson workers elsewhere in Philadelphia.
“Everyone now knows what’s been going on for so many years,” Weldon said. “They know now that it’s not going to go away, and it’s still not going to go away [until the agreement is finalized].”
Weldon said the support from members of the university community makes her emotional.
“The day of that rally, I saw so much compassion and so much caring,” Weldon said. “I talk to a lot of people here and I know how they feel, but it stretched beyond those that I knew personally.”
The rally was organized by 32BJ SEIU with the support of Hawks for Just Employment, a student organization advocating for workers’ rights on campus.
After the rally, Stephanie Crispell ’20, a leader of Hawks for Just Employment, delivered a petition with 84 signatures to university President Mark C. Reed, Ed.D, calling for the university to stand with its workers. Reed was not in his office, but his assistant received the petition on his behalf.
In an email response to questions from The Hawk, Gail Benner, public relations director at St. Joe’s, said, “the university has been following the living and prevailing wage issues for some time” and recommendations for how to proceed are expected to be complete by Spring 2020.
“The Just Employment Ad Hoc Committee was formed by university mandate in 2018 and is developing a proposal to inform the university’s approach to living wage, which could include a recommendation for how we negotiate future contracts,” Benner wrote in the email. “In addition, a holistic and comprehensive compensation review, spearheaded by Human Resources, started this past summer.”
Joy Woodall has been a member of the St. Joe’s cleaning staff for 19 years, cleaning residences such as LaFarge Hall, Sourin Hall, Lannon and Rashford Apartments. Woodall said she is living paycheck to paycheck, so a higher wage would do “so much more.”
“We really do a lot around here, especially during the summer,” Woodall said. “In the summer we’re doing stoves, refrigerators, tubs, the whole thing, and we still get paid the same amount.”
According to Weldon, the St. Joe’s community is “compassionate, caring and attentive” to the point where she receives cards on her birthday and holidays.
Still, Weldon said she believes she and her coworkers “deserve what they deserve” in terms of wages. She emphasized that once the tentative agreement is finalized, “It’ll be better.”
“It’s only a couple more dollars, but it’ll be better living,” Weldon said. “I’ll be able to do a little something, save a little something. I’ll be looking at my check, and I’ll be happy.”
Luke Malanga ’20 and Cara Smith ’21 contributed to this story.