By Kathleen Contivia The Boston GlobeAfter a 12-hour marathon bargaining session and with just two hours before a midnight deadline for a threatened janitors’ strike, the workers who clean Tufts University and the school’s maintenance contractor reached a four-year tentative agreement Monday night.About 200 Tufts janitors will see their hourly wages increase to $21.55 from $19.35 over the next four years, if the janitors ratify the contract. The workers’ union also received a commitment from contractor C&W Services to create more full-time positions over the life of the contract.
The Newton-based maintenance contractor also agreed to increases to the workers’ pension and training funds, and to provide health insurance at no additional cost to members who work full time, according to a spokesman for 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, which represents the workers.The janitors are scheduled to vote on the agreement Wednesday.
“This is a good agreement that opens a path to the middle class for hardworking men and women who are an indispensable part of the Tufts community,” said Roxana Rivera, vice president of 32BJ SEIU.C&W Services, a division of brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield, said in a statement they are pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with the union.“We’ve bargained in good faith and offered a fair and comprehensive package to our employees,” the company said in a statement. “We are pleased that the Union leadership has accepted this offer and will present it to their membership for ratification.”
A spokesman for Tufts, which was not involved in the negotiations, said in a statement that the school is thankful a tentative agreement “that is fair for all parties” was reached.“As always, we value C&W janitors’ contributions to our community, and we look forward to their continued presence on our campus,” said spokesman Patrick Collins.Last week, the janitors unanimously voted to authorize a strike if an agreement with C&W Services wasn’t reached by the end of Monday, when their contract was set to expire. The tentative agreement averted a strike that could have potentially started Tuesday. Tufts announced it had a contingency plan in place if its janitors walked off the job.The agreement does not include language the union sought that would have addressed workers’ concerns over excessive workloads they said were caused by a restructuring of services at the university last year that resulted in the layoffs of nine custodians and moving other workers to weekend shifts.Eugenio Villasante, spokesman for 32BJ SEIU, said while they will continue to make sure the janitors have a fair workload, the union considers C&W’s “strong commitment to create full time jobs” a victory for the workers.About 60 percent of the janitors who maintain the campus straddling Somerville and Medford work full-time, according to 32BJ SEIU.The two sides had been in negotiations since August.
