 "Photo: Jennifer Jansons")
The man in a blue uniform flicks on the light in an empty classroom in the building he cleans.
He sits on a desk. He speaks in Spanish of supervisors who spy on employees at break time, of buildings once cleaned by 18 people that now are cleaned by 12, of an older custodian who was told the department could find someone more physically capable. His voice breaks sometimes into ironic laughter; it sounds too loud because the quiet behind the closed door is rarely crossed by footsteps or other voices. This custodian could be wrong. Some of what he knows is gossip. He speaks only with the promise that his name and the name of the building he cleans won't be printed. Besides, UT officials say the custodial services department is not what it was: It's better to workers and more efficient than in 2000 and 2001.
Several night custodians worked with student and staff activists in those years to complain publicly about pay and working conditions, especially about having to work faster under a new campus-wide method called "team cleaning." The University Staff Association made the custodians' troubles their chief examples of how the University mistreats its workers. Mostly Hispanic students from organizations such as MEChA and Accion Zapatista protested at rallies and interviewed custodians about their problems. Because many of the custodians spoke only Spanish, the students also helped by translating grievance letters and sections of the UT employee handbook.
All of this gave the impression that custodial bosses had a messy closet to straighten.
Wages have risen since then. The cleaning process is more organized, more refined. Custodial Services even won four national awards for its cleaning program, training and communications, which one cleaning-industry journalist called "a great accomplishment." One can see why UT officials seem irritated when past conflicts are mentioned.
"I don't think you can look at the custodial environment today based on allegations that were made years ago," said Pat Clubb, vice president for Employee and Campus Services. "It's well-known that a number of years ago there were some issues when we were making a transition in the cleaning methods of some custodial workers.
"That was four years ago. Today we have an organization that is an award-winning organization."
The man in the blue uniform is not the only one complaining. An anonymous letter in May got UT officials to look at alleged mismanagement by the department head. Two former staff council members say custodians are not represented well in discussions between the the University's staff and its administration. A group of students, some of whom rallied for custodians four years ago, claims to be hearing now of harder work and lingering dissatisfaction.
"Every time I think about it, it still upsets me, you know, the way they were treated," said Josie Guerrero, a former 22-year custodian who, during the protests, was among the few who publicly spoke about their troubles. "It's not right. Its upsetting, you know, just to think about it - the way they treat them, the way they want them to work, the way they want to do cleaning."
Los jefes
A letter signed "all of custodial services staff" asked the UT System in May to investigate "demeaning mistreatment and harassing behavior" by the manager of custodial services, Sharon Burleson.
There was a letter before that in which employees complained to the human resources office. The University's response, according to the more recent letter, was to tell some of those involved to be quiet and do their jobs.
In fact, people in the department have whispered about their boss for some time. Steve Johnston, a former assistant manager under Burleson, wrote that custodial supervisors were meeting to share concerns about her in summer 2002. Joanna Castillo, a UT computer programmer who helped workers protest, said Burleson's name often came up in after-midnight meetings when the custodians unloaded their gripes as well.
Clubb held a series of "management meetings" concerning the May letter. She wouldn't say what the results of those meetings were or if anyone had been punished. Burleson declined to be interviewed for this story. She said by phone she doesn't know how satisfied employees are with management.
Most of Burleson's documented conflicts seem to imply a power struggle between her and lower supervisors. After six building supervisors met to talk about Burleson in summer 2002, they sought Johnston's advice, according to a letter he wrote. Johnston brought it up with Burleson's boss. While it isn't clear whether Burleson was aware of these meetings or not, Johnston's next annual evaluation was sharp.
"Steve often fails to keep his manager informed on a timely and effective basis," Burleson wrote in the evaluation. "He routinely leaves the manager out of the decision-making process and often chooses indirect methods to communicate important messages."
Johnston is gone. Two current supervisors are rumored to have written the letter to the System, which includes a statement listing Johnston and others as casualties of bad management.
Los empleados
Power in custodial services is a three-way tug-of-war. Custodians strain against the supervisors, who fight it out with Burleson. Of all the department's grievances since 2000, 15 grievants were custodians or custodial crew leaders and three were supervisors. While it is sometimes hard to tell who is the target of a grievance, only one of the custodians' complaints seems to be directly about Burleson. The rest involved other supervisors.
"Nobody would every come forward and bring any sort of grievance against her," said Castillo. "Part of all of this stuff was that the people involved were very afraid of retribution. ... It wasn't just Sharon Burleson. She was one of the key people that the custodians felt was kind of keeping them down."
According to Castillo and other observers, custodians will file grievances over only a small portion of the actions that offend them. For instance, a Texan open records request for custodial services grievances turned up nothing from one custodian who reported her supervisor to police in April for allegedly shoving her. One Staff Council member, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a few people always claim custodians are mistreated; the problem is, the custodians never come out and say so.
Representación
Castillo and Glen Worley, Staff Council chairman, both keep memorabilia from the University Staff Association in their offices: Castillo keeps a flier that reads, "Students support staff." Worley keeps a sign from a protest.
Shared experiences do not imply shared perspectives.
The staff association collected petitions, held meetings and talked to the press on custodians' behalf four years ago. It died out when Kyle Cavanaugh, the new associate vice president for human resources, established the Staff Council in 2001. This group promised regular campus-wide elections and the chance to be taken more seriously by the administration. The time for carrying signs had passed, Worley realized, and he ran for a seat. He was elected chairman in summer 2003.
"I felt like there should be more engagement with the administration and less confrontation," he said.
That "confrontation" was largely over custodians' issues. Some of the Staff Council felt the staff association had paid too much attention to custodial services and neglected more universal staff problems. Still, the situation could have worked to custodians' advantage. Two custodians sat on the first council. One of the group's first actions was an investigation into why the Physical Plant stationed police officers at a custodial staff meeting.
But it wasn't to their advantage. At least one of the custodial representatives resigned. The activist stances that helped the staff association were impractical for a deliberative body that followed formal rules of order.
"[Custodians thought] Staff Council was just another game that the University was running to keep the unions off campus," said Paul Farmer, a former member who helped investigate the incident. "We had very poor representation of the custodians."
Custodians couldn't make the afternoon meetings. Castillo said they were upset that everything seemed to move too slowly. She left the council, cynical about its powers for change, and sometimes cynical about her activism on custodians' behalf. While she thinks it led to improving their wages and making supervisors more accountable, she said, "Sometimes I think it might almost have made things worse."
The Staff Council continues trying to work with, rather than against, UT leadership. Worley said scarce representation of custodians remains a problem, but that other campus departments have the same trouble.
"We try to have representation from everybody," he said.
Mas trabajo, menos trabajadores
Where do you find an extra $9.9 billion?
That's what state government was asking in 2003 as it faced the largest deficit in Texas history. Part of the cement to fill that hole came from reserve funds, part from layoffs. At the University, about 100 workers lost their jobs, and another 500 were offered incentives to retire early. While 144 custodial employees took the incentive, no one from their department was laid off. UT officials were proud of that statistic.
"We made good judgments about which functions we can cease to do," said Ernest Hunter, Physical Plant director. "We did not plan to have fewer people doing more. We did not plan even to have fewer people doing the same thing."
The new problem was how to cover more ground less thoroughly. Though some buildings and offices are cleaned less often, the 144 positions aren't being replaced.
This is what concerns people like the unnamed custodian, who said it causes significant strain. Supervisors keep moving people away from his building, he said, to fill shortages elsewhere. He thinks word has spread; not that many people are interested in working for the department now.
It also concerns Alan Gomez, a history graduate student who was heavily involved in the past protests.
"Not to downplay [managers'] experience - management is a necessary evil - but they're not doing the work," Gomez said.
He and other students are trying to rebuild a movement that died as the staff association disappeared and custodial services put new focus on training employees for its cleaning process. Most of the custodians who resisted management in the past have moved on. When the students tried to hold an after-work meeting for custodial workers this semester, only two even showed up - then said they had to go home immediately.
Estrella de Leon, an ethnic studies senior who helped set up that meeting, said students have been talking individually with about 10 workers.
They have heard stories about harder work because of the budget cuts. But with the older workers retired and UT's cleaning model an industry standard, these activists may simply be clinging to old memories.
During the initial organizing, some students filmed a documentary that seemed to express their state of mind. It shows students passing out handbills, custodians speaking on the Main Mall, a crowd flooding the lobby outside the UT president's office to deliver a petition. In the final scenes, students and custodians grill tortillas in the green sunlight of a park.
"It seems that the most important lesson was that the custodial staff was already in struggle when we met them," an off-camera student says. "They knew what the problems were; they'd been experiencing them for 20 years. And most importantly, they knew what the answers were. All they needed was a chance to share those answers and for somebody to listen."
Back in the night building, the man in the blue uniform discusses the two letters about Burleson. Even the workers know of these things. A clock reads 8:05 p.m. Past his break. He returns to work, down a blank hall where there is no one to speak, and no one to listen.
Translation assistance by Jesus Alejandro Perez.
NOTABLE EVENTS
Aug. 31, 2000 The Texan prints an open letter from custodians about working conditions and bad managers.
Sept. 1, 2000 Custodial staff receive an average 9-percent raise.
June 18 and 19, 2001 UTPD officers attend custodial staff meetings about UT's cleaning process.
Feb. 14, 2001 2,800-signature petition given to UT President Larry Faulkner.
June 20, 2001 UT officials say they will convert to their current cleaning model, OS1. Custodial services wins four national awards over the next three years for this program.
Sept. 4, 2003 Officials announce plan scaling back custodians' workloads after 144 positions are eliminated.
May 20, 2004 Anonymous letter to UT System accuses the head of custodial services of harassment and mismanagement.
Sources: Daily Texan archives, UT Web site, Staff Council and custodial documents.
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