Caring About Harvard’s Workers

Today, the Harvard janitors’ contract expires. The treatment, wages, and benefits that janitors currently receive are unjustifiable; with a new contract, Harvard has the opportunity to show workers, students, and the larger public that it cares about the living conditions of these important members of our community.

Currently, employees at the bottom of Harvard’s income ladder work for meager wages. A minority of them receive full-time employment at Harvard. Many must work two or three jobs to support themselves and their families.

Harvard’s wages compare poorly to those of its local peer institutions. Many low-income workers who have worked here for five, 10, and 15 years have never received a promotion offer. While Boston University pays its janitors a wage of $17.23 per hour, 30 percent higher than Harvard’s $13.50 per hour, Boston University has an endowment of $694 million, 2.6 percent of Harvard’s whopping $25.9 billion.

In 2002, the Harvard administration agreed to employ 60 percent of janitors full-time. They have never met this goal, instead employing fewer than 50 percent full-time. Low wages and inadequate opportunities for full-time employment force many Harvard janitors to work multiple jobs. Luce Moradel, who works at Harvard Medical School, commented: “One job is not enough because Harvard does not pay enough. For example, I have two jobs. I see my daughter just three or four hours in the day. I don’t sleep enough. So that’s the reason the wage needs to be increased. $330 a week is not enough. We have to pay rent, we have to pay for winter [expenses]...we have to spend money on electricity and heat.”

Harvard further contributes to a grim situation for employees and their families by outsourcing. Harvard’s outsourced janitors are employed through cleaning companies that manage their workers’ hours and wages. Outsourced workers do not receive the same benefits as direct employees. Direct employees can receive childcare allowances and short-term disability leave if, for example, they need to care for a newborn. Outsourced workers are not eligible for this benefit. An outsourced worker who takes a three-month leave to have a baby will not be compensated.

Some outsourced workers do not receive healthcare benefits at all. Recently, Harvard hired Andrades Cleaning to provide janitorial workers. Seven Andrades employees are assigned 15 hours of work a week, an interesting number of hours to assign given that only one additional hour would qualify these workers for health benefits.

Outsourced workers are often hesitant to form or join unions, fearing reprisal from their managers. As a result, increased outsourcing impairs employees’ ability to exercise their rights to unionize and decreases union activity. Therefore, fewer Harvard service employees have a voice in their workplace and are at the mercy of managers who do not necessarily have workers’ best interests at heart.

Harvard must respect the time, dignity, and needs of all of those who work at the University, regardless of the type of work they do. The current treatment of some Harvard employees indicates a serious problem especially for workers supporting families. Moradel commented, “My daughter doesn’t call me ‘mom.’ She calls her grandmother ‘mom.’ Her grandmother spends more time with her. When I started working at Harvard, she was three months old. She is two years old now. Time is going by fast, and I can’t spend time with her.”

Harvard should employ more workers full-time, increase wages, stop outsourcing, and respect workers’ right to organize. Wages should be increased to at least $20 per hour, full-time employment should be increased to at least 60 percent, and outsourced workers should have the same benefits and wages as direct employees. Some view the demand for a wage of $20 per hour as too high. However, this demand is neither rhetorical nor inflated. A September report from the Economic Policy Institute ranked Boston as the most expensive city in the nation. In 2004, a family of four in Boston required $64,656 to pay for basic needs. Housing prices in 2004 were 40 percent higher than in Chicago or Miami.

The most common objection to a substantially higher living wage for Harvard janitors asserts that the school will not be able to afford as many janitors because of its fixed operating budget. Harvard’s operating budget is a choice, however. Harvard is not a publicly traded company whose goal is to maximize profits; Harvard is a worldwide symbol of intellectual thought and progress. The people that control Harvard’s funds—President Summers, the Harvard Corporation, and Harvard alumni—can choose to provide janitors with a livable contract.

The fundamental issue at hand in the contract renegotiation is whether or not Harvard cares about the welfare of its workers. Today, Harvard has a chance to increase wages and benefits and confirm its position as an institution of advancement. We hope that Harvard seizes this opportunity for change.



Andrew D. Fine ’09, a Crimson editorial comper, lives in Stoughton Hall. Jeff D. Rakover ’06 is a special concentrator in Adams House. Amanda L. Shapiro ’08 is a sociology concentrator in Lowell House. They are all members of the Student Labor Action Movement.