Janitors Union Assails USC

A service workers union, upset over USC’s policy of subcontracting janitorial jobs, will meet today to address ways that the university’s decision is “undercutting the economic stability of South L.A,” organizers said.

The late morning meeting at St. Vincent’s School auditorium on Figueroa Avenue will feature state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) and Los Angeles council members Jackie Goldberg and Richard Alatorre.

Union leaders say USC has the responsibility to make sure that everyone it employs is paid a living wage and offered health and educational benefits.

Last spring, USC started subcontracting many of its custodial jobs; although workers retained the same pay, they were offered health care benefits that were not affordable, said Tom O’Connor of Justice for Janitors.

USC officials say the union does not represent any of the janitors working at the university. Also, officials say they made certain that the custodians who were once direct employees of the school and then became employees of ServiceMaster, a contracted agency, did not have their pay reduced.