December 1, 1994: Vol26n12: Pickets protest independent custodial contracting

By CHRISTINE VIDAL
Reporter Editor
About 75 marchers gathered in Founders Plaza Nov. 17 as the Civil
Service Employees Association held an informational picket to protest
the contracting of independent custodial services in four buildings at
UB.
	According to Barry Kobrin, president of CSEA local 602, the
purpose of the protest is to call attention to the use of non-state
employees to provide custodial services in the Center for the Arts,
the new University Stadium, the Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Complex and the Student Union.
	CSEA employees check the buildings each morning and CSEA
cleaners are expected to take care of the buildings and any
emergencies that occur in them during the day, Kobrin said, and should
be hired for all custodial services in those buildings.
	"These are state buildings and on state property, so why can't
state (employees) clean them?" Kobrin said. He added that between 1983
and 1994, the number of CSEA employees at UB has decreased by "a
couple hundred," due to attrition.
	According to Ronald Nayler, associate vice president for
university facilities, no current state employee jobs are in jeopardy
because of contract cleaning. 
	"We contract for many, many, many services at the university
-- elevator maintenance, chiller maintenance, and other services such
as managing our endowment. We contract our bookstore services. So
contracting out for services is not new and is something that has been
done since the university was built," Nayler said.
	The decision to contract custodial services in the new
buildings was made in response to the university's fiscal situation,
he added. "As we had our budget cut we never laid a single person
off," although other SUNY institutions did, Nayler said. "So we needed
to make decisions about how we could best utilize our resources."
	Although the SUNY budget provided money to construct new
facilities, it did not allow enough to maintain and operate buildings.
"When we have inadequate resources, we have to make tough choices,"
Nayler said.
	The university can get buildings cleaned by contract for about
half of what it would cost to hire state employees, Nayler said. "We
kept the custodial staff informed throughout about what our intentions
were, and the decisions were made with the full knowledge of the
custodial staff."