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New Stewards at BU
Arthur Vasconselos, a 25-year BU custodian, explains why he accepted the steward position: “Custodians are the heart of the University. We do 80% of the work to maintain BU.”

The Charles River campus has nine new stewards: maintenance worker Tony Cruz, and custodians Maria Barao, Charles Wilson, George Martins, Gloria Resendes, George San Martin, Joe Perry, Michael Petratos, and Arthur Vasconselos. 

The Medical Campus has four new stewards: custodians Harry Serounian and Bill Wilder, and general mechanics Mark McGahan and Kevin Dewey.


Higher Education

MIT’s New Shop Steward at the Campus Activities Center
Bill Sims, has a been a custodian and utility worker at MIT for five years. On his decision to become a leader, he says: “I stepped up to be the shop steward to ensure the fair treatment and safety of my fellow workers.” Bill and his wife, Janine, have a five-year-old daughter named Abby. 
 


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Staff Profile: Eliza Sparkes, organizer
I started working for Local 615 in March 2008, as an organizer in the Higher Education Division. I was born and raised in Massachusetts and have been working as a community organizer and advocate in Boston since 2002. My experience began at the organization Centro Presente, where I worked as an immigration paralegal and supported the fight for dignity and justice within the Latin American immigrant community. I then continued on to work at a housing agency in downtown Boston,  working with low-income families to assist them in obtaining employment and other resources so they could become self-sufficient. I have been a member of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador since 2004, working in solidarity with the social justice and labor movement in El Salvador, as well as educating the public about trade policies and their connection to immigrant and worker rights. Since joining the Local 615 staff, I have participated in two successful contract campaigns: with Aramark workers at Fenway Park and ABM/One Source workers at Suffolk University. I have also begun working with direct-hire custodians at Harvard University and UNICCO employees at Simmons College, as well as twelve downtown comercial office buildings. I am looking forward to many more future successes!


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Staff Profile: Howard Ryan
New BU Representative
This March, I left my Los Angeles hometown for a new life and adventure on the East Coast. Local 615 hired me as senior representative in the Higher Education Division, assigned to serve over 700 members at Boston University. Today, I am deeply involved in union business at BU, and I’m taking great pleasure in helping members win a stronger voice on the job. I bring to Local 615 twelve years of experience as a union organizer and business agent in California. Most of my work was at UCLA and other universities, where I helped to build unions for researchers, techni-cians, healthcare staff, and faculty. One of my proudest achievements was the elimination of long-term casual employment at the University of California. The UC system used to keep thousands of employees in “temp” status year after year. I’m proud to be serving the Local 615 membership at BU, and I hope to contribute to the struggle for economic justice in Boston and New England. If you need assistance, don’t hesitate to contact me at 617-878-7506 or hryan@seiu615.org.

Higher Education
Staff Profile: Wayne Langley
Hi, my name is Wayne Langley and I’m the Acting Director of the Higher Education Division of Local 615. I’ve been on staff with Local 615 for four years now and I worked for fifteen years with SEIU Local 285/2020 before that.

I was born and raised in Massachusetts and have been an advocate for strong worker rights almost my entire adult life. I’m grateful for the help I’ve received from our members at the colleges and universities in understanding the issues they face.  I welcome the opportunity to work with you and hope you will join me in making this an exciting year in the division.

    Colleges/Universities

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    The 2008 Higher Education Division Meeting

    Economic Crisis: Protecting Jobs at the Universities

    HE assembly picture 9.27.08


    Over fifty Local 615 members braved heavy rains from Hurricane Ike to attend the union's annual Higher Education Division Meeting on Saturday, September 27. The event's central theme was the economic crisis—rising prices, home foreclosures, collapse of the credit system—and how union workers at New England universities can respond. 
                                                                                      Read more in English. 
                                                                                     Read more in Spanish.
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    NEW DAY, NEW WAY AT MIT

    MIT Stewards and Wayne_medium

    From left to right: Mike Valeri, Custodians shop steward, Andy Carvalho, Athletics shop steward, Wayne Langley, HE Director, Neil Cunningham, Structural  shop steward.

    Union members at MIT are ready for change; ready to fix a grievance process that is slow and doesn’t solve many of our big problems, ready to change the idea that sub¬contractors can do better, safer and cheaper work than we can, and ready to create a workplace where everyone is treated with respect. The Union is committed to lead¬ing the way to make those changes.

    » Read more

    Justice for Janitors: Northeastern Students Rally for Increased Standards!

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    Northeastern Students, through a group called the Progressive student al­liance, have rallied around the contract­ed janitors working for Consolidated Services at the university.

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    SEIU Local 615 Organizes 1,150 Security Officers

    SEIU Local 615 was recognized as the collective bargaining representatives of Securitas Officers, which completed the organizing of the three largest security companies: Northeast, Allied Barton, and Securitas.

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    Allied Barton Security Officers at Harvard Receive Over $54,000 in Settlement of Arbitration Case

    Hundreds of SEIU 615 members working for Allied Barton Security Services at Harvard are getting long overdue holiday pay. Soon after signing the first contract in July of 2007, members discovered that Allied was planning to stop the practice of paying them for holidays they weren’t scheduled to work.

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    MIT Custodians’ Petition Forces

    In the first week of March, the new manager of facilities at MIT, John DiFava, learned that nearly 200 custodians had signed a petition calling for a meeting with him. The petition circulated after management contracted One Source custodians to do work usually done by in-house custodians.

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    Victory for 1st Shift Cleaners at Harvard Business School

    Two years ago, Unicco cut 15 minutes from the schedule of a group of first shift employees at the Harvard Business School. Their schedule was cut from 5 hours per day to 4 hours and 45 minutes per day. Immediately after this cut in hours, shop steward Nancy Diaz began to fight back. 

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    MIT Management Sends Grandmother Packing

    Higher Education

    Higher Education

    Maria Colceriu, a mother and grandmother, cleaned MIT’s dormitories for several years until January, when MIT management abruptly told Acme Pioneer to lay her off.

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    Unicco Workers at Simmons Ratify New Contract

    In January 2008, Unicco workers at Simmons College won an excellent five-year contract. With the support of Simmons students and faculty, bargaining members Ilione Ribiera, Sonia Pereira, Lenny Lesard, and Chris Skeens got impressive wage and benefit increases.

    » Read more