Word: unicco
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...this were not enough, Harvard increasingly employs subcontracted labor, including guards from Security Systems Incorporated and janitors from UNICCO Service Company. These workers, many of whom were hired after union buyouts over the summer, do not have local union representation or access to health and other benefits. Without the guarantee of a $10 living wage, subcontracted laborers are among the lowest paid members of the university community. Although Harvard has not released figures, estimates suggest that subcontracted workers comprise the largest number of underpaid employees, perhaps as many as 1,000 people. The Living Wage Campaign--a coalition of students...
...tried to contact company officials at UNICCO and SSI, Harvard's current outsourcers, with mixed success. SSI referred me to their president, Ed Silvey, who repeatedly did not return my calls. Walter W. Crow, the in-house counsel for UNICCO, faxed me a statement that "UNICCO pays its full time employees throughout Cambridge a wage not less than $9.20 an hour" and that they also receive pension and health insurance. "Part time employees receive not less than $8.25," he wrote, and "all employees receive paid vacations, jury duty pay, bereavement pay, personal days, and holidays." Adding these up, Crow contended...
Aaron D. Bartley, a member of the PSLM in his second year at Harvard Law School, agreed with the figures UNICCO gave but said in an e-mail "They failed to mention that almost all their workers are part-time (not by choice), that part-timers don't have health benefits." He also said that UNICCO workers have told him that they don't take vacations because they are scared they'll lose their jobs. These employees in forced part-time status not only do not receive a living wage but also have no way to express their grievances without...
...Living Wage Campaign does not view UNICCO's employment practices as satisfactory," Bartley said. "We're demanding a $10 minimum in addition to a set of minimal health benefits." Though important for the worker's overall well-being, benefits cannot be compared to wages, Offner said. She stressed that a large number of workers only receive wages and those who receive benefits shouldn't be penalized since, as she put it, "no matter how many dental appointments Harvard gives its workers, you can't pay rent in dental appointments...
...Living Wage Campaign is to be successful, the PSLM and its supporters must turn the focus to companies like SSI and UNICCO that keep the salaries of those employed by the University at less than the living wage. In this stage of the fight, the Living Wage Campaign has lost the iconic power of John Harvard, Heartless Employer, but must make its call heard in the executive offices of the outsourcers. Only when the outsourcers are made to comply can the campaign consider itself successful...