Harvard union rallies to support fired janitor

Serghino René

As Saintely Paul tells the story, he had been a sick for a while but not sick enough to miss work as a janitor at Harvard University. All of that changed a few months ago when Paul, a Haitian immigrant, says he fainted on a couch during his work shift. And that is when the trouble began.

Paul’s supervisor passed by after he fainted, and according to Paul, snapped a cell phone photograph of him on the couch and used it as evidence to support Paul’s abrupt dismissal.

Today, Paul is still without a job. Nor does he have the health insurance that his job provided for the last seven years.

What Paul does have is broad community support. Last week, about 120 members of the Service Employees International Union Local 615 (SEIU), Harvard employees, community members and students held a rally near Harvard’s Labor and Employee Relations Office to demand better treatment for janitors and protest what many believe to be discriminatory treatment of Paul.

Friday’s rally included chants of “Si se puede” meaning “We shall overcome,” signs featuring “Justice for Janitors” and brief speeches by Paul and rally supporters.

“Harvard must have a better use for students’ tuition funds than defending its persecution of long term employees,” said SEIU representative Courtney Snegroff. “The union intends to fight for Saintely’s job and benefits.”

And that is exactly what Paul must do. Harvard plans to hold an arbitration hearing and until then, university officials are remaining quiet.

“We are currently engaged in a mutually agreed upon arbitration process in this case and further discussion would not be appropriate at this point,” said Harvard spokesman Joe Wrinn. “There is nothing to suggest that Mr. Paul’s ethnicity played any factor in the decision to terminate him.”

That might very well be true. But some of the demonstrators weren’t buying in to it. Harvard graduate student Petra Gelbart was walking in Harvard Square when she came across SEIU passing out flyers last Friday.

“I wasn’t there when this all happened, but if this is true, I’m going to support this man. As a student, that’s not the type of treatment I expect from my university,” said Gelbart.

Since the incident, Harvard has refused to rehire Paul despite medical documentation from his doctor. In August, members of SEIU had a meeting with Harvard’s labor relations department. Harvard firmly stood behind their determination that Saintely was sleeping on the job.

“We’ve filed for arbitration, but there is no date. We hope that Harvard will take responsibility for what they did before a neutral party decides,” said Snegroff, SEIU representative.

Left in the cold is Paul. Days before his fainting spell, Paul had mentioned to his employer that he wasn’t feeling so well. His supervisor told him if he wasn’t feeling well then he should go visit the doctor. On June 23, Paul did just that. A couple days later, he fainted. When he came to work the next day, he was advised to go see Custodial Manager Jason Luke, ’94 alum.

That weekend, Paul made several attempts to reach Harvard Labor and Employee Relations Director William Murphy and Luke, to no avail.

“I never did anything wrong. I always came to work and did my job. I was suddenly fired and I don’t think it’s fair to me,” said Paul.

On July 3, 2006, Facilities Maintenance Operations (FMO) fired Paul, claiming that he was sleeping on the job.

Mr. Paul had also fainted the previous week yet Harvard refused to believe him despite his long-term employment at the university and clean employee record.

Paul is now looking for a new job and still under medical care because the cause of his fainting has not yet been determined.