Contractor’s housecleaning kicks workers to the curb

Yawu Miller

On April 30, Marie Massena was fired without notice from her job cleaning the Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill federal building, where she had worked for the last 20 years.

UNICCO, the cleaning company she had worked for, had lost the contract to clean the building, and the new contractor was bringing in a new crew of workers.

“There was no notice, no information — nothing,” she said. “Instead of offering us the chance the keep our jobs, we were thrown out on the street like trash. That’s the thanks I get for [spending] 20 years of my life in that building.”

While Massena is looking for work to support herself and her children — one in high school, one in community college — the janitors’ union, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 615, is seeking to change state law to protect janitors against sudden job loss.

House Bill 1809, titled “An Act Relative to Displaced Workers,” would require firms taking over contracts at buildings to retain the workers from the displaced cleaning company for 90 days.

“It’s so horrifying that workers can be fired without notice after 20 years on the job,” said Rocio Saenz, president of Local 615. “This legislation will stabilize the industry.”

Massena’s experience of sudden job loss is not at all uncommon. Janitors who have years of experience on the job typically make more than new hires. Massena made $13 an hour working for UNICCO.

Currently, a change of cleaning contractors means almost certain job loss for longstanding workers.

“It’s become a custom,” said state Rep. William Lantigua, D-Lawrence, a sponsor of House Bill 1809. “There are companies that create new companies so they can hire a new workforce at lower wages. They fire people on the spot.”

When Massena and fellow workers learned that UNICCO was losing its contract at the beginning of April, new contractor Service United States Corp. (ServUS) told the workers they could apply for their jobs.

“They asked me for my name and what I did,” she said. “That was it. UNICCO said, ‘In two weeks, we’ll let you know what’s the next step.’ We never heard from them again.”

Now, Massena is looking for work.

“I have one kid in college and another in high school who will graduate next month,” she said. “I don’t know what I’ll do.”