University Times

The Facilities Manage- ment plan designed to improve custodial service on the Pittsburgh campus will be implemented on Feb. 7, with Pitt's 201 custodians starting their new jobs and shifts. (See University Times, Jan. 21.) Custodians bid for available positions on Jan. 27. The plan, first announced last November and delayed twice, will result in about three-quarters of the custodians working non-daylight shifts, either 4 p.m.-12:30 a.m. or 11 p.m.-7 a.m. The hours for the daylight shift will be 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Union officials of Local 29 of the Service Employees International Union, AFL-CIO, of which Pitt service workers are members, have filed a class-action grievance against the shift change on the grounds that the contract does not allow Pitt to make such a change. According to Nelson Bryant, Local 29 business agent, the union also claims that the bidding process asked workers to choose by location and not work assignments, a violation of contract procedures. In a Jan. 26 memo to union employees, Bryant wrote that union leaders and shop stewards were told at a meeting Jan. 21 that "work assignments will be assigned to the employees by the supervisors and not according to seniority bidding process." The memo asked union members to go through the bidding process under protest.

The union had filed a grievance following the original bidding for jobs Dec. 9 and 10, but Pitt maintained that by re-bidding the jobs that grievance was rendered moot. According to Pitt officials, the University decided to cancel results of the first bidding to allow time for departments to respond to the Facilities Management plan and to clarify what University officials termed vagueness in the job descriptions. Local 29 has asked Pitt to waive the first two phases of arbitration specified by the contract — bargaining between individuals and supervisors, and between union and University representatives — and to proceed directly to outside arbitration.

John Greeno, assistant vice chancellor for employee/labor relations and the University's chief negotiator, said that Pitt would agree to the waiver request. "We expect the situation to be resolved through outside arbitration," Greeno said. "We feel confident that the contract supports the University's position." Under contract terms, an arbitrator has 30 days after hearing all arguments to render a decision, which is binding. Greeno expects the process to take a couple of months. Local 29 ratified the contract last August after nearly three years of working under monthly extensions of the previous contract. Both parties must notify the other in writing of their desire to continue, modify or terminate the agreement 60 days prior to the Dec. 31, 1999, expiration date.

–Peter Hart