Posts tagged Custodians
‘Cronyism is alive and well’: With hundreds of thousands of dollars misused in their union, University workers allege mismanagement and retaliation
December 10, 2025 // Both Hannigan and Ventura said that the local’s general body has not been informed of the Department of Labor investigation—even after Molina received the subpoena. “There’s no transparency there,” Ventura said. “A lot of members don’t know what actually is going on in the union.” McAllister, a union member, said Molina “failed the membership” by not notifying them of the federal investigation. “He knew about what had transpired and he made no effort to speak about it at the general membership meeting,” McAllister said. “He failed us as a leader—I use the word lightly.”
Teachers Union Anti-Trump Lawfare Cases Have Little Connection to K-12 Public School Education
December 4, 2025 // The AFT began as exclusively a teachers union but has six separate divisions that also represent other public school employees, such as teacher aides, custodians, and bus drivers, as well as health care workers and higher education faculty. The union’s website says it also represents public employees, including federal and state employees. “The AFT’s lawsuit spree against the Trump administration reveals what we’ve long known: these organizations have strayed far from their mission of representing teachers,” Aaron Withe, president of the Teacher Freedom Alliance, a conservative education group, told The Daily Signal. “This is exactly why so many teachers are choosing to opt out—they want representation focused on their profession, not a political action committee.”
UC Santa Barbara Service and Patient Care Workers Join Strike over Wages, Housing Inequality
November 19, 2025 // The union — American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, which represents about 40,000 food service workers, custodians, hospital technicians, and patient care assistants across the UC system, including around 600 at UCSB — has been in contract negotiations with the university for 22 months. Members of the California Nurses Association who work at UC hospitals also went on strike in solidarity. The key issue: affordability. The union says average frontline workers, who make between $40,000–$60,000 a year, now earn 10 percent less in real wages than before the pandemic.
Evergreen school employees strike as districts across the Northwest start heading back to class
August 27, 2025 // The union is asking for paraeducators to be paid for the full time they are at school, even if students need assistance after classes end. They’re also asking for release time to do union work, among other benefits. Union representatives said the district has so far been inflexible with their requests as well as bargaining dates.
SLPS employee unions demand a seat at the table regarding school consolidations
July 11, 2025 // “The No. 1 cause of injuries to the people 420 represents is breaking up fights,” Cummings said. “This is a safety issue … and I can't stand for my members to be put in that situation.” Cummings cited Article I, Section 29 of the Missouri Constitution, which states employees have a right to bargain collectively with their employer through a union representative of their choosing. Jane McWilliams-Sykes, a registered nurse who works at Dewey Elementary School, said nurses and medical staff within schools are critical for students’ safety and well-being. The end of next month will mark 40 years that she has worked as a nurse in the district, she said.
A Connecticut school district is giving bonuses to teachers who show up for work
March 10, 2025 // The program has won such favor among teachers that in the first two quarters of the year, the district has already spent the $126,000 budgeted for the program. The incentive program started in July, the district's director of human resources said. Director of Human Resources for the district Kimberly Schulte said the Board of Education started the union-approved attendance incentive in response to teacher absenteeism. She said that because of open positions, the district's $38 million salary budget can cover the rest of incentive program this year.
Connecticut: Another union complaint against Town of Branford dismissed
November 11, 2024 // The Connecticut State Board of Labor Relations dismissed yet another complaint made by the United Public Service Employees Union (UPSEU) against the Town of Branford. This is the third complaint this year. In September, the Board of Labor Relations dismissed a complaint that was filed by the UPSEU a year earlier. Three different units of the UPSEU-Branford—police workers, dispatchers and Water Pollution Control Authority employees—claimed that the Town of Branford violated the Municipal Employees Relations Act (MERA).
Syracuse University employees to hold public rally after voting against contract offer
August 26, 2024 // According to a spokesperson for the union, workers feel that management has not acknowledged the difficult work employees performed through COVID-19 to keep the university running. The four-year contract would have provided a 3%raise. When juxtaposed with the university's $1.85 billion endowment and the recent rise in total enrollment costs to $88,000 per year per student, union members felt it was an unfair proposal.
Disneyland workers reach tentative deal with company, averting strike
July 25, 2024 // The bargaining committee previously accused Disney of having "engaged in multiple instances of conduct we allege are unfair labor practices, including unlawful discipline and intimidation and surveillance of union members exercising their right to wear union buttons at work." The union buttons in question depict a Mickey Mouse-style white glove raised in a fist. (The company has insisted that costumes worn by cast members are "a critical part of enhancing the experience of our Disney show.")
Struggling to ‘bring food to our families,’ Olathe schools hourly workers want a union Read more at: https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/education/article286587730.html#storylink=cpy
March 14, 2024 // Arellano was among more than 70 custodians, paraprofessionals and other hourly workers who packed Thursday’s school board meeting, wearing red, “Union Power” T-shirts. The group of employees, who are not certified so cannot join the teachers union, said they are organizing to form their own union, to advocate for better pay, respect and working conditions. If successful, it would be the first union of its kind in a Johnson County school district. Hourly workers have formed unions in other large Kansas districts, in Lawrence and Wichita. The union, Olathe School Workers United, would be a part of Communications Workers of America, Local 6400, which organized workers in the Lawrence district.