Current janitors won’t lose their jobs or benefits but all future “custodial workers” (talk about the most PC term ever) won’t receive the tuition remitance benefits currently in place. Seems like a pretty hypocritical move for an institution that claims to be “A Private University in the Public Service.”
John Beckman, NYU’s VP of Public Affairs, says the school-wide cuts aim to redirect $25million in administrative fees towards as-yet unspecified academic programs. This specific change means that NYU won’t have to fill custodial admin positions, freeing up some cash for more important things. Like John Sexton’s flights to and from Abu Dhabi every other weekend.
Photo: flickr courtesy of Augapfel.
@ that picture: but conseula, don’t you have any interests or hobbies or anything?
[todd solondz]
Don’t expect that money to be going to financial aid.
$25 million in savings… a year? over a decade? a hundred years? This sounds like a random number used to justify cutting from the bottom. I wonder how much NYU would save if they eliminated the number-inventing perks of John Beckman’s job?
[...] has a telling story about NYU’s approach to budget cuts, which have janitorial staff taking a benefit cut during [...]
FYI, here’s what I sent the person from NYU Local who wrote me with a set of questions (with one addition in caps in parentheses):
The transfer of custodial and maintenance staff from NYU to CBS — the company that has for several years provided custodial services in our administrative and academic buildings — will take place on October 27.
Some key points to remember:
> none of the employees was laid off;
> the employees will continue to be part of the same unions (there are two that are affected by this change);
> they will have the same seniority
>they will receive the same wages, vacation benefits, paid holiday, sick time, and health and pension benefits;
>and those that are eligible employees of NYU as of October 26 will continue to be eligible for the same tuition remission benefits
The expansion of NYU’s relationship with CBS was undertaken to save money; it is part of the overall effort we are undertaking to achieve $25 million in administrative savings that can be re-directed to academic programs (THIS WAS ANNOUNCED LAST SPRING; IT IS $25 MILLION/YEAR IN ADMINISTRATIVE SAVINGS). This effort is taking place throughout the University administration.
From the student standpoint, pretty much nothing has changed. The same processes are in place, the same service levels are required, and you will most likely see the same employees you saw previously.
From the employee standpoint, principally what has changed is the name of the employer on their paycheck. On the key issues — job security, seniority, wages, union affiliation, and the full range of benefits — nothing has changed. Our expectation is that these men and women will continue to act professionally in response to expanding our relationship with CBS, and that has been the case.
– John Beckman
After reading this post the first time, I was under the impression that the cuts would be hurting custodial workers– but judging from what Beckman wrote in the first place, that doesn’t seem to be the case at all. I love NYU Local, but I want it to keep breaking important stories that WSN won’t cover–not being a thorn in NYU’s side.
I actually didn’t see any contradictions between the Beckman comments and the story.
@Madeline: as the post says, “Current janitors won’t lose their jobs or benefits but all future “custodial workers” (talk about the most PC term ever) won’t receive the tuition remitance benefits currently in place.”
Mr. Beckman’s email response did not answer the tuition remitance question, a conversation that he and I had after I received his reponse did. Other benefits– holidays, sick days, etc.– will remain the same for now but tuition remitance for future nyu cutodial employees hired through CBS will be non-existent.
Tuition remitance for employees in all different sectors is a feature at many major universities and speaks to NYU’s proclaimed interest in serving the public and promoting the importance of education. I’m not sure why discussing NYU’s decision to discontinue tuition remitance for future custodial employees/their families constitutes “being a thorn in NYU’s side.”
@ Beckman: For the next generation of custodial workers at NYU, the change is significant and you are not addressing it’s seriousness. In the process of outsourcing jobs to CBS, you are taking away the opportunity for future workers to participate in tuition remission. Now, when a custodian gets hired to work at NYU who wants to take classes, he will have to pay the full NYU price, which for many classes, could be thousands of dollars. Considering he is getting paid custodial wage, getting an education at the the place he or she cleans everyday would most likely lead to personal bankruptcy.
Two questions:
1.) Why can’t newly hired CBS employes working NYU buildings participate in the same tuition remission programs of their peers? Surely, this program can not be too taxing on NYU, why can’t it be saved?
2.) It’s great that you say none of the benefits would be cut (aside from tuition remission) but what oversight does NYU have over CBS? Once CBS is the employer of all these custodians why couldn’t they just slowly start removing benefits, freezing raises, and dropping vacation time? They have unions but if CBS is their employer, why would NYU be able to stop any of this?
Let me just say that I will not always respond to a web story, much less twice. But…
The answer that I gave above was in response to a set of questions from someone named Isha. So, while it is true, as Lily says, that “Mr. Beckman’s email response did not answer the tuition remitance question,” I’m sure Lily will acknowledge that it wasn’t among the several questions Isha emailed me. She called me later to follow up on tuition remission, and I answered this question.
With regard to Cody’s comments — 1) It is a valuable and costly benefit. With all due respect, my take is the reverse — few employers would continue to provide this kind of benefit in these circumstances. I believe it speaks well of NYU that we are doing so, and we are doing so because these men and women have been dedicated employees. 2) The union has a contract and all the legal protections that come with that; if CBS violates the contract, the union and its members have all sorts of remedies (indeed, the exact same set of remedies they would have as NYU employees under the contract).
@ Mike– Right, I didn’t say there were any contradictions, I just thought the tone of the article was unduly critical once I found out the whole story. Turns all benefits are remaining the same for current workers, and only one is removed for future employees. I’m really surprised that NYU was able to maintain those standards while outsourcing the jobs. Usually private firms are more competitive employers, so I would have thought the janitors would get a much bigger cut. To me, it seems like NYU did a decent job in the negotiations with CBS–maybe not ideal, but hardly “hypocritcal.”
@ Lily Q– I want to add that I think it’s great to that NYU Local reports on NYU operations, and I didn’t say that made the site a thorn in the NYU’s side– I just think the best articles on this site give us the whole story and then the author’s perspective. But anyway, thanks for bringing the issue to your readers.
[...] company that redacted the opportunity for next-generation custodians to take classes at the school. We caught wind of the story and posted this. She made it a quick entertaining read and NYU’s Director of Public Affairs immediately hit [...]
[...] So yes, it’s technically Coach USA that’s causing this strife– it is, after all, their name on the protest signs– but their hour cuts aren’t random. These new contracts are an attempt to do that whole budget cutting thing that John Beckman keeps talking about. [...]