In a victory for the Brandeis Labor Coalition and custodial workers, the University agreed last month to a new five-year contract to directly hire night-shift workers, rather than employing them through a subcontractor.The contract with the Service Employees International Union Local 615 was signed in an effort to achieve pay parity among workers and was the culmination of lobbying efforts by the Labor Coalition and a group of professors.

Of the 65 custodial staff at Brandeis, twenty are hired through Hurley of America and SJD Inc. These contract custodians are paid $11.60 an hour, while Brandeis pays its own employees $14.63. With the new contract, all workers are paid at the higher rate.

Brandeis will stop using subcontracted laborers in one year when the contract with Hurley expires.

"This settlement reflects some progress and an atmosphere of shared values," University Chief Operating Officer Peter French said.

The workers were originally subcontracted because the University could not fill a newly-created third shift in the late-90s through the union, according to University Chief Operating Officer Peter French.

"We wanted to get optimum impact of housekeepers when people are not in the facilities," French said. Therefore, the University turned to Hurley of America and SJD Inc., outside contractors, to bring in workers for the third shift.

But "we were ready to do this right from the start," he said. "Everybody wins on this."

Dan Nicolai, the representative of the contract cleaners at Local 615 said the contract Brandeis offered "covered a lot of different issues related to their wages, benefits and conditions."

Above all, he looks forward to all positions at Brandeis being filled by Brandeis-hired employees.

"It's a very big deal for Brandeis," he said.

According to Nicolai, most schools have third shift workers, some of whom are contracted from outside companies.

Members of the Brandeis Labor Coalition, who Nicolai said have been "really instrumental in getting this done," think the contract between Hurley and Brandeis didn't make sense.

"Brandeis has this long-standing commitment to social justice, and Hurley... its main goal is to make money," Dan Mauer '06, a member of BLC, said.

The coalition launched a campaign advocating the change in pay structure last spring. They obtained Student Union support and planned to hold a rally. Members also worked with faculty members to get their cooperation.

When the contract between Brandeis and Hurley ends Aug. 1, 2006, Brandeis will not renew it. Workers will only be hired by the University to ensure that all workers receive equal wages and benefits.

Brandeis will begin hiring its third shift workers in July.

"All of [the currently contracted workers] are free to apply and when they apply they will be considered for these positions," French said.

Still at issue with the union and the BLC is Brandeis' requirement that workers have a basic understanding of English-a change for workers that will come from Hurley, which had no such requirement.

Nicolai said the BLC has committed to helping the outsourced workers with their English. "We're actually trying to figure out some classes," he said.

However, French said the "English language requirement is not going to be an issue-it's not a threshold issue."

The coalition "expected a long and arduous process," to persuade the University to agree, Mauer said. However, it found through their meetings that the Administration was supportive of student involvement and changes in labor policy.

History professors Sylvia Arrom and Jacqueline Jones helped organize faculty members.

The Latin American Studies faculty voted to support the efforts and later met with French, according to Arrom.

Jones organized a petition drive and received approximately 59 faculty signatures. The anthropology, English, math and theater departments signed as units. The petition was published as an advertisement in the Justice last April.