The growing move toward unionization at USC continued this week when the school’s housing workers voted to join SEIU Local 721 in hopes of securing higher wages, better benefits and a stronger voice on the job.
The 31 employees — including general maintenance workers, facilities technicians, painters and customer service representatives — voted 19-11 in favor in a tally taken Thursday, June 15. One worker didn’t vote.
The move comes on the heels of two other recent union wins at the university.
In March, USC shuttle drivers and dispatchers, who say they are grossly underpaid, also voted to join SEIU Local 721, and graduate student workers at USC voted in February to join the United Auto Workers union.
Angel Moreno, a general maintenance worker at the school, expects the latest union victory to “help to usher in necessary change that upgrades the services we provide to the USC community.”
“There’s a growing unionization movement at USC, and we’re proud to be right in the middle of it by joining our transportation colleagues who’ve also voted to join SEIU Local 721 in recent months,” Moreno said in a statement.
In a statement issued Friday, USC said it is “disappointed to lose the direct relationship” with its employees, although it respects their decision to unionize.
“We are proud of the competitive benefits, compensation and flexibility we offer our employees and look forward to sitting down with the union to negotiate a contract in good faith,” university officials said.
The USC housing employees help maintain more than 50 properties on and off campus that host thousands of students, athletes, faculty and staff each year. Their work is essential, but they say their starting wages are lower than many union employees at other universities who do similar jobs.
A building maintenance worker at USC starts at $23 an hour, for example, while an employee performing the same duties at UCLA earns a minimum of $27.44. Painters at…
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