First, a little background: Mary has worked as a custodian in the Pleasant Township school district for six years. She joined the local Pleasant Township Federation of School Employees during her first week when her shop steward asked her to join. Mary has never been in trouble, and her school has had few problems.

Her principal is a good manager who usually solves problems by working with the union's shop steward, so Mary and her co-workers have never needed to ask the union for help. She has attended a few union meetings but has not been active in the union otherwise. She hears good things about the union from custodians at other schools who have had their problems solved by the union, but Mary isn't sure how the process works. Her local union has a small office, with a secretary, a president who works for the union full time and one full-time union staff person.

The problem

To finish their work on schedule, Mary and other custodians on the second shift routinely must take shorter dinner breaks and skip their 10-minute rest break. They decide to ask their union president about these unrealistic workloads. They want and need the union's help.

The union president takes the lead: He and the staff representative talk to the union's work-site shop stewards (see "Representation at the Work Site") and visit several schools to interview custodians. After talking with stewards at almost every work site and to custodians throughout the district, the local's leadership and staff identify a common factor that could be causing the problem: The district has recently allowed principals to cut back on the use of substitute custodians to fill in for absent employees. This cost-cutting measure results in increased workloads on nights when Mary's school is one custodian short.

Confident that their initial investigation is solid, the union's representatives decide to dig a little deeper. They meet with several principals and the district's two custodial area supervisors.

The union representatives learn something at the meeting: In addition to cutbacks in the use of substitutes, the district's new assistant superintendent for maintenance is piloting a cleaning system in one-third of the district's schools. The new system seems to require custodians to clean more square footage per night than the old system.

The union's investigation shows that Mary's problem is not unique. Custodians in almost half the district's schools are working without rest breaks and have had to take shorter meal breaks. Union leaders recognize the severity of the problem and its potential to go all the way through the grievance process to arbitration (see "A Procedure to Resolve Complaints"). They realize that they need more information to prepare and win their case.

The AFT state federation

The local president calls the state federation labor-relations specialist assigned to his local and asks whether other locals are facing this problem. Labor-relations specialists and field representatives are experienced in labor relations--contract negotiations, grievance representation, the arbitration process, leadership training and the like. When local unions face tough problems, these state fed staffers are important resources the local can rely on.

In addition to agreeing to look into the matter, the labor-relations specialist suggests that the local president report on the situation at an upcoming legislative conference. She also asks for help from the state federation's research staff.

The union's researcher contacts the state department of education's school maintenance and construction division to ask whether there are any standards for the number of square feet that custodians are expected to clean in eight hours.

Meanwhile, during an issues forum at the legislative conference, the Pleasant Township local president has a chance to tell his counterparts what is going on in his local. Several local presidents offer to send their contract language regarding custodians. One president mentions that her district has just created a labor-management committee to discuss ways to improve quality and efficiency of services.

So far, the custodians' concerns have generated a lot of discussion and activity at the local and state levels. But that's not all.

The national AFT

The state federation's researcher calls the AFT's paraprofessional and school-related personnel (PSRP) department in Washington, D.C., where four full-time professional staff and two support staff keep track of issues facing the union's 200,000 PSRPs and develop programs and services to meet these members' needs. The PSRP department conducts surveys and research, develops and provides training programs for PSRP leaders, publishes information on issues for PSRPs in general and for specific PSRP job categories, tracks PSRP contract issues, and provides various other support.

The researcher briefs one of the PSRP department staff in Washington about the problem facing the Pleasant Township local and efforts to resolve the problem so far. By chance, another PSRP department staffer is scheduled to attend a seminar on custodial operations the next week.

On the phone with the local president the next day, two PSRP department staff figure out what questions still need to be answered. The local president talks with Mary about a few more details. The next day, he calls the PSRP staff back--with Mary also on the line. After these discussions, an action plan is prepared. The PSRP department will:

• search the PSRP contract database to find language on rest breaks, meal breaks, the use of substitutes, cleaning standards and workloads;
  
• call several PSRP locals to see if any have dealt with similar problems;
  
• contact a university with a well-known building management program that has published the definitive reference guide for the cleaning industry;
  
• call staff at other state federations, as well as AFT national representatives working with PSRP locals, to see if they have any experience with these issues;
  
• talk to the custodian member of the AFT's national PSRP program and policy council; and
  
• get more details on the new cleaning system being piloted by the assistant superintendent.

The solution

Mary and her co-workers' problem has involved all three levels of the union--the local union, the state affiliate and the AFT national office.

The national union's research produces useful information, such as contract language on breaks and workloads and other provisions that can help the Pleasant Township federation better represent its custodians. This contract language can also be used in other AFT resource materials on custodial issues.

The phone survey shows that some custodians in PSRP locals are having workload problems but there is no pattern of large-scale abuse. Most of the locals have handled their problems through the grievance procedure or through contract or policy negotiations.

One of the state federations provides contract language from a number of its locals. The state fed also promises to share information it is gathering on custodial staffing standards for schools. An AFT national representative unearths pertinent information from a state's department of education.

The PPC custodial representative is familiar with the cleaning system being piloted and offers insights on the system and information on the company that developed it. It turns out that this system was designed for large, modern school buildings and not for older, multi-story buildings.

The state federation staff uses the information from the national union to develop several contract proposals related to custodians' workload, staffing and breaks. State staff develop sample policy language on these issues that they will propose to the department of education. The newly developed contract language will be made available to other locals negotiating for custodial members.

All of this brings us back to the local union: This is ultimately where any real resolution for Mary and her colleagues will take place. The president, the local staffer and the state federation labor-relations specialist meet with Mary and several other custodial members to develop a strategy to address the problem on several fronts.

• The local president writes a letter to the district's principals reminding them that the contract guarantees custodians rest and meal breaks. The letter includes the relevant contract language and warns that the union will file grievances on behalf of any staff denied a break. It also tells principals that the union's leadership will be visiting work sites to meet with shop stewards and members to make sure the contract is not being violated.
  
• The local staff representative meets with the union's teachers--obvious allies--asking them to support the custodians. The teachers agree to talk to principals about the custodians' workloads and to develop lists of the many extra things custodians do for them and their students outside of their job descriptions. They question how these things will get done if custodians can't do them anymore.
  
• The local president and the labor-relations specialist meet with the assistant superintendent for maintenance to discuss the new cleaning system. Armed with information from the national union, they inform him that his plan is intended for modern one-story buildings, vastly different from those in Pleasant Township. The assistant superintendent, who is surprised by this news, agrees to reconsider the system.
  
• The local president also suggests that the district form a labor-management committee to investigate cleaning systems and ways to improve quality and efficiency in the custodial/maintenance department. Mary volunteers to serve on the joint committee.
  
• Finally, the labor-relations specialist proposes new contract language on square footage that district custodians should be responsible for in a single shift. This language is based on information obtained from the university during the initial search for information. The district and the union agree on new language that satisfies custodians' concerns. The local proudly sends it to the state federation and the national union, which will share it with other AFT locals.

In addition to serving on the labor-management committee, Mary becomes a local shop steward. The national union invites her and the local president to present a workshop at the AFT's professional issues conference for PSRPs. Conditions in the schools improve over time, and members are increasingly vigilant of their contractual rights.

What began as an effort to enforce and improve the union contract for one group of custodians eventually benefits all custodial members nationally. That's the power of one local working with its state and national affiliates. That's the power of the union.

This article was written by Dan Gursky and prepared in conjunction with Tom Moran in the AFT's PSRP department.