Faced with serious budget problems earlier this year, the Escambia County (Fla.) school district asked every major department to come up with ways to save money. Predictably, one department--custodial operations--proposed privatization. Like many of their counterparts across the country, Escambia officials were attracted to what seems like the easy answer of handing over some school service to a private company that promises to do it more efficiently and inexpensively.

Escambia FEA (short for Florida Education Association), the union that represents the custodians, forced administrators and school board members to go beyond the surface attraction of contracting out and look at the real costs of such a scheme, as well as alternative proposals that relied on the custodians' own knowledge about how to improve operations. Using a number of resources--including an AFT video designed to educate policymakers about the risks of privatization and a collection of negative experiences from other school districts in Florida that tried contracting out--the union persuaded the district to let a joint labor-management committee on custodial operations come up with alternatives to privatization.

Union members themselves realized the need for changes, says Alfred Merrill, a custodial inspector and trainer for the district who also represents the union on the joint committee. Among the challenges were absenteeism, high turnover, on-the-job injuries and, probably most serious, starting salaries barely above minimum wage. Proposals to save money might include increasing the square footage custodians are expected to clean, centralizing some tasks, standardizing use of chemicals and making more efficient use of outside vendors. The committee also wants to bring in an outside consultant to examine operations and make his own proposals, Merrill says. The school board and superintendent ultimately will decide how to proceed.

In meeting with custodial employees (the union represents about 300 custodians), some members voiced concerns. "We let them know there would have to be changes," Merrill says. "When you make changes, you're going to have opposition, but they received it pretty well." The alternative--turning over the operation to an outside company--would be worse.

Until the pay issue is addressed in some significant way, however, Escambia County will continue to face problems with its custodial operations, Merrill predicts. "[Management] is demanding that employees do a good job, but they're not paying them anything, so naturally they're going to leave."