Following last semester’s protests against a university cleaning-supply contractor, university officials said they are closely following the labor dispute between Daycon and its striking workforce but can’t yet meet students’ demands to terminate its contract with the firm.
Last April, 55 Daycon employees went on strike over a contract dispute. The Upper Marlboro-based supplier of janitorial equipment and chemicals has refused to negotiate with them thus far. The company is now subject to an investigation by the National Labor Relations Board.
Members of Feminism Without Borders and College Park Students for a Democratic Society delivered letters and petitions to university officials last year and scrubbed the Testudo statue outside McKeldin Library to raise awareness and ask the university administration to “clean up its act.”
“I appreciate your commitment to social justice and diligence about University business practices,” university President Wallace Loh wrote to Feminism Without Borders in response to the letters, adding that he also wrote to the presidents of both Daycon and the strikers’ union to say the university was monitoring the issue closely and to urge them to settle their dispute fairly.
“The University is committed to conducting its business operations in a way that reflects social responsibility,” Loh wrote in his letter to the union, Teamsters Local 639. “I am hopeful that you will be able to reach a speedy and just resolution to this conflict.”
Mary Yanik, president of the university’s Feminism Without Borders chapter, said that while the letters are “an important step in the right direction,” it is still the university’s responsibility to drop its contract with Daycon until the company negotiates with the strikers.
“If they continue to flagrantly violate workers’ rights, then we don’t want them on our campus,” Yanik said. “Cutting the contract until they figure out those contracts with the workers would send a positive message that we’re committed to social justice and also force the company to act immediately on this issue.”
Representatives from Daycon and Teamsters Local 639 did not return calls for comment. University Procurement and Supply Director James Stirling said based on his office’s investigation into the Daycon issue, the company had not violated its contract with the university and its performance hadn’t waned during the dispute.
He added that while he appreciated students’ concerns, there hasn’t yet been a ruling from the labor relations board and terminating a contract is not something the university could do arbitrarily.
“I understand their interests that people are treated fairly when working on campus, but we have to be fair to everyone, including the contractors,” Stirling said.
“So we can’t just end a contract without having a basis for doing so because that wouldn’t be fair.”
Yanik said she and her fellow student activists will continue to work this semester to rally more student support for the contract’s termination.
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