Housekeepers at North Carolina Central University gathered at the student union building Tuesday night to discuss their opposition to the proposed privatization of the campus' state-run cleaning services.
The sparsely attended meeting follows a protest held two weeks ago in which 40 students and housekeepers held signs urging workers to "Organize, Don't Privatize" and demanded increased pay and resources for the cleaning of the university's 55 buildings.
NCCU's Physical Plant Director Ed Eng began looking into the possibility of hiring an independent firm to manage the school's housekeeping after Chancellor Julius Chambers asked him to consider privatization as a cost-cutting measure. Eng said that an earlier study estimated the potential annual savings of privatization to be approximately $150,000.
Many of the school's 50 full- and part-time housekeepers fear that the savings will come at the expense of their jobs. "People like me [have been working here] 10, 15 years and all of a sudden we're going to lose everything," said Troy Poole, who cleans the chemistry building.
Eng said he is still reviewing the benefits of privatization and that his assessment will be completed by the end of the month. He stressed that its outcome is still in question.
To combat the proposed privatization, Poole said he and others were working to form a union, an initiative discussed at Tuesday's meeting. The housekeepers have also scheduled a meeting with Chambers for March 16 to voice their concerns.
NCCU is one of several state-supported schools that are investigating privatization as part of a General Assembly directive to trim expenses.
North Carolina State University, for example, has already privatized two of its housekeeping units, a move that met with fierce opposition from the housekeepers and groundskeepers union at the school, which held a protest last Friday.
At NCCU, however, the impetus for privatizing housekeeping services is not solely one of money. "The major feedback I've gotten is that the buildings are not clean," Eng said.
Housekeeper Carrie McCallum said the problem is due to lack of supplies and resources, not poor management. "Sometimes I take stuff from home-some disinfectant and cleaning powder-because we don't have it," she said.
Eng said that a study he conducted last year concluded that housekeeping had adequate staff and budget.
Poole, who has worked at NCCU for 15 years, said he and fellow workers would like to be paid more and on a biweekly, rather than monthly, basis. But for now, he said, their focus is to halt the possible privatization, which would devalue their jobs.
"I see the students on the TV protest about Nike and the sweatshops overseas," Poole said. "Why isn't nobody saying anything about the sweatshops the state is creating in this state, in our campuses?"
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