Leominster, MA- It's only two months into the school year in Leominster, but school officials have already acted to abandon their experiment with privatization. After numerous complaints from teachers, staff, and students about dirty and uncleaned school buildings; rodent sightings; multiple no shows by contracted workers; and generally poor learning and working conditions, the Leominster School Committee voted October 17th to re-hire the AFSCME school custodians, who were laid off in July. The twenty-seven Local 1817 members returned to work for the first time on November 13th.

Scott Lanciani, President of Local 1817, remarked that "I am thankful that my members are getting back to work. Hopefully now the school committee will value the work we do to ensure that the students of Leominster are able to have a safe learning environment every day they come to school." Lanciani lamented that after the layoffs "it felt like we were getting thrown out like the trash we take out every night.

The Junior Custodians represented by Local 1817 will all be reinstated to their previous positions and retain their seniority status for the remainder of the 2017-2018 school year.

Last month the Leominster School Committee had voted 7-0, at the recommendation of Mayor and School Committee Chair Dean Mazzarella, to reverse their earlier decision to layoff the custodians and outsource the work to a private company. The members of Local 1817 were unceremoniously terminated on June 30th without severance, vacation, or longevity pay. The union was also denied the chance to offer a counter proposal which would have maintained the high level of custodial services while also saving the school district a substantial amount of money going forward.

AFSCME Council 93 filed a charge of Prohibited Practice with the Department of Labor Relations over the treatment of the Leominster custodians. A state investigator recently determined that there was probable cause to substantiate the union's complaint. The investigator stated the school committee "has failed to bargain in good faith by transferring bargaining unit work to non-unit personnel without giving the Union prior notice and an opportunity to bargain to resolution or impasse about the decision to transfer bargaining unit work and the impacts of that decision on employees' terms and conditions of employment" was in violation of state law, and "derivatively interfered with, restrained and coerced its employees in the exercise of their rights guaranteed" under state law. The investigator's findings were significant but ultimately it the need for stability and quality services that led to the swift return of the union custodians.

Lanciani was impressed with the dedication and support AFSCME Council 93 staff provided his members throughout the ordeal, "they were there with us every step of the way and helped us prove to the school committee that privatization would be a bad idea for the city."

Council 93 Executive Director Frank Moroney said he was "pleased but not surprised" by the school board's decision. "We know that privatization invariably proves to be a failure in our municipalities and school districts, but sometimes communities need to experience the negative impact firsthand," Moroney said. "We applaud the school committee and mayor for acting quickly to correct this mistake and we look forward to working with them for many years to come to ensure that Leominster's public schools are safely and professionally maintained by a union workforce."