Molloy University, custodian contract negotiations stall, union says

Union leaders for 46 custodians at Molloy University said Thursday contract negotiations with the institution seeking wage increases are at a standstill following a one-day strike early last month. 

The custodians, represented by 32BJ Service Employees International Union, have been pushing the private Rockville Centre Catholic university to offer “fair wage increases,” according to the union news release. The union also said Thursday the university has proposed giving Molloy the right to reduce staff headcount each time a cleaner leaves the job, a move the union opposes over its anticipated impact on workloads.

The employees, who have negotiated three-year contracts with Molloy since unionizing in 2018, have been working with an expired contract since Oct. 31.

The union represents more than 25,000 custodians and cleaners at educational institutions and office buildings across the state. On Long Island, the majority of its 1,400 members are cleaners at local institutions, including SUNY Old Westbury, Nassau Community College and NYIT. 

The workers held a one-day strike on Dec. 10 to bring the university back to the negotiating table after union officials said the university failed to set bargaining dates.

“When we tried to schedule additional dates, they would not commit to specific dates,” said Lenore Friedlaender, Long Island director for 32BJ SEIU. “With an expired contract and that lack of urgency and refusal to give specific dates…members needed to take action.”

While Molloy has since engaged in two more bargaining sessions since the one-day strike and scheduled to resume negotiations on Jan. 8, Friedlaender said the union and university remain “very far apart” on the issue of wage increases.

“We’re not even in the ballpark,” she said. 

University officials said in a statement the school would continue bargaining but did not address wage increases in negotiations. 

"We value the work that our custodians do, and we continue to negotiate in good faith,” the university said, adding, “Follow-up meetings with the union have already been scheduled."

On Long Island, where the minimum wage increased to $16.50 on Jan. 1, entry level wages for janitors and cleaners average $34,725 per year, or $16.70 an hour, according to state Labor Department figures. Wages for experienced cleaners average $24.03 per hour, or $49,976 annually. 

Shital Patel, labor market analyst with the Labor Department’s Hicksville office said the number of janitors and cleaners working on the Island is projected to grow by 25% in the coming years, to 27,350 in 2030 from 21,800 in 2020.

“We project there will be 3,805 openings per year. There is high turnover in the occupation with 1,720 of those openings from occupational transfers," she said.

Philip Montalbano, 37, of Baldwin, a Molloy custodian for 17 years and an SEIU member for six years, said, “We all are struggling, and the wage increase would be huge because it’s just really expensive here on Long Island,” adding he can't afford to live on his own.

While Montalbano makes roughly $25 an hour, starting wages for Molloy custodians are $16.50 an hour, per their previous contract. The average wage for workers is less than $19 per hour, the union said.

Starting wage for new custodians is about $3 less than what other private universities in the area offer, the union said.