The Tartan

By Sophia Levin

Clementine Wagner offers an open invitation to be anyone’s campus grandmother. As a custodial worker at Carnegie Mellon, her priority is her students. Last semester, one of her conversations began when she asked a first-year how his week was going and ended when he said, “I feel better now that I talked to you.”

Clem has supported students through bad relationships, break ups, and stressful weeks. She skips the gym and study rooms when students are using them and returns when they are empty. When she mops the stairs, she leaves one side dry so students don’t slip. When students weren’t cleaning up after themselves, she left notes on the white boards that read, “Please be kind, don’t leave trash behind.” She said students were receptive.

“Y’all my babies,” she told The Tartan. “I clean and I work this way and I treat people the way I want to be treated.” With every Windexed window, pristine bathroom, and meaningful conversation, Clem is showing students that she cares. In turn, they tell her how much they appreciate her. She wants the custodial management company, UG2, to do the same.

The Tartan spoke with 13 custodians who shared similar stories. They discussed staffing shortages from retirements, firings, and quittings, pay that was delayed, missing, and inexplicably cut, upper managers who made workers feel disrespected and uncomfortable, retaliatory disciplinary action when workers spoke up, and a union that has let grievances slide. Many workers said they are at a breaking point.

New contract, invisible rules

In January 2023, Carnegie Mellon began its contract with a new management company, UG2. The company replaced Aramark, which had been on campus since 2015. IRS Form 990s indicate that, from 2018 to 2022, the university paid Aramark $48.3 million. Facilities operations director Charity Anderson said the university cannot disclose the new contract amount or decision process in selecting UG2.

UG2 is a private facilities service company with headquarters in Boston and satellite offices in nine cities across the country, none of which are Pittsburgh. Founded in 2012, it has over 18,000 employees nationwide and its contracts include the New England Patriots’ football stadium and Stanford University. In February, the Stanford Daily reported that UG2 is mistreating its workers and using intimidation tactics against them.

The first year UG2 managed Carnegie Mellon custodial workers, it was expected to follow the contract between Aramark and the workers’ union, SEIU 32BJ. Instead, employees told The Tartan, the company began making changes unannounced. It shifted the pay system from every two weeks to every week. Workers expecting pay on Fridays waited until Monday to receive their full wages, and even then, they said it could take weeks for their overtime and holiday pay to be deposited.

In November, a group of crew members joined a committee to negotiate a new union contract. Clem said the committee was excellent and workers were happy with the final contract. It included better pay, seniority, and sick leave policies, as well as Juneteenth off. Custodians at Carnegie Mellon are paid $21.40 per hour, which is a few dollars higher than the city average for custodial work. 

Workers hoped that with a new contract, which went into effect on Jan. 1, 2024, their problems with UG2 would resolve. They did not.

Staffing capacity spreads workers too thin

Every crew member The Tartan spoke with said there are not enough workers to cover campus needs. Since UG2 arrived, workers have quit, retired, and been fired. Custodians said that there have not been enough new hires to keep up.

Three people used to cover Morewood Gardens, which is now cleaned by Clem and one colleague, who is often pulled to other buildings. When Clem’s manager tells her to do more than her daily workload, that can mean covering the entire building herself.

In February, Clem had to pull trash from all seven floors in Morewood Gardens, in addition to her daily work cleaning the basement, first, and second floors — which include a laundry room and gym, study and recreational spaces, stairs, hallways, offices, kitchens, and bathrooms. At the end of the day, she asked her manager if someone could bring the trash from the basement to the dumpster. The manager said yes, but the trash was there the next day. Clem took it out herself.

Four days later, her manager told Clem to trash the entire building again and restock all its cleaning supplies. “I do all of this,” Clem said, gesturing toward Morewood Gardens’ common spaces, “plus all of that,” she said of the new tasks. “I’m one person. I know I’m great,” she said, laughing at her gold- standard work ethic, “but you’re going to kill me.”

Employees said there are no longer relief workers, who had covered buildings when their colleagues were out. Without them, crew members who already have a full day of work are expected to take on more.

On March 15 and 16, Ntasisi was the only person covering Stever House, which usually has three people doing runs. She said she went home in pain and her kids had sandwiches for dinner because she did not have the energy to cook. “Sometimes I go home and I’m hurting so bad,” she said.

Trey, who chose a pseudonym and has worked in campus custodial services for five years, said he is taking on three jobs instead of one — he is a lead custodian, does regular runs, and is often told to do project work. Both project workers and lead cleaners receive $21.90 per hour, but Trey is paid the $21.40 custodial rate. He is often pulled from his run to lift heavy equipment, which is not included in his title as a custodial worker. This included a call to carry refrigerators, which he had to do himself. He said that just because he has the strength to do a task does not mean he is the one who should be doing it — he expects to do the work for which he is paid, not the work for which UG2 cannot find coverage.

The Tartan also reviewed documentation of supervisors doing runs. This leaves them less time to complete the responsibilities in their own job descriptions, like training new hires. It also demonstrates that work that used to be covered by relief workers, who were full-time employees, is now covered by people who already have a full day of work scheduled.

During an interview with The Tartan, one worker received a call from her supervisor letting her know he was covering another building.

According to the union contract, supervisors may only “perform bargaining unit work” — which includes runs — to train employees, test new methods, or handle an emergency. By relying on supervisors to cover for custodians, UG2 is violating the union contract.

According to Kathryn Leary, the communications manager of facilities, infrastructure and risk management at Carnegie Mellon, staffing levels have not changed since UG2 arrived. “In 2020, custodial staff increased by approximately 10 custodians and has remained consistent since then, with staffing currently at approximately 170 custodians,” she wrote in a statement to The Tartan.

The Tartan reviewed a staff list posted on Jan. 1, 2023 — UG2’s first day — which included 203 workers with seniority. The union contract grants seniority after 90 days of work.

Anderson, the facilities operations director, said she “cannot definitely comment” on the discrepancy.

UG2 said it did not lay off any workers and declined to comment further on staffing capacity.

Many custodians said the fallout of too much work for too few people is that something must be skipped. Either the floors won’t get cleaned, or the bathrooms will be missed, or the trash will accumulate. Entire buildings have gone uncovered for days, custodians said.

One worker said she recently went to Gates and, after seeing it was dirty, learned that it is no longer cleaned on weekends. She said a college tour walked by and she worried prospective students got a bad impression of the university’s cleanliness. “They are tearing this campus apart,” she said of UG2.

‘You don’t even trust her to pay you’: Missing wage, overtime, and holiday pay

For its first two weeks on campus, custodians said, UG2 did not pay its employees. By week three, instead of transferring money to the accounts workers specified on their direct deposit forms, UG2 created new accounts for workers and put their pay in debit cards. It took some people six weeks to receive pay to their preferred bank accounts.

UG2 declined to comment on these details.

In the 14 months since, workers have faced consistent payroll problems. Multiple employees described a back and forth process between themselves and the office manager, Teri Flinder, who oversees payroll. While the union contract promises UG2 will pay workers weekly, multiple crew members said the deposits they expect on Friday often take until Monday — if not another three weeks — to be paid in full. Workers said this is especially true of holiday, sick, and overtime pay.

In September, 27 workers filed a grievance. “This has been an ongoing occurrence since UG2 took over the contract. Employees [are] not getting their proper wage rate,” it stated. Some of the signers specified what they were missing — 10 said holiday pay, seven said overtime pay, and six said regular wages. This included a signer who specified they had issues with “every weekly pay.”

The grievance stated that when employees tell Flinder about these problems, “she always tries to say we are wrong.”

Three people who signed the grievance told The Tartan that their union did not follow up on the grievance.

The union did not respond to repeated requests for comment, including messages sent to the regional communications manager and the workers’ field representative.

UG2’s senior vice president of operations, Jonathan Peck, who is based in Boston, answered questions on behalf of Flinder and Carnegie Mellon account director Doug Hastings.

Peck wrote that UG2 runs a weekly payroll with deposit days on Friday as well as Monday, in case of missing pay. “We are not aware of any outstanding timekeeping/ back pay grievances,” he told The Tartan. He declined to comment on employee relations.

Tyenesha Reddick has worked at the university for nine years. Since UG2 began its management, she said her weekly paycheck has never included her full 40 hours. When Reddick told Flinder, she said, “she just looked at me.”

One employee, Kim, asked to use a pseudonym and has worked on campus for seven years. She said one of her colleagues has waited two months to receive overtime pay and that others have not been paid for sick leave. She explained that when employees miss a day of work, they fill out a form and give it to Flinder.

“If you don’t catch it, you don’t get it,” Kim told The Tartan. Even when workers catch an error, Kim said, “She might pay you, and she might not.” If not, workers must file a grievance to receive it. “You don’t even trust her to pay you.”

Multiple custodians said they or their colleagues asked UG2 to hire an additional person to handle payroll, but that Flinder said she did not need the help.

Another employee who asked for anonymity said she lives paycheck to paycheck and cannot keep up with “random taxing,” forgotten pay, and delayed refunds.

Lisa Jones, who has worked on campus for three years, directly discussed these problems with account director Doug Hastings. It had been months since UG2 arrived, and on Fridays she consistently received less than she had earned. Hastings told her management was still acclimating to the new campus. “I said, ‘Listen, it’s against the law not to pay us the proper wages.’”

A $2,200 bonus becomes $1,100

Alongside standard wages, UG2 also promised to pay employees a one-time, $2,234 bonus. According to the contract, it would be paid on March 1 and exclude taxes and withholdings.

Employees who spoke with The Tartan received between 67 and 49 percent of the initial amount, ranging from $1,500 to $1,100. Multiple workers said their colleague received $900.

In a statement to The Tartan, Peck wrote that employees received between $1,800 to $1,250 for the bonus. He said the variation was based on factors employees claimed on their W-4 forms, including marital status and exemptions.

Peck explained that UG2 paid the bonus in “in lieu of paying $2,234 for two months of Health & Welfare fund payments to the Union.”

UG2 processed the bonus separate from weekly payroll, which means it used the percentage method. This imposed a 22 percent tax on the bonus. Had UG2 included the bonus in workers’ regular paycheck, known as the aggregate method, it would have been taxed at workers’ regular tax rate. 

The bonus was also subject to a FICA tax, which goes toward Medicare and Social Security. Federal law requires the employer and its employees to evenly split this 15.3 percent tax. Instead, UG2 deducted the full amount from employees. 

Peck acknowledged that the FICA tax was withheld from the bonus but did not comment on the employer’s share of the tax.

Some workers were also double-charged for union dues. Each month, UG2 takes $70 from workers’ pay and contributes it to the union. This month, workers were surprised to see they were charged $70 in both their regular pay and their bonus. Employees brought this to their union and UG2 said it would refund the amount. Some have received the refund and others have not.

Workers were also charged for an external processing fee. UG2 used Gusto, an online payroll service, to process the bonus.

“What did you need that for?” one employee asked. “You have a payroll in place that pays us every week.” She said if UG2 needed an online service, it should have covered the expense rather than taking it from workers.

Unjustified write-ups, unresponsive union

The union contract outlines a five-step grievance process between workers and UG2. Workers seldom make it through the first step.

The person filing a grievance — either employee or employer — is expected to convene a meeting before formally issuing a complaint. Instead, workers have been delivered points without explanation.

Points are an internal disciplinary system within UG2. They are not included in the union contract.

At a staff meeting in January, employees were handed envelopes. Inside were slips of paper informing them of points they did not realize they accumulated, without detail of the offense or the date it occurred. The meeting had been advertised as a town hall, but workers said there was no discussion.

Trey, who had never gotten warnings or been written up for his job performance, received 17 points. One person received 24. Another received 70. None received an explanation on the points paper.

This trend continued after the meeting. Tyenesha Reddick did not receive points at the January meeting, but two weeks ago she received 10 without explanation. She said that the threshold is 13 points, but that people have amounts so far beyond that the threshold seems meaningless.

In addition to unexplained points, custodians said they received unjustified write-ups.

Lisa Jones works in Mudge House, a building with three towers, three floors, and no elevators. She said that since UG2 arrived, the number of crew members covering the dorm dropped from three to one.

For two weeks, Jones said the union did not follow up on her grievance. On Feb. 7, she went to the union’s Downtown office to speak with her union representative, Emilio Cano. Someone in the office told her Cano was in a meeting, but Jones made it clear she would stay until they spoke.

Cano asked why Jones had come to the office. “Because I haven’t heard from you,” Jones replied. She told him about the grievance she filed. She added that other workers had not been able to file grievances because the union had not provided enough grievance papers. “I said, ‘If you give us a piece of paper — just give us something,’” Jones recalled. She said without the grievance slips, workers “have nothing to fight with.”

Cano and the union did not respond to requests for comment.

During her grievance hearing with Cano and Hastings two weeks later, Jones said she had to fight for herself. “I wasn’t even here,” she reminded them. Hastings agreed to waive the write up, but said he would leave a note in her file.

“Emilio never said a word,” Jones said of her union representative. He allowed Hastings to leave the note in Jones’ file.

She said with their monthly dues, workers pay for their union to speak up for them. Instead, she felt that her only representative was herself. “I feel like they’re wronging us by not doing their job,” she said of the union.

Workers told The Tartan that the union has “gotten soft” and is letting their grievances against UG2 slide. The union did not provide its members paper copies of their contract with UG2 until March 14, three months after it went into effect.

An employee who has worked at the university for more than 20 years said that filing a grievance feels like getting in line. She said workers can expect to wait for weeks before hearing back from their union.

Harmful tone, low morale

When UG2 came to campus, the managers held a meeting with the custodial workers to introduce themselves. Associate vice president of operations Rob Ryan, who is white, consistently addressed the workers as “you people.”

Ntasisi looked around and wondered, “Where are ‘you people’?” Multiple workers said they hoped someone would speak up, and eventually, an employee did. Ryan apologized.

This was not the first impression workers were looking for. “When you say ‘you people’ to a lot of Black people, you know what that does,” Clem said. “You don’t say that.”

Clem understood that a new management company could mean change, and she was willing to listen. Being approached with a “do what I say” attitude seemed to prohibit discussion. “We understand that companies are run different,” she said. “But if you have a contract, you go by that contract.”

Two workers who asked for anonymity discussed the manager saying “you people” and told The Tartan that UG2 needs to be more respectful and mindful when they speak with crew members.

Wilma, who has worked on campus for nine years and asked to use a pseudonym, identifies as a “do-the-right-thing kind of person.” She said her father taught her to get a union job and put her heart in the work. She riffs off John F. Kennedy to “ask not what my company can do for me, but what I can do for it.”

After the mismanagement she said workers endured under Aramark, UG2 is now “doing the same thing, but a little worse.”

Wilma said that when something is wrong, she goes directly to management and has told them she will take her issue to the Pennsylvania Labor Board if it is not handled. When she was not paid for her vacation week, for example, she told UG2 as soon as she got back and immediately sorted it out. “They know not to play with me,” she said.

The element of UG2 that has been hardest for Wilma is the way upper managers speak to employees. “We’re like bodies without heads,” she said.

Trey, another employee, echoed this. “They look at us not as humans, not as individuals — just another body that can be replaced,” he said.

Many workers felt similarly. They said that morale among workers is low, not just because of messy pay and disrespect from managers, but also because there are fewer opportunities for workers to feel seen. They said one way managers can address this is by celebrating workers and building community.

“When people pass inspections, they should be appreciated,” one custodian told The Tartan. She said UG2 celebrated workers twice — once for Christmas and once for a pizza party. Multiple workers said this falls short of what they need to feel appreciated.

Management has also isolated workers from each other. In years past, when someone needed help, they could call a colleague to work with them. They are now expected to stay in their buildings during breaks.

“It’s a privilege to work here. I am proud to say I work at CMU,” Kim said. She has watched students grow for four years, graduate, and tell their parents how much they appreciate her. Later, they returned to campus and visited her. She told The Tartan she loves the students and staff at Carnegie Mellon and that they are the reason she has stayed on campus. But she said that with so much turmoil within UG2, she is no longer striding onto campus excited for her work day.

Now, she said, “You wonder every day how you’ll get treated.”