To the editors,

This Tuesday, April 30, 2019, The Argus published an article detailing the administrative response to student and custodial protests about unreasonable custodial workloads at Wesleyan. This article contained a misleading, one-sided assertion from the University’s spokespeople regarding SMG workers:

“We’re unaware of any official complaints from the SMG workforce to SMG, to their union or to Wesleyan’s administration.”

All five of us have complained to SMG management in the past year about our unreasonable workloads. SMG has ignored our complaints and has not reassigned us or lessened our workloads.

When workers complain and the company disregards our voices, this discourages other workers from coming forward. Custodians have reason to believe that complaining not only won’t alleviate their overwork but could potentially result in retaliation. For the past six years workloads at Wesleyan have been unreasonable for many workers. So many people are overworked that there is no way to fix the problem by moving assignments around. Only hiring five more workers can correct the unfair workloads at Wesleyan. To students at Wesleyan: don’t be afraid to talk to custodians about our workloads and hear from us firsthand! Students and workers have worked together to build this movement and we as SMG workers hope students continue to stand behind us until we win.

Signed,

Jose, Liset, Leonidas, Gloria, Anonymous worker, Student members of USLAC