University of South Florida custodial workers rally against contractor during negotiations

Union members rally at USF // Chris Young, WMNF News, 4/29/2026

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Contracted custodial workers at the University of South Florida say they want a fairer contract from their contractor, SSC Services for Education. 

They rallied outside on the USF Tampa campus on Wednesday. 

Janitors, groundskeepers, maintenance workers, and their allies waved signs demanding a better contract. 

Negotiations between the workers’ union, 32BJ SEIU, and SSC haven’t reached a collective bargaining agreement. 

Union members say they want more affordable healthcare and criticize a proposed 1.5% annual raise, which the union calls “bottom of the barrel.” 

Onex Cortez is a maintenance technician at USF.  

“A lot of us here are in an age group, or an age demographic where we’re, we’re at this point where we’re planning for our future, we’re planning for retirement, and now we kind of have to look to alternative means, and what was being proposed to us and what we’ve been offered is unacceptable,” Cortez told WMNF.

Juan Peña is an electrician at USF.

“The insurance that we have now, we have to pay out of pocket for a lot of stuff, like, me, I have a condition that I need to get bloodwork every three months. Before I didn’t have to worry about it. Now, every time I go there I still have to pull out of my pocket thirty dollars, forty dollars, just for bloodwork.” Peña said.

In 2024, the University of South Florida privatized its custodial jobs and outsourced the work to SSC Services for Education.