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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUnion members rally at USF \/\/ Chris Young, WMNF News, 4\/29\/2026<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUnion members rally at USF \/\/ Chris Young, WMNF News, 4\/29\/2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tListen:<\/p>\n
Contracted custodial workers at the University of South Florida say they want a fairer contract from their contractor, SSC Services for Education.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They rallied outside on the USF Tampa campus on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Janitors, groundskeepers, maintenance workers, and their allies waved signs demanding a better contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Negotiations between the workers\u2019 union, 32BJ SEIU, and SSC haven\u2019t reached a collective bargaining agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Union members say they want more affordable healthcare and criticize a proposed 1.5% annual raise, which the union calls \u201cbottom of the barrel.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Onex Cortez is a maintenance technician at USF.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of us here are in an age group, or an age demographic where we\u2019re, we\u2019re at this point where we\u2019re planning for our future, we\u2019re planning for retirement, and now we kind of have to look to alternative means, and what was being proposed to us and what we\u2019ve been offered is unacceptable,\u201d Cortez told WMNF.<\/p>\n
Juan Pe\u00f1a is an electrician at USF.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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\u2019t 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.\u201d Pe\u00f1a said.<\/p>\n
In 2024, the University of South Florida privatized its custodial jobs and outsourced the work to SSC Services for Education.<\/p>\n
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