The ECC Board of Trustees has dropped plan to outsource the custodians.  Instead, they passed a new plan to seek an outside company which will provide SUPERVISION for the custodians.  They assured the audience that they will keep the present custodians as direct employees of the college, and that the custodians will keep their present benefits.  But they plan to pay for the new supervisory management contract out of savings which will come from new efficiencies.

They expected this announcement to be greeted with gratitude, and to some degree it was.  But to many of us it appears that they new arrangement will mean that the custodians will have to work faster and harder and that their hours will be cut.

I will be meeting with the head of the teachers union, some staff members and students and others to discuss  how we can keep on top of this situation.

Clearly the board and the president felt the heat of the anger that they had stirred up over the past several weeks, and clearly they dropped the outsourcing plan as a result of that heat.

Mary