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Origins
In the 1920's and 30's working conditions at Wellesley College were becoming intolerable. Most service employees lived in the basements of dormitories, worked split shifts (from morning to night with a few hours off during the afternoon) and were subject to arbitrary firings by house mothers in charge of individual dorms. In 1941 workers decided to organize to fight this unfair treatment. The leaders of this movement were Fred Pillion and John Daly, both from Cochituate. In 1942 four hundred Wellesley service workers became part of the Building and Maintenance division of Local 254 of the AF of L/CIO after the union was overwhelmingly approved in an election at Schneider Center. The union was voted in despite the intimidating presence of Mr. Hodge, the college business manager, who was standing outside the polls at Schneider. Ed Sullivan was the business agent for local 254. Sullivan had helped in organizing Wellesley's workers by collecting the signatures of 30% of the workers in favor of a union and filing with the labor relations board for the election. |
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It did not take long for Wellesley's service workers to realize they had no voice with the union in Boston. Tom Collins was then the president of Local 254. Wellesley had no representatives on the executive board of the union. The only connection of Wellesley to the union was a secretary who collected the union dues and reported to Boston what was happening at Wellesley. Wellesley workers wanted a union steward to better represent their interests with the larger union body. In 1945 workers took nine buses to Boston to push for Fred Pillion and John Daly to be on the Local 254 board. Wellesley then found that the union in Boston was stamping the Wellesley union dues as a day late so no one at Wellesley was considered a member in good standing meaning Wellesley could not be represented or have a vote. All the union employees at Wellesley were very angry and started looking for away out of Local 254. |
It was very rare for a union to become independent, but in
1946 Wellesley's union employees seceded from the AF of L/CIO. Local 254
was shocked and by losing 400 workers they lost a big chunk of their
membership and dues income. Paul White of the Lithographer's union and
a Boston Globe employee helped the union become independent. Most of
the officers of Wellesley's now independent union came from
the Maintenance department (Service Building). Officers included Felix
McGuiness- grounds, Loy Lutton- steam shop, and Paul Jones- electrician.
Conducting Union Business The first union grievance to go to arbitration was in 1947. A temporary custodian in the Chapel, who had been employed at the college for about three months, was made the boss. The arbitration was about the fairness of not giving the job to someone who had been at the college longer. Paul Jones argued the case. Judge Caplan, a trustee of the College had been chosen as an arbitrator by the union. |
The union lost the case with the arbitrator
saying the college can hire whoever they want for management. In 1953
Fred Pillion resigned as business agent. Fred, a small quiet man was
succeeded
by John Daly, a very assertive former semi-pro football player. John
was very intimidating to Donald Height, the business manager of the College.
John was business agent until 1958. Lloyd Luttonwas the next BA until 1966.
Joe was the next BA until 1966. Joe Sims then became BA by winning the
1966
election. John Miller became BA in 1970 until he had a stroke and Joe Sims
took over again. Leslie Pano became business agent in 1982 and remains
so today. |
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The mid 1960's was a difficult time for the union. Custodians were making $1.62/hour and were only offered a two cents /hour raise. Joe Sims presented College President Ruth Adams with seventeen pages of grievances as soon as she took office. Adams handled the grievances well and maintained good communication with the union executive board. In 1973 students successfully protested against union women custodians being paid on a lower wage scale than male custodians. In the mid 1970's union workers in food service were being replaced
by students. Union membership dropped from 310 to 240. In 1974 there
were twenty two union grounds employees, now there are half that. Claflin
and Schafer kitchens shut down further cutting union numbers. Employees
who had been living in the basement of Stone-Davis were moved to Dower,
Lake House and Gray House in order to make room for more students. Union
employees continued to be shuffled
around in housing through the late 1970's into the early 1990's. The
only remaining buildings that house union employees are Gray house and
41 Service Drive. |
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Recent history Recent history includes attempts to revive a trades helper program to help advance lower paid employees in food service and custodial into learning a skilled trade and eventually a higher paid position. In the past there was a system for union members to move up to better positions but the gradual disappearance of the trade's helper position ended upward mobility. A small scale revival of the program in the late 1990's was only semi-successful. The closing of Munger Kitchen in 2001and the loss of those positions was difficult for the union though employees were placed in other kitchens resulting in no lay-offs. |
The Future This history has documented some of the battles and setbacks the IMSEUA
has experienced. The history of most labor unions is generally one of
overcoming adversity yet overall the union is very proud of being unique
to Wellesley College and considers the relationship to be very successful.
Today the union numbers about 275 members. We look forward to continued
good faith bargaining with Wellesley College in the years to come. |
 Franklin Moore Custodial
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Created by: Heather Clark, hclark2@wellesley.edu and Rachel
Prottas, rprottas@wellesley.edu
Maintained by: Tricia Diggins, pdiggins@wellesley.edu
Created: November 11, 2003
Last Modified:
Expires:
