The current pay scale shows that six of the 35 custodians-all of whom have been working at Amherst for 16 to 23 years-have not had a raise in five years. Because of increases in cost of living, these employees' real wages have decreased in recent years.
"There's currently a scale of pay and it starts around $9.56 an hour. After you work three years and get decent evaluations, you can get raises. Five years ago the College created ranges. When they did that, there were some who made more than the range. So, they were called out of range," said a supervisor in the custodial department, who asked not to be identified.
According to President Tom Gerety, the College does not believe in basing pay raises on cost of living increases.
"We don't do that and we don't believe in it," said Gerety. "Our increases are set on a more general basis."
"Every year the range goes up based on how the economy is going and how these types of jobs are going with respect to other jobs. But these six people ... will still be out of range for four to five more years," added the supervisor. "But they had a bonus this year of $1,000."
"We always want to be generous and competitive," said Gerety. "We try to pay as well as or better than other institutions in similar positions."
The supervisor said that the pay scale had negatively affected morale, though output had stayed the same. "People are proud of what they do," said the supervisor.
"I think they made a fiscal decision," the supervisor added.
But Mitch Koldy, the custodial supervisor and an employee of the College for 17 years, said that crew morale has not suffered but has improved in recent years.
"Without a doubt, clearly pay is an issue with regard to morale," said Koldy. "But productivity has not been affected at all. 17 out of 36 people have ten plus years in the department."
Koldy added that he finds the pay scale fair.
"I agree with the administration but I agree with the people who are frozen, too; I agree with their anger," he said. "But I want to say that two years ago the issue of pay was raised and Jim Brassord did a study of what custodians were making and he raised the base pay."
"By my account there have been approximately 10 people who have been promoted to other positions [in my tenure]," said Brassord.
"Another issue with regard to morale is that there used to be complaints about movement within the college," said Koldy, "But since Jim Brassord became the Director of Facilities Planning and Management I can count one custodian who went into an electrical appliance program, three custodians who moved into HVAC [Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning] and one custodian who became the Housekeeper of Special Services."
"Another custodian became an assistant custodial supervisor. I, myself got my job after my boss moved into his own department. For Jim Brassord to be here only four years there's basically have been one movement per year and for a small physical plant that's really a lot," he continued.
"We include the custodians in our design reviews, and we also include the custodians in the process where we prepare dorms before convocation, winter vacation, and summer programs. We've also improved safety," added Brassord. "On a regular basis, we have open meetings with the custodial staff where they can address their problems."
Brassord said that the retention rate of the custodial staff is more telling of their morale level.
"Even though I understand why some of the staff is disappointed in not getting raises, I think the best measure of the morale of a staff is retention. We still attract a lot of people, and we keep a lot of people," said Brassord.
But the improvements made by Brassord are little consolation to some veterans in the custodial department.
A custodian, who has been working at Amherst for 16 years and also asked not to be identified, expressed the displeasure of the custodians affected by the cap.
"Morale isn't good, especially as you consider how much cost of living is going up. We were rewarded by what we did via job performance because they brought us up that way. And I was hurt. But on the other hand, I understand why they did that," said the custodian.
But the custodian said that he had never considered resigning. "Oh, no. I couldn't afford to."
Another supervisor, who asked not to be identified, explained what he perceived to be the administration's rationale for adjusting the pay scale. "At the time, there was a big discrepancy in pay. The gap got bigger each year. The older custodians were making $35,000 and the new guys were making $18,000 for doing the same job. But it affects many jobs; it affects librarians. So, yeah, I agree with the decision."
Director of Human Resources Kathryn Bryne and Associate Director of Human Resources Ruth Thornton both said that they felt morale had not declined but had improved among workers in the custodial department and the physical plant in general.
"Originally, 122 people were over the range, today only 30 people are over the range. And they'll probably be back in the range in two to three years. We can't tell the exact ranges, but we're estimating that they will be back in range in two to three years," said Thornton.
"We've always had a range of salaries," said Koldy. "It was probably 4-5 years ago that they held to the cap. Each year people out of the range do receive bonuses, and each year people do drop back into the range."
"When our program began, we studied the classification of various workers and reclassified people according to their grade and a number of people actually got raises because of their grade adjustments," said Bryne. "Every year people over the range receive bonuses instead of raises to their hourly wage. In addition, a contribution is made to their retirement accounts as if they received an increase in hourly wages."
"We also have improved educational resources for custodians. For instance if a custodian wanted to become an electrician we would give them the money. If people aren't happy with their job, they'll leave. And people aren't leaving," explained Thornton.
"There's been a lot of career growth since we instituted our program," Bryne added. "Usually when someone has reached the max they're looking for promotions and we've had a lot of that happen. People are really given the chance to take advantage of moving themselves."
"It's a difficult and painful program, but I think if you asked people if they were paid well they would say yes, because they are, in fact they're paid very well," said Thornton.
When asked if targeting by the administration was the reason to choose to remain anonymous the custodian responded that targeting was an issue in the past.
The situation has improved greatly over the years but the response is still the same.
"I think Smith College starts out higher. I think our group is much more productive. I used to work at [the University of Massachusetts] and we do twice as much as UMass. Say they do five different things, we do 10. Years ago we had all this training and stuff, but I don't know about the new guys," said the custodian.
"If the kids do something, that would make me feel better," the custodian added. "It would make me feel better that someone had compassion."
Marisol Thomer '03, co-chair of Financial Aid and Class Equality, said that, though the group has not necessarily focused on staff class issues, they do sympathize with the workers' situation. "I think we've fallen into the trap of not being as aware of staff problems as we are of student problems," she said. "We would be glad to lend our assistance in any possible way."