Claiming that the company managing Camden County
College's facilities maintenance and custodial care has failed to do its job,
representatives from the faculty and staff union asked the county freeholders
Thursday to rehire employees who were laid off.
"The place is filthy, there are so many bad things
that are going to happen," said Dawn Gaff Merlino, who was laid off from
her custodial job. The first speaker during the public-comment session of the
board's regular meeting, Merlino asked the freeholders for an explanation of
what the union said were layoffs that came without warning.
"I would just like to have somebody at this board
look me in the face and tell me who did this to me, my people, and the
college," she said.
Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr. looked directly at
her and told her the decision was made not by the Freeholder Board but by the
college's board of trustees.
"That is a question for the board at the
college," Cappelli said. "We do not make that decision."
The dozens of union members, sitting in the crowd in red
shirts, weren't having it. With background calls of "Liar!" and
"Damn lies!," Merlino was followed by other members who argued for
the return of the college's maintenance and custodial employees.
They supported their requests with allegations they have
been making regarding the company that was contracted to replace them: thefts,
vandalism, unnecessary overtime, a failure to do the job properly.
The company, Hamilton, N.J.-based Meridian Property
Services, has denied the allegations. The company manager who oversees the
Camden County College contract said Thursday that it had received few
complaints.
In June, the college laid off 47 employees in boiler
maintenance, custodial, and groundskeeping jobs, eliminating the positions and
hiring Meridian in what was described as a cost-saving move. The New Jersey
Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union, has been protesting
since. The union represents the college's faculty, administrative staff, and
support staff.
In a letter dated Sept. 5, the union asked Cappelli for
an independent, third-party forensic audit of "all financial and
operational aspects of the privatization effort at Camden County College."
The union said it would pay half the costs if the county agreed to cover the
other half.
During the response section of the meeting, Cappelli did
not address the speakers' complaints; Ian K. Leonard, the freeholder who is
liaison to the college, did not comment publicly on the allegations.
After the meeting, Cappelli said he had not received the
letter. Other freeholders said they had also not received the letter and had
not heard of a request for an audit.
NJEA's letter made allegations about thefts, vandalism,
and maintenance failures since Meridian took over, but representatives said
Thursday they want the third-party audit to investigate rather than going back
and forth with the college over specific allegations. Cappelli said after the
meeting that an audit would not be the freeholders' to authorize, as the issue
falls in the purview of the college trustees.
Gloucester Township police could not immediately say
Thursday whether they had received reports of theft or vandalism.
Raymond Yannuzzi, president of Camden County College,
said in an interview after the meeting that he had not seen a dip in the state
of the college's facilities. "I don't see that myself, and no one has said
that to me," he said.
As for the privatization of maintenance services, he
said, "I think the transition . . . has been smooth."
Vince Altimari, the Meridian project manager who oversees
the Camden County College site, said he has not received any major complaints
in line with the union's allegations.
"I have a weekly meeting there, and we have had very
little complaint - minor issues, where maybe a trash can got missed or
something along those lines," Altimari said Thursday. "Other than
that, we haven't really got any complaints. . . . All the equipment is
maintained properly."
If the county will not agree to an outside audit, union
representatives said, they would like to see the contract terminated and the
laid-off employees rehired.
Source: Philly.com
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