Rhode Island’s T.F. Green Airport dominated national rankings this year, voted the No. 1 airport in the United States by Travel + Leisure on a set of criteria that included service, friendliness and design, among others.
But one criterion in the ranking — cleanliness — has been called into question over the last year, with the airport facing several complaints related to tidiness. In August, the Rhode Island Airport Corporation selected a new cleaning vendor, Massachusetts-based SJ Services, which began service at the end of October, wrote Rhode Island Airport Corporation spokesperson Bill Fischer in an email to The Herald.
Selected for a three-year contract, SJ Services seemed to present a fresh start for T.F. Green’s cleanliness. But the change cut the airport’s janitorial staffing in half — from 27 employees to 12, wrote Roxana Martinez-Gracias, a spokesperson for 32BJ Services Employees International Union, which represents the workers.
The cuts were “blindsiding,” said Maria Cole, a member of T.F. Green’s janitorial staff team who has been working at the airport for over 20 years. The Herald conducted the interview with Cole in Spanish, and responses were translated by Martinez-Gracias.
“The workers certainly were aware of a vendor change, but were not aware of how many people were going to be affected, cuts-wise and job-wise,” Cole added. Due to her seniority, Cole kept her job when the job cuts were implemented.
RIAC began searching for new janitorial services in June and received proposals from five vendors, according to Fischer. The previous vendor, ISS Facilities, did not choose to submit a proposal, he added.
During this process, RIAC found that the airport only required 2,700 hours per month of janitorial service, as opposed to the previous 4,600 hours spread across the 27 employees, Fischer wrote. This new time stipulation was reflected in the proposals submitted by each vendor that applied.
During the tenure of ISS Facilities, which has operated janitorial services at the airport for about 15 years, “RIAC received multiple complaints from passengers, airlines and business partners about unclean restrooms and poor terminal upkeep,” Fischer wrote. He noted that RIAC issued two formal breach-of-contract notices before beginning to look for new services.
But, RIAC found their service issues were “serious, repeated and unacceptable,” Fischer added.
According to Fischer, T.F. Green earned the No. 1 airport title “through the dedication of RIAC’s workforce, not through substandard janitorial service.”
The Herald was unable to reach ISS Facilities for comment.
On Oct. 30, the day before the new vendors started, a group of cut janitorial staff distributed leaflets at T.F. Green calling for the full team’s jobs to be restored. A banner held by the former staff read “Keep T.F. Green safe and clean.”
Cole said that the janitorial team had a “good relationship” with the previous vendor and there was sufficient staff given the workload. But since the cuts were implemented, janitorial services and facilities maintenance have struggled significantly.
She explained that there were previously seven workers on the morning shift, but job cuts reduced the number to four. This distribution of work, Cole said, “makes it difficult to provide a good service to the customers.”
According to the current custodial collective agreement, T.F. Green’s workers should be protected when a vendor changes, Martinez-Gracias wrote.
Fischer wrote that the “union is demanding an arbitrary increase in staffing, using a poorly performing previous vendor as the yardstick.”
“RIAC is not in a position, nor is it legally permitted, to create additional positions at a cost of $93,000 per position for janitorial roles that fall outside the scope of a competitively awarded contract, simply to satisfy a union demand based on a previously underperforming vendor,” Fischer added.
Still, the cuts have “been a significant change,” Cole said. “There’s not enough staff anymore to do the work that needs to be done.”
Pavani Durbhakula is a senior staff writer and photographer. She is a first-year from DC and plans to study IAPA and Public Health. In her free time, she enjoys baking, reading, and searching for new coffee shops.
