Custodians and maintenance workers for Elementary District 130 serving Alsip, Blue Island, Crestwood and Robbins are calling for the removal of the district’s superintendent and assistant superintendent of human resources as they work to negotiate their union contract.
SEIU Local 73 said the district has canceled two contract bargaining sessions since negotiations started in the summer, but union conflict with Superintendent Colleen McKay and Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Carrie Tisch dates back to 2022.
“The administration has repeatedly retaliated against union stewards and workers, and employees have been punished for alleged violations and then terminated or those same supposed violations,” the union said in a news release Tuesday.
Field organizer Doug Taylor said among the union’s main concerns is a hostile work environment for custodians and maintenance workers that includes racial discrimination, with administrative officials prohibiting workers from speaking any language other than English during disciplinary hearings and prohibiting use of interpreters.
“Advocates are not allowed to speak Spanish in a sidebar with the people they’re representing,” Taylor said.
SEIU Local 73 represents 50 custodians and maintenance workers within District 130, and 95% of those workers are people of color, the union said.
Taylor said administrative officials have also demonstrated a pattern of harassing and targeting union stewards. McKay, Tish and district board members did not immediately respond to requests to comment.
Union members have spoken out against racist and retaliatory practices at past months’ board meetings but as of Tuesday had lost faith in McKay and Tisch, Taylor said. The union’s petition for the board to remove the superintendent and assistant superintendent received more than 900 signatures.
“When we were looking at those options of what to do and how to make progress for our members, this was the step that we chose — to involve the community,” Taylor said.
Other conflicts with district administrators include their rejection of proposals to provide guidance for custodians and maintenance workers in the case of lockdowns or law enforcement events.
“Currently, they don’t know what their role would be in the school,” Taylor said. “So they just want training, that’s all.”
The union has sought and received support of elected officials, with state Rep. Bob Rita calling for an investigation into “allegations of racism, retaliation and anti-union practices” in a union news release Oct. 6.
State Sen. Willie Preston said having started his career as a union janitor, “I know what it feels like to go to work, work hard, and have no respect at the end of the day.”
“Let me be clear to District 130. These workers do their jobs but you need to clean up your act today,” Preston said in the news release.
Union members also spoke up at a recent Blue Island City Council meeting. Mayor Fred Bilotto said in the union news release that concerns raised about District 130 leadership “deserve immediate attention.”
“As a union member, educator and school administrator, I urge the District 130 administration and board to address these allegations and enter into a serious negotiation with the union,” Bilotto said.
Meanwhile, Taylor said the union will continue speaking publicly until the board is forced to take action.
“We’ll continue to raise the issues until we are satisfied that we’re making good progress,” Taylor said.
According to her district biography, McKay stepped into the role of acting superintendent after serving as the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. District 130 announced it would separate with previous Superintendent Tina Halliman after she was placed on administrative leave in 2019.
McKay moved into the role of acting superintendent while Halliman was on leave and stayed on after the former superintendent left the district. Before working for District 130, McKay was a sixth grade teacher and later director of teaching and learning at Joliet District 86.
“Dr. McKay has nearly two decades in public education working in large, urban school districts, and she believes in creating a student-centered educational community focused on empowering students to achieve their own unique individual potential,” McKay’s district biography states.
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