Sunday, August 26, 2012

Five fired General Theological Seminary workers say their lives ‘a living hell’


From The New York aily News-

It’s hard to imagine a group of workers with a giant inflatable rat protesting outside a religious institution as prestigious as the General Theological Seminary.

Yet, that’s exactly what is happening at the Episcopal Church’s oldest seminary, where five maintenance workers who lost their jobs after many years of service say their lives have been turned into “a living hell.”

“Working for a church is different, it is not like any other job, we thought we were like family,” said Godfrey Johnson, 52. “But now we have been let go with nothing, not even a word of thanks.”

Not to mention severance pay.

After working for a long time at the West 21 St. seminary — 24 years in the case of Johnson — the five employees were notified on July 27 that their jobs would terminated July 31.
The seminary is confronting severe financial problems and has been trying to cut corners. Unfortunately in this case it did so on the back of the workers. The seminary kicked out Aramark, a union cleaning contractor and, according to the Rev. Lang Lowrey, president of the seminary for the last three years, replaced it with Able, a non-union shop. The fired workers belong to SEIU Local 32BJ.

Read more:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/fired-general-theological-seminary-workers-lives-a-living-hell-article-1.1144439#ixzz24eHx0CXy

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