GARY -- More than a dozen Gary school custodians showed up at Monday's school board budget and finance committee meeting to express their displeasure with getting laid off on only one day's notice.
Alice Bush, division director for Service Employees International Union Local 73, said 41 employees received notice on Friday that their services would not be needed starting Monday.
"I think that's a cruel thing to do right now, with tax bills coming due and Christmas around the corner," Bush said. "I'm sad and angry at the same time. But we have a powerful group of workers."
Many of the employees were laid off in June. Superintendent Myrtle Campbell said the employees were brought back on as temporary workers in August, shortly before the school year started.
"We had a reduction in force in all categories -- administration, food service, teachers. We cannot call back all workers," Campbell said. "There's been a decrease in enrollment, and we have to lay off employees accordingly."
Bush said the employees were not temporary employees, but full-time employees recalled from layoff for 60 days. She said administrators initially agreed to give them about two months notice, but that didn't happen in this case. Bush said administrators thought the original layoff notices in the spring counted as adequate notice.
One custodian, who didn't wish to be identified, said she was contacted only an hour before her Friday evening shift started.
"They should have given us two weeks if not 30 days notice," she said. "They expected us to have a good enough spirit to come in and work on Friday, which I did.
"We have to come in and clean up the mess that's accumulated. I feel that they feel we're the lowest employees so they can do what they please."
Another custodian said many of the laid-off employees were brought back only two days before school started and found many of the schools were in a tumultuous state.
"They were a mess," she said.
School board member Michael Scott said he didn't know about the situation before Bush spoke up at the meeting. He invited the custodians discuss their concerns in detail at Wednesday's personnel committee meeting.
