Chicago Tribune: ‘It’s like a slap in the face’: Laid off CPS custodians frustrated, worried about future

PUBLISHED: August 28, 2025 at 5:00 AM CDT

Rebeca Salazar’s morning routine is familiar. For the last three years, she wakes up and travels the few blocks from her house to McNair School of Excellence in Austin, where students and staff know her affectionately as “Miss Becky.” The commute is the shortest in her 25 years as a Chicago Public Schools custodian.

Salazar, 65, knows her day will include cleaning floors and bathrooms in between classes long before she steps foot in the school at 11 a.m. The school’s second floor, which houses third, fourth, fifth graders and special education students, is hers to maintain. She’ll likely be tasked with cleaning up accidents, saving the day by doing the work others often don’t want to do. But for the children she has watched grow up and formed connections with, it’s work worth doing.

This month, however, Salazar was blindsided by a layoff notice from the district with no prior warning. Her husband, also a custodian, got the same notice. They were among more than 1,200 privatized custodians laid off by CPS on Aug. 1, part of an effort to save $40 million as the district tries to plug a $734 million deficit.

“It’s like a slap in the face,” Salazar said. “(CPS) … didn’t think about the kids, they didn’t think about us, they didn’t think about anything.”

On Thursday, the board faces mounting pressure to pass a balanced budget, but despite already cutting thousands of jobs, it’s still unclear how they’ll get there. And in the days leading up to the vote, the fight over labor — and jobs like Salazar’s — has come to the forefront.

District officials insist their budget avoids cuts to classrooms, but the reduction in custodial staff means a potential change in children’s learning environment and the removal of friendly faces that students have come to know.

Positions such as Salazar’s are represented by the Service Employees International Union Local 1, which oversees custodians and other workers under private contracts with companies and organizations, including CPS. An estimated 700 laid-off privatized custodians are expected to be rehired under SEIU’s Local 73, which represents public sector employees in Illinois and northwest Indiana, including some CPS custodians and non-teacher employees.

Salazar, who planned to retire next school year, is now worried about her bills and medical insurance. Her husband is diabetic and depends on medicine to regulate his body, medicine that will skyrocket in price if she loses insurance. Another concern is the pay cut which would change her personal budget.

“It’s frustrating because you’ve already got your budget with the bills you got. Now, (if) you find a job, you’re not going to be making what you were making. It will be less,” Salazar said.

Starting the school year in limbo

The layoffs come just as the school year begins, leaving custodial positions unfilled at the end of next month. Their contracts end Sept. 30.

While laid-off workers have received applications for the new jobs under Local 73, there will still be around 500 custodians out of work. Salazar received the application and some information on jobs, but said her husband has not. She’s told co-workers employed through CPS that she isn’t sure the privatized custodians will be back.

At Florence Nightingale Elementary School on the South Side, 11-year privatized custodian and SEIU Local 1 Vice President Maria Avila has similar worries. Avila was also laid off by CPS and is searching for a job ahead of her contract’s end.

For Avila, 65, the concern extends not only to her livelihood but also to the future of schools. Multiple parents and school staff are worried about the cleanliness of schools due to the absence of privatized custodians, she said.

Right now, she is in limbo while still cleaning her school. While she has heard from Local 1 that they are advocating for CPS to keep janitors, she doesn’t know how it will fare.

Connections beyond cleaning

Relationships between the custodians and the school community — including teachers, parents, staff and students — are hard to foster and maintain, Avila said. When custodians have been there for as many years as she has, comfort and confidence are built. Losing the custodians means losing those relationships, she said.

“One thing that I know for sure is it’s going to be so hard for custodians, hard for the kids, the students, hard for the teachers, because they trust all of the custodians right now,” Avila said.

The custodians’ roles sometimes extend beyond the area of the schools they are scheduled to maintain.

For many of the students at McNair, especially those from Venezuela and Colombia, Salazar has become a confidante, or a reminder that they’re not alone.

“I’m Cuban, and I am an immigrant like you, and I came similarly like you, and I had a lot of difficulties (understanding) the teacher. So whatever you’re coming from and going through, I went through,” she tells them.

She uses her Spanish fluency to reassure kids that they can learn English and be successful.

“When you come for the first time here, you don’t know the language, it’s very difficult to communicate, especially when you are a kid,” she said.

Strained alliances and political stakes

Both SEIU Local 1 and SEIU Local 73 joined together to support the laid-off workers in the wake of the cuts calling for the district to provide clarity on the timeline for new jobs.

Even with the assurance that some workers will be rehired under Local 73, the cuts will still be felt at the schools with fewer custodians in each building, Local 1 Communications Director Bailey Koch said.

“It is great that (SEIU Local) 73 custodians, they still have their jobs, (but) they are going to be expected to do so much more work, and the workload is already heavy,” Koch said. “We’ve heard time and time again that CPS schools are not clean enough.”

Both SEIU unions were earlier supporters of Mayor Brandon Johnson, but relations have since frayed. Earlier this year, SEIU Local 73 accused the Chicago Teachers Union, where Johnson was once an organizer, of trying to absorb SEIU-represented special education roles into its own contract.

Those tensions resurfaced recently as the board considers a proposal that avoids borrowing and uses hundreds of millions in tax increment financing, or money from special taxing districts to cover shortfalls, a move that has drawn skepticism from some board members.

In contrast, SEIU Division Director Trumaine Reeves defended the plan at the board’s last meeting, calling it “thoughtful” and one that avoids “long-term devastation.”

“Any vote against your budget is irresponsible and dangerous, as it shows a willingness to gamble the quality of education for the students of Chicago,” he said to the board, led by interim CPS CEO Macquline King, who has also opposed borrowing against pressure from Mayor Johnson.

A majority of City Council is siding with SEIU in a new letter Wednesday opposing a loan to cover CPS’ $175 million pension payment — and Johnson is feeling the heat. Even close mayoral ally Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, is signing on to the letter, which calls borrowing “willfully reckless.”

It marks a shift for Sigcho-Lopez, who just last year blasted fellow progressives for criticizing Johnson over his ousting of former CPS CEO Pedro Martinez.

At a Tuesday night town hall, the mayor deflected criticism, saying blame belongs in Springfield.

“Here’s the thing: If anybody is trying to make us feel bad for what they owe, something is wrong with them, not us,” he said.

He also took aim at former Mayor Rahm Emanuel for borrowing in the past — and suggested his debt issuance plan was facing more scrutiny because he is a Black man.

“I’m getting sick and tired of people making me feel like I’ve done something wrong for demanding more respect for our people,” Johnson said, drawing cheers.

Tensions flare between unions, CPS

Both unions have criticized the district’s move to cut the privatized workers to save money, a move Koch believes did not substantially impact the budget deficit.

“Saving money off $40 million of custodians that are likely the lowest paid workers in the school district, they’re almost all Black and brown, is not going to fix the budget deficit,” Koch said.

The district laid off thousands of workers over the summer in an effort to close the budget deficit, including crossing guards, teachers and special education classroom assistants, alongside the privatized custodians.

While Koch acknowledged the budget deficit is a real issue, she said it does not excuse the district’s failure to provide a heads-up on layoff notices and rehiring steps.

To Local 73’s Reeves, it seems union workers are always one of the first groups to be cut when layoffs occur. With CPS, the problem starts with the district being underfunded historically, he told the Tribune.

“When there’s no political will to properly fund CPS, the whole district suffers, students, staff, families, everybody,” Reeves said.

Much of the custodian’s frustrations comes from the lack of notice to workers ahead of the layoffs. No consideration or decision-making power was given to the workers, Avila said.

“It’s a shame that they just throw us away like we are like a little piece of garbage after working more than 20 years,” Avila said. “I mean, that’s ridiculous.”

An uncertain future

Even if rehired, custodians feel displaced and disrespected. And at 65, Avila isn’t optimistic.

“They’re going to say, ‘Oh, well they’re too old, they’re not going to be able to clean bigger areas,’” Avila said. “So nobody is going to be sure that they’re going to stay.”

Salazar does not know what awaits her after Sept. 30. On Tuesday, she learned she landed a coveted new custodial position, for $2 less an hour, and does not know if her current seniority or benefits will transfer. There’s also no guarantee she’ll remain at McNair. She worries she might have to drive a long distance to a new school.

For now, she waits. Salazar said she is hoping for the best and still cleaning her school despite her anxiety.

“I hope CPS still considers us, (that) they put their hand on their heart and make this a decision (where) everybody will be at least happy,” Salazar said. “Not happy, (but) at least better than doing what they have to do just because they had to do it, because they need the money.”