Belkis Cabrera has worked as a custodian at the University of Missouri-Kansas City for 16 years. Each time she and her co-workers earn a merit raise, she said, increasing healthcare costs and inflation swallow it.
“We are not asking for much, just respect and enough pay to get by,” Cabrera said through an interpreter at an Aug. 22 press conference at UMKC. “We are human beings and we deserve that at least.”
The Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 955 — the organizer of the Aug. 22 press conference which represents some university workers — wants the University of Missouri system to pay service and maintenance workers at least $19 an hour.
The union has also raised the issue in Columbia, including a Sept. 3 rally where a plane flew over campus carrying a banner that read “MU pays poverty wages.”
“This is about much more than custodians. We’re talking about food service workers, electricians and plumbers. The university is not paying anyone a competitive or living wage,” said Luke Fennewald, an organizer for Local 955. “They are all valued members of the community, but I don’t think they are being treated right by what should be a shining public institution in Kansas City and Columbia.”
In a written June response to the union, reviewed by The Beacon, the university called a $19 wage floor “not financially feasible.” The university system said that its compensation philosophy and structure is “based on the cost of labor rather than the cost of living.”
“The University of Missouri-Kansas City values its employees and provides competitive wages and benefits,” Stacy Downs, UMKC’s director of strategic communications, said in an emailed response to The Beacon’s request for interviews or comment on issues raised.
The UM system’s publicly available job code listing starts its lowest pay grades for service and maintenance jobs at $15 an hour, the same as Missouri’s minimum wage. New UMKC custodians typically start around $16 an hour, the union says.
That is lower than what several similar employers in the area offer. According to recent listings, the hourly pay at the University of Kansas starts at $18 an hour for custodians. Kansas City Public Schools have an open position starting at $20.35 an hour and Columbia (Missouri) Public Schools start at $17 an hour.
State law gives unionized public sector workers no right to strike and sets no deadline or mediation structure for yearly wage negotiations. In response to perceived inaction after four meetings with the university this year, Local 955 has taken the wage fight public.
What workers are seeking
Nohemi Cocas Espinal, a UMKC custodian for three years, said the university’s answers never change.
“Whether it is a $19 an hour minimum wage, compensating us for working odd hours or translating safety information into Spanish the answer is always ‘we cannot afford it,’” she said through an interpreter at the Aug. 22 press conference.
Local 955 represents custodians, groundskeepers, cooks, electricians and other service and maintenance workers at UMKC numbering between 40 and 60 workers according to Fennewald. He and Andrew Hutchinson, Local 955’s deputy business manager, estimate union membership across the entire university system and MU Health Care to be 1,000 to 1,500 workers.
The state law that spells out public workers’ right to collectively bargain only requires public employers to meet with unions and discuss their proposals. The governing body, in this case the Board of Curators, has the power to then adopt, change or reject the proposal.
Every three years the union and the university negotiate to reach a broad agreement called an understanding of policies — what most unions would call a contract. While the union can’t challenge raises and earnings through a grievance process like many private sector unions can, at the beginning of each year wage talks can take place.
Local 955’s written proposal this year asks for a minimum of $19 an hour — $20 at UMKC — along with a 5% cost-of-living raise. Other requests include a reduction in employee insurance costs.
University workers also have to pay to park on campus lots. At UMKC that starts at about $42 a month.
“We should not have to pay to come to work,” Cabrera said. “Parking should be free for workers.”
One issue specific to custodians at UMKC is shift differential. According to university policy, shifts that begin before 4 a.m. are eligible for a bump in pay. The typical shift for a UMKC custodian is 4 a.m. to noon.
“If they started one minute earlier, they would earn an extra dollar an hour, which adds up,” Hutchinson said.
The midpoint wage — what the university considers market rate — for a fully trained, experienced UMKC custodian is $17.50 an hour with a maximum of $22.90. The MIT Living Wage calculator estimates that it takes $22.97 to earn a living wage in Kansas City for a single person with no children or $27.66 for a family with two children where both parents work.
“We are asking to have enough to pay rent, bills and everything necessary for us to have a dignified life and not to live with so much stress of ‘how I am going to make it to the next paycheck,’” Cabrera said.
University response
Representatives from the union and the university have met four times this year without much agreement.
The Beacon reviewed Local 955 proposals and response documents given to the union from the university system. In June, the university said it could not agree to the request for a $19 minimum wage systemwide and a $20 minimum wage at UMKC.
“This is not financially feasible and would result in significant compression issues,” their response reads. “The University’s compensation philosophy is merit-based and anticipates approximately a 2% merit pool will be available for all qualifying employees.”
Inflation — as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ consumer price index — is up 3.4% since August 2025.
In a July response the university estimated that if wage floors were implemented systemwide for all union-eligible positions, that would cost the university $2.69 million annually. At UMKC specifically, they estimated the cost to be $433,797 annually, affecting 112 employees.
For scale, the Board of Curators approved a $5.5 billion budget for the University of Missouri system for the fiscal year 2027. The added cost of the proposed wage floor would be 0.05% of that overall budget or roughly 5 cents for every $100.
However, many of the funds in the university system budget are restricted to specific purposes and the funding formula may soon be in flux, which would affect how much money goes to the university system from the state.
State Sen. Patty Lewis, a Democrat who represents the district that includes UMKC, acknowledged the funding squeeze from the state while at the Aug. 22 press conference.
“I know the state budget is tight, but budgets are about priorities,” Lewis said, pointing to other expensive state-funded projects before comparing them to the cost of a wage floor being sought by the workers. “What you’re asking for is reasonable, affordable, and it is long overdue.”
What happens next?
So far, the university’s Aug. 14 counteroffer includes a 2.7% raise for 15 campus dining workers in Columbia. The university also offered a few other small concessions like increasing a shoe or boot allowance. Many remaining requests, like shift differential and the larger wage questions, are “under evaluation,” and union representatives say they are waiting on final decisions.
When they asked for a decision timeline, Hutchinson said, the university declined to give one because the union would be upset if they missed it. Hutchinson said that would never work in reverse.
“If the boss asked, ‘Hey, when can you get around to scrubbing that toilet?’ and they responded, ‘Well, I don’t know and I don’t want to give you a timeline because if I break it you’ll be mad at me,’ we would be rightfully laughed off the job,” he said.
Hutchinson said the university told him some answers may not come by the end of the year. If they don’t, he considers that a no, and the union can give notice by Jan. 15 to open next year’s wage talks.
“I fully believe that we’re going to be able to reach a compromise and we’re going to be able to reach an agreement,” he said.
Cabrera, who’s 16 years into the job, said she wasn’t asking for a $19 minimum wage just for herself.
“I come today to raise my voice for all my co-workers in our department,” Cabrera said. “Not just for our benefit, but for our families to have what is necessary, not luxuries.”
This story was originally published by The Beacon, a fellow member of the KC Media Collective.
