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The short explanation of this alert was:

For a year, 350 Unicco janitors and groundskeepers at Nova Southeastern University have been struggling for a living wage, health care, and unionization. Unicco Janitors at Nova earn as little as $6.50/hour and many live well below the federal poverty line. Now these workers are also fearful that they will all lose their jobs at the university.

Nova is one of three major universities in the South Florida area, along with University of Miami and Florida International University. Both of those schools have these universities have helped lift hundreds of local families out of poverty while recognizing the rights of workers in the past year. Nova is the last hold out.

Nova Southeastern University President Ray Ferrero, Jr. long claimed that the school was a neutral party in this struggle. This, however, proved not to be true. At the end of September, Unicco agreed to respect the workers right a majority sign up and recognized the union when the workers voted to join. Within hours of Unicco's agreement, Nova Southeastern University administrators announced that the school would be rebidding the janitorial contract, without making any promise that the current staff would be retained or given priority for the new jobs.

Last week, after a month with no clear decision, Nova stated to Unicco that it will make its decision on the janitorial contract, and in that, the fate of the workers in two weeks. This means that the 350 low-wage workers at Nova could lose their jobs over Thanksgiving weekend.

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