Marquette custodians distributed a flier on campus this month accusing custodial supervisors, and one in particular, of creating a threatening and inhumane work environment.

The flier declares, "janitors are not animals nor are we machines" and accuses Custodial Supervisor Jackie Roobjenniferh of creating "an atmosphere of intimidation and harassment." The flier also included a plea from the janitors "to be treated with dignity and respect."

The flier said Roob has been "the biggest problem for many years" and asked readers to contact University President the Rev. Robert A. Wild "to investigate the way his janitors are being treated."

Dave Somerscales is a representative of the Service Employees International Union's Local 1, an AFL-CIO affiliate to which the Marquette janitors belong. He said the Marquette custodians worked with him and custodians outside the university to distribute the fliers on Oct. 1.

Somerscales said Roob was the main reason for distributing the flier.

"They're sick and tired of the treatment by Jackie Roob and since this has gone on for years and the human resources department has done nothing proactive, the janitors felt they had no choice but to take public action to draw attention to the problem," Somerscales said.

All custodians interviewed did so on the basis on anonymity. All have been renamed to protect their identity.

Some custodians commenting anonymously, said the flier is false.

Two janitors defended Roob, saying she is a nice person.

"She goes out of her way to help us solve problems, and she helps us make it easier to do our job," said "Chris," one of the janitors interviewed.

"I think Jackie's a good supervisor," said "Jamie." "She does give (the custodians) a lot of respect."

"Terry" said most of the problems with Roob sprang from the race of particular employees. The janitors who expressed support for Roob were white, except for one Latina. Roob is white.

"Everything on that flier about Jackie is true and more," Terry's said. "She's highly racial and partial to certain employees."

"Cody," who was fired, said Roob has a "little clique" of janitors who are good at "spying" and "brown-nosing."

Roob "has a problem with black men" and the majority of people she fires are minorities, Cody said.

Terry said Roob assigns one janitor the work of two or three janitors, which the flier also mentioned. In addition, Terry and "Taylor," another janitor, said they either experienced or heard of Roob unfairly distributing vacation and sick time and visiting hospitals and homes when custodians call in sick to see if they are telling the truth. She penalizes them for being one minute late, and punishes people for leaving after she has already given them permission to do so, the janitors said.

"Morgan" complained to the SEIU and said Roob "saves the university money," because her treatment of janitors causes many of them to quit.

Janitors who support Roob do so because they're scared of the supervisor or of losing their jobs, according to Morgan.

Morgan and Somerscales said the flyer distribution was not an attack on Marquette "as a whole," but only "certain people."

"It's getting worse. It's going to get worse," Morgan said. "You can't go to human resources. You can't go to the big bosses. They don't want to talk to you. It's work, work, work, shut up or you're out."

Roob and all other facility service supervisors said they could not comment and directed questions to University Director of Communication Brigid O'Brien, who issued an e-mail statement.

"The University strives to maintain a positive work environment for all of our employees, and the custodial workers at Marquette are valued members of our team," O'Brien's statement said.