Now, Christmas says, “I see some of them already smiling, they hear the news and they can see the difference.”

With his time as a negotiator coming to a close, Christmas says he is unsure what path his role with SEIU will take. “They want me to become a shop steward,” Christmas says. “Whenever a worker has a complaint I would bring it to the union representative.”

But Christmas says he wonders if he could adapt to being responsible for other workers.

“I would have responsibility over other people—I never have that,” he says. “I work alone and don’t have to worry about that.”

Taking Care of Business

As he talks, Christmas navigates the rows of seats in Paine Concert Hall with his broom, sweeping spent pens and wrappers from the hardwood floor onto his dustpan.

He moves comfortably about the empty concert hall, with its golden-lettered names of composers atop white walls and arched windows, like so many offices and hallways.

After Christmas gets off work at 1:30 p.m., he says will head home for lunch before his 5 to 9 p.m. shift as a janitor at Children’s Hospital.

“Saturday and Sunday, those are days of rest—but only in the winter. During the summer I am out playing cricket with the guys,” Christmas says.

With the help of his wife’s income from her job as an assistant cook at a daycare center Christmas says he was able to buy a triple-decker home in Dorchester and still have enough money to pay college tuition for three children.

But Christmas says he is not without regret.

“There is nothing in this job that I like, but you craft your life around it,” he says. “I did not make use of my school days and so you end up doing this.”

Christmas says that when he came to America in 1981 from Dominica, a small island in the Caribbean, he considered going back to school.

“I thought to myself, ‘I should go to school [in America],’ but I came to the conclusion that someone had to work so my children could have a better life,” he says.

“I couldn’t work two jobs and go to classes at the same time,” Christmas says. “I had to bite the bullet to give them the opportunity. I don’t regret it.”