D.C. Janitors Fight to Keep Up With Soaring Costs of Living, Say They'll Strike

[TexasTowelie]

Up and down the East Coast, SEIU’s janitorial contracts are expiring. D.C.’s janitors expect a better one—and if they don’t get it, they’ll strike.


When Jaime Contreras, the vice president of the Service Employees International Union’s (SEIU) East Coast building services local, 32BJ, addressed a crowd of union workers in downtown Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, his language was attuned to the union’s diverse membership: “¡Buenos tardes! Good afternoon! Salam!” he shouted, addressing hundreds of janitors from across the D.C. region who had convened to rally and march through the streets. The crowd of predominantly black, Hispanic, and Latino union members responded with cheers of “Sí se puede” (“Yes we can”) and danced to pop music booming over the PA system in McPherson Square, a small park surrounded by bustling sidewalks and rush-hour traffic.

In the coming months, 32BJ SEIU, the largest property service workers union in the nation, will bargain for new janitor contracts on behalf of its more than 175,000 members up and down the East Coast. In the D.C. metropolitan area, 32BJ is negotiating with the Washington Service Contractors Association, which represents more than 25 regional employers. The D.C. contract will be the first to expire, on October 15, along with Philadelphia’s. If negotiations fail in D.C., the 10,000-plus 32BJ janitors in the area—who together maintain almost every commercial office building in the region—will stand up for their livelihoods by going on strike. Until last year, most American unions had given up on striking, but SEIU’s janitors have been striking and winning since the 1990s.

“We’re a militant organization,” 32BJ SEIU President Kyle Bragg told me. “Mobilizing workers is how we win. We’re sitting in one of the wealthiest real estate markets in the country, and it’s growing. We want to make sure these employers are responsible and treat their workers—the ones who bring value to their properties by servicing them and keeping them safe—earn a good, decent living and have retirement security and dignity.”

The top priorities for 32BJ’s new contract in the D.C. region are wage raises and increased time off so that workers can deal with immigration issues. Additionally, 32BJ is fighting for more full-time hours in the D.C. suburbs of Montgomery County, Maryland, and Arlington, Virginia. “In Washington, D.C., four years ago, we were able to win increased access to full-time hours, so now we’re trying to spread that access,” Julie Karant, a 32BJ spokeswoman, told me. Even with the union’s victory for more full-time work four years ago, however, most cleaners in the region are still part-time.

Read more: https://prospect.org/labor/dc-janitors-fight-soaring-costs-seiu-32bj-union-dc-rally/
(American Prospect)