With time running out on negotiators, almost 4,000 janitors in Fairfield and Westchester counties were prepared to greet the New Year by walking picket lines.
Instead they got a belated Christmas present — a settlement.

Negotiators from Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ met representatives from a collective of cleaning companies in White Plains, N.Y., on Friday in what a union official said could have been the last day for talking.

"We'll have to do what we have to do," said Ubaldo Diaz, a Bridgeport resident and member of Local 32BJ's bargaining committee. But Friday they struck an agreement by 10 p.m. that raised salaries from $10.50 an hour to $12.50 over four years and promised more full-time positions, and gave dental and vision coverage and life insurance to part-time workers in Westchester County, N.Y., and Fairfield County.

The salary increase is 19 percent, said Kurt Westby, director of the Local 32 BJ in Connecticut.

"The members are very happy with this contract," he said.

He added, "In Fairfield County we won a training fund and a legal fund, two funds that will help our members. We also had a couple of sick days and holidays added."
More jobs will become full-time in Stamford and White Plains, N.Y., buildings, according to Westby.

"They realized our members need more hours and full-time jobs" to enter the middle class and achieve the American Dream, Westby said.

The union said that full-time workers have fully employer-paid health insurance which will apply to anyone who goes full-time in the future. The workers joined the union in 2001.

Before the agreement was struck, one union official described the working conditions at the time.

Ubaldo Diaz is a Bridgeport resident and member of Local 32BJ's bargaining committee. Diaz said he's been a janitor for 27 years and has worked in New York City, Fairfield and New Haven counties. He's employed by United Services of America and works in Stamford, but only works 20 hours a week.

At $10 an hour, he said, "It's not enough to support myself." His wife also works, but can't find full-time employment, either.

Wages and hours were two of the major issues holding up negotiations. The union wants the companies to hire more people at full time and increase wages by more than 3 percent.

There were two contracts being hammered out, one for the more than 1,800 Fairfield County workers and one for the 3,000 Westchester County workers. Because there is some continuity between employers, the bargaining is being conducted in the same place.
Negotiations had been ongoing since October; the three-year-old contract with a coalition of companies expired at midnight Monday.

American Building Maintenance, OneSource, Temco Services and UGL Unicco are just some of the companies involved in the negotiations. They are represented collectively as the Fairfield County Cleaning Contractors.

Calls to OneSource were referred to ABM, whose representative is leading the contractors' negotiation team and could not be reached for comment by phone.

Determining what buildings in which Local 32BJ members work was also difficult. Calls to R.D. Scinto in Shelton and Bridgeport-based Trefz Corp. were not returned Friday.

And major commercial real estate brokers in the region, including the Ashforth Co. in Stamford, said either they never dealt with the unions or employees with knowledge about the situation were on vacation.

Westby, had said Friday morning that the two sides remained far apart, because the companies were refusing to budge on wages and health care. He claimed the contractors were offering wage increases that did not keep pace with inflation, when the union is seeking wage increases that would allow workers to afford to live in Fairfield County.
"It's right to pay someone a living wage and not have a sweat shop in these multi-million-dollar buildings," said Westby.

He quoted studies that show a person needs to make about $30 an hour to afford to live in Fairfield County, but said the janitors are making much less than that.

There's some familiarity between the parties. SEIU reached agreements in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore that increased wages by more than 15 percent during the life of the contracts and some of the companies involved in those deals are working in Fairfield County.

Earlier this month, Local 32BJ concluded a similar negotiation in Hartford, where cleaners downtown were starting at $11.50 per hour. In Fairfield County, the starting pay is $10.50 an hour, Westby said.

The negotiations in Hartford accorded janitors a $2-per-hour raise over the life of the new four-year contract. That works out to about 4 percent a year.
A big issue for many cleaners is their hourly status. Hundreds of workers in Fairfield County are part-time, which means they are not eligible for health insurance, Westby said.

The union hopes to get the cleaning contractors to move more people into full-time positions, he said. Many of Local 32BJ's members work multiple part-time jobs, none of which provide health insurance. That means, in some cases, taxpayers are covering the medical costs of janitors in Fairfield County, Westby said. Rob Varnon, who covers business, can be reached at 330-6216.