Published: December 29, 2007

Unionized janitors and building service companies settled on a new four-year contract for 7,000 commercial cleaners in New Jersey, negotiators said Friday.

The agreement covers 450 commercial buildings across the state, including five large offices in Clifton and Wayne. Workers had threatened to strike if negotiations had not concluded by Tuesday, when their current agreement expires.

But stalled negotiations among office cleaners in New York City could still prompt thousands of janitors to walk out next week.

"We have to wait and hope there's results," said Elizabeth Jaramillo, a 44-year-old Teaneck resident who cleans an office tower in Manhattan. Among the 26,000 unionized cleaners in New York City, more than 1,500 live in New Jersey, according to Local 32BJ, the union.

Late Thursday evening, the New Jersey local of the Service Employees International Union came to an agreement with 55 private companies who contract with unionized workers. The contract includes a phased-in hourly salary increase, employer-covered health benefits for full-time workers in large office towers, a pension plan and limited health benefits for part-time workers, including prescription drug coverage.

"I feel good about this," said Jose Reyes, a 41-year-old janitor from Paterson, in Spanish. Currently, neither Reyes nor his wife carry health insurance for their three young children.

The union also won its bid to create 2,000 more full-time cleaning jobs in a state where most janitors now work part-time. They failed to gain an additional sick day that they had been seeking. Under the current contract, New Jersey workers receive four sick days a year.

The new contract, which begins on Jan. 1, covers about 75 percent of office cleaners in the state, one in seven of whom come from Paterson and Passaic, according to Kevin Brown, director of Local 32BJ in New Jersey.

By 2011, unionized workers will earn between $12 and $14, on average. Under the previous contract, hourly wages ranged from $9.75 to $12.50 an hour. Non-union cleaners typically earn the state's minimum wage of $7.15 an hour.

"It's going to be a bit better," said Sehija Feratovic, a 45-year-old cleaner from Clifton, whose wages to clean a Jersey City office tower will grow from $11.50 to $14 an hour by 2011.

Tom Martin, a representative for one of the 55 private companies who contract with the unionized workers, called the agreement reasonable.

"A fair contract was worked out between both sides," said Martin, general manager of the Florham Park office of Pritchard Industries, an international cleaning company that employs 300 workers in Passaic County.

Some labor experts, however, criticized the union's emphasis on creating more full-time positions, as it will result in the layoffs of thousands of part-time workers when employers consolidate four-hour shifts into eight-hour positions.

"What you have is a union agenda versus a worker agenda," said Leo Troy, a professor at Rutgers University, who has studied labor history for half a century. "I don't think it's in the best interest of part-time workers, many of whom will now lose their jobs."

Currently, one in three union members works part-time, typically on nights and weekends. Jose Almonacid, a 53-year-old office cleaner from Passaic, supports the creation of full-time positions, even if it means eliminating some jobs.

"If they move to full time, maybe five guys will get fired," said Almonacid, who hopes to work one full-time cleaning position as opposed to juggling two part-time jobs, as he now does. "The thing is, they can get jobs in other buildings."

Brown, the Local 32BJ leader, said that the union will place low-seniority workers on a priority list for future full-time vacancies. The union supports sacrificing some positions to create better jobs in a growing field for unskilled laborers.

"The service sector has the jobs of the 21st century," Brown said. "You can't move office workers to Mexico."

By 2014, employment in janitorial sevices is projected to grow by 13 percent in Passaic County, according to the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Currently, 3,000 people in the county work as janitors.