Published: December 15, 2009

Building cleaners at Wilmington's consumer-lending banks have approved what their organizers say is their first union labor contract in recent memory in an acclamation vote at a Wilmington church.

Some 800 workers for ABM, Shellville Services, Arthur Jackson, Shamrock, Bravo Building Services and others who maintain office complexes for Bank of America (formerly MBNA), JPMorgan Chase & Co, PNC and ING Direct, among others, are covered by the contract, which sets a minimum wage of $8 an hour, increasing to $9.25 at the end of two years, and includes health benefits for fulltime workers, SEIU Local BJ32 spokesman Eugenio Villasante told me.

"The men and women who clean the very banks that prompted this economic crisis have successfully fought for higher wages," New York-based local president Mike Fishman said in a statement.

Workers at nonunion contractors that clean two Wilmington-based companies, DuPont Co. and Wilmington Trust Co., aren't part of the deal.