Published: December 17, 2009
Nearly 800 New Castle County office cleaners will see raises and employer-paid health care after a service workers' union struck a deal with local cleaning contractors.
The Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ said Wednesday that it negotiated a contract with at least seven cleaning companies in the area, covering more than 70 percent of the Wilmington office market.
The deal follows a months-long campaign by the union to organize local janitors that included several protests in downtown Wilmington. The union had specifically targeted contractors for local banks including Wilmington Trust and JPMorgan Chase.
"What's striking is that the men and women who clean the very banks that prompted this economic crisis have successfully fought for higher wages," Mike Fishman, president of 32BJ, said in a statement Wednesday.
The companies that signed the contract include ABM Janitorial Services, Shellville Services, Arthur Jackson Co., Shamrock Building Services, Bravo Building Services, ISS and CSI International.
The SEIU Local 32BJ filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in March against Wilmington Trust contractor Optima Cleaning Systems, claiming the company had engaged in a "campaign of intimidation and surveillance" that included photographing and videotaping union activity on public property and following union organizers who visited employees at their homes. The complaint was later settled when Optima agreed to pay more than $24,000 in back wages to seven cleaners at the Wilmington Trust building.
The two-year contract goes into effect in January for workers in Wilmington and the following January for workers in New Castle County. Under the contract, office cleaners will earn a minimum wage of $8 per hour or receive a raise of at least 40 cents per hour, according to the union. The union said average hourly wages will increase as much as $2 over the life of the contract.
The SEIU Local 32BJ bills itself as the largest property service union in the country, with more than 110,000 members in eight states and Washington
This article was also published in USA Today and All Voices Blog
