US cleaners campaign for green, day cleaning

Dateline: 31.12.2009
Author: Sourced from an article by Barb Kucera*

In late December hundreds of Twin Cities janitors, joined by supporters, marched through downtown Minneapolis skyways demanding a fair settlement with cleaning contractors.

The marchers chanted ‘Yes We Can’ in several languages and ‘What do we want? Green jobs!’ as they walked past offices and restaurants during the busy lunch hour.

Service Employees International Union Local 26 represents more than 4,000 janitors who clean the majority of commercial buildings in the seven-country metropolitan area. The union currently is bargaining a new contract with major cleaning contractors.

Employers are insisting on a number of givebacks, including having the right to convert many full-time jobs to part-time, the right to eliminate workload protections and the right to deny union representatives access to worksites, the union said.

At the same time they face concessionary demands, janitors are seeking to improve working conditions – and save energy and protect the environment – by instituting ‘green job’ practices. These include more day shifts – to reduce lighting and heating costs and allow members to be with their families – and the use of safer chemicals.

“We are willing and open and in fact eager to put innovations at the table that would lead to cost reductions, that would be a win for companies, workers and building owners,” Local 26 President Javier Morillo Alicea said at a rally prior to the march. He said the largest buildings could save US$5 million a year in operating costs just by switching to day cleaning.

www.workdayminnesota.org

*Barb Kucera is editor of Workday Minnesota

US cleaners campaign for green, day cleaning