Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo
Supporters of the 32BJ SEIU commercial janitors union march along Sixth Avenue, in New York City, in June. All along the East Coast, a wave of contracts will expire between now and December 31, and the union is aiming to win better working conditions and pay.
Late one night last week in Washington, D.C., a dozen janitors sat across the bargaining table from representatives of the Washington Service Contractors Association, surrogates for the wealthiest commercial-building owners in the region. The cleaners, all members of Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the largest property service workers union in America, had only a few hours until their contract expired. The D.C. region’s 32BJ cleaners were poised to strike if their negotiations broke down—all 10,500 of them.
Just before midnight on the expiration date, October 15, the union struck a deal, winning a new four-year contract that will raise their hourly wages by $2.50 by 2023, add more sick days and holidays, and increase eligibility for health insurance. For unionized janitors across the D.C. region, who are overwhelmingly Latino immigrants, their success marks a major step toward building a robust, intersectional working-class movement.
“We won a really strong contract that’s going to change people’s lives,” said Miriam Pineda, a single mother who works in Maryland. “I was struggling to feed my grandchildren and putting my faith in God to get health insurance,” she added. With the new contract in place, Pineda can put food on her table as the sole provider for her grandchildren, catch up on bills, and get breast cancer screenings.
A similar dynamic recently played out in Philadelphia, where that city’s janitors—also members of 32BJ, which comprises building service workers in most East Coast big cities—also threatened to strike, and won better wages and benefits in consequence. All along the East Coast, a wave of contracts will expire between now and December 31, and the union is looking to win big for its 75,000 members whose contracts are soon to expire. New Jersey cleaners have already threatened to go on strike if they don’t win a significantly better contract, even though their current one doesn’t expire for more than two months.
A particular problem for janitors is the skyrocketing cost of living in the cities whose offices they maintain. Even as they clean those offices, gentrification prevents workers from living anywhere near them, disproportionately impacting workers of color. D.C. boasts one of the highest gentrification rates in the country.
Since 32BJ’s membership is primarily immigrant, the union’s fight is not for economic justice narrowly conceived, but also racial and immigrant justice. The union is indirectly demanding that workers have a right to remain in their communities and their homes. Under the new D.C. contract, cleaners won an additional month of unpaid leave to resolve immigration-related issues, bringing the total to 120 days per year. 32BJ workers will continue to have access to the union’s Legal Services Fund, which is fully paid for by the cleaning contractors. The fund subsidizes English-language classes and legal assistance for matters of immigration, family, and housing, all free of charge.
The new D.C. contract also exemplifies the strategy of organizing through bargaining—using the threat of a strike among current members to win the right to organize new ones.
It expanded its coverage to include some 400 new cleaners in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and Loudoun County, Virginia.
Other workers in the D.C. suburbs of Maryland and Virginia can look forward to increased access to full-time hours, which will bump their earnings and give them access to employer-paid health insurance. Overall, the 32BJ cleaners covered by the new contract will see over $3,200 of new earnings by 2023 if they work 25 hours per week, and more than $5,000 if they work full-time.
The janitors’ ability to win higher pay and better working conditions is testimony to their proven ability over the past three decades to disrupt business as usual—through solidarity when they go out on strike, and through their marches in city streets that bring attention to their cause. Today, nearly 30 years after a new generation of janitorial activists took to the streets, other unions are rediscovering the power of the strike.
As Jaime Contreras, the vice president of 32BJ SEIU, says, the cleaners’ “successful fight for livable wages and benefits is a blueprint for how labor’s resurgence can help rebuild the middle class.”
