Justice for Janitors

In a major victory for organized labor in Los Angeles, a potentially disruptive and high-profile strike by the janitors union has been averted, with custodial workers in Los Angeles County winning higher wages and better benefits.

Joined by janitors, leaders of SEIU Local 1877, business owners and members of the City Council, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced today that management and labor reached a broad agreement for workers in Los Angeles County, and are making progress on negotiations for workers in Orange County.

Los Angeles County janitors won a tentative agreement that would boost total compensation nearly 25 percent over the life of the contract. Janitors won wage increases of more than $1,000 a year every year over the life of the four-year pact for a compounded total of $10,000 per janitor. Janitors will continue to receive full employer-paid family healthcare, a pension, and, for the first time, will receive vision coverage. Janitors working on the outskirts of the county will be able to move into higher-paying buildings and earn better benefits based on seniority, once the contract is ratified.

Today’s announcement comes just days after the janitors voted overwhelmingly to approve an unfair labor practice strike. The janitors began staging walkouts May 7 after round-the-clock contract negotiations broke down. After a day of walk-outs Villaraigosa intervened, asked for a cooling off period, and brought both sides back to the negotiating table.

When negotiations broke down last week, the cleaning companies and their corporate clients had refused to adequately raise wages for janitors who clean some of the most expensive office buildings in the entire country. The contractor’s proposal would have forced the majority of union janitors into second-class status, which was unacceptable to the janitors’ union.
The tentative agreement for Los Angeles county will begin to bring those janitors out of second-class status and raise wages from $22,256 to $26,728 a year by the end of the four-year pact. Janitors that work in downtown and Century City will see their wages jump from $24,960 to $29,328 a year when the contract expires, April 30, 2012.

SEIU Local 1877 represents 20,000 janitors statewide. The union won national recognition in 2000, when they staged a three-week work stoppage that drew national political figures, including former Vice President Al Gore and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. That strike helped galvanize immigrant workers across the nation and was considered a watershed moment for Los Angeles labor.