More than 4,000 janitors–including many who clean the buildings in downtown Minneapolis–are starting the year at the bargaining table after their union contract expired in December.
Service Employees International Union Local 26 represents the downtown janitors and thousands who work elsewhere in the seven-county metro area. They are asking for increased wages, retirement benefits, and improved working conditions in a new contract.
Brahim Kone, Local 26’s secretary treasurer, said the union is giving the Mspcca Labor Management Cooperation Fund until March to meet its demands before workers go on strike.
“Our opening proposal to start bargaining is $22 an hour,” Kone said of the pay rate the union is advocating for.
He said members are currently making $18.62 per hour and that no wage proposal had been discussed during previous bargaining sessions.
“Our intent is not to go on strike as repeatedly mentioned. We’re here to bargain, but we won’t be silenced,” Kone said.
Aside from wage increases, the union is also fighting for retirement benefits for members like Margarita del Ángel López, a janitor, who said it feels like the companies they work for treat them like “trash.”
López spoke in Spanish and through a translator during a news conference Thursday about the union’s demands.
“It makes me feel depressed for the future, because right now we have no hope,” López said of workers’ lack of retirement benefits.
George Mullins, who has worked as a janitor for more than 30 years, also spoke of the need for retirement benefits.
“Right now, we have no pension or retirement plan—that means I will have nothing when I’m done working,” Mullins said. “I’ve been fortunate to save a little on my own, but we shouldn’t all be on our own after a career of doing work.”
Kone said the union’s goal for a retirement pension would grant workers 15 cents per hour worked for their first year and then 25 cents per hour afterwards. The pension amounts would be for the life of the contract.
Union members were joined by DFL Representatives María Isa Pérez-Vega and Samakab Hussein.
Pérez-Vega greeted members in Spanish, mentioned that she was the “granddaughter of a janitor,” and affirmed her support for the cause.
“We’re ready to stand with these workers so that they can win what they deserve and need to take care of their families,” Pérez-Vega said.
Kone said he hopes an agreement can be reached should bargaining continue as planned. There are five to six more sessions scheduled. But, he added, “nothing major” has resulted thus far from talks with employers.
Union president Greg Nammacher previously told Sahan Journal the union is bargaining with “dozens” of janitorial subcontractors.
