With strike deadline near, Twin Cities janitors reach deal
Source: Star Tribune
by: PAMELA MILLER
One day before a planned strike deadline, Twin Cities janitors and their employers reached a tentative agreement Saturday afternoon on a three-year contract. But security guards who are part of the same union will go into Sunday with no talks planned and a midnight strike deadline looming.
Javier Morillo, a spokesman for Local 26 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), said the 4,000 janitors covered by the local got a “fantastic” deal — raises over three years adding up to $1.20 an hour and improved health care coverage. Janitors who now make $13.42 an hour would get a 50-cent-an-hour raise in the first year and 35-cent-per-hour raises in the second and third years. In addition, Morillo said, an employer proposal to cut many full-time workers back to part-time hours was taken off the table.
The janitors, who will vote late this week on the agreement, are employed by third-party contractors to clean and guard corporate offices throughout the area, including Target, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, Medtronic, Best Buy and Ecolab.
FULL story at link. SEIU press release below.
Read more: http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/192762041.html
FULL release here: http://www.seiu26.org/2013/02/23/twin-cities-janitors-reach-tentative-agreement-that-includes-major-gains-for-workers-on-full-time-positions-wages-and-healthcare/
Twin Cities Janitors Reach Tentative Agreement that Includes Major Gains for Workers on Full-Time Positions, Wages and Healthcare
Posted by RafaelMorataya on February 23, 2013
Minneapolis, MN – In a breakthrough that will improve the lives of more than 4,000 Twin Cities janitors, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 26 and the Minneapolis-St. Paul Contract Cleaners Association reached a tentative agreement for a three-year contract that will provide significant gains for workers around hours, wages, healthcare, workload and job security. The deal came just after 4:00 p.m. Saturday after more than 31 consecutive hours of bargaining. Janitors still need to ratify the contract.
The agreement came after a campaign that galvanized support from a vast array of community organizations, faith and labor leaders, members of the business community, and elected officials – including members of the Minneapolis and St. Paul City Councils, dozens of state legislators, Mayor R.T. Rybak and Congressman Keith Ellison.
“We went into these negotiations with a goal of more hours, better pay and employer-paid healthcare for more of our workers. I am proud to say the tentative agreement we are taking back to our members has achieved those goals,” said SEIU Local 26 bargaining committee member Marco Antonio Salazar, a janitor who lives in Brooklyn Center. “I was moved by the support we received from the community—from faith leaders to elected officials. We won this agreement by standing united and fighting for what is just.”
The tentative agreement includes hard-fought gains in many areas, most significantly:
Full-time work: Janitors saved thousands of full-time jobs that would have been converted to part-time, resulting in lower wages and loss of health care and other benefits. Instead, they secured stable, full-time positions.
Wages: Janitors agreed to wage increases of $1.20 over three years. The wage increases help bring janitors out of poverty and pump an additional $30 million a year into the local economy, as workers reinvest in their own communities.
Healthcare: Janitors secured better employer-based health care coverage, which will allow thousands to access affordable coverage, rather than being forced to rely on public programs paid for by taxpayers.
Sick days: Janitors won one additional day of sick time, allowing them to stay at home when ill.
Workload: Janitors who often clean the equivalent of as many as 30 homes in a night will now have a process to discuss their workload and resolution process.
FULL release here: http://www.seiu26.org/2013/02/23/twin-cities-janitors-reach-tentative-agreement-that-includes-major-gains-for-workers-on-full-time-positions-wages-and-healthcare/
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