Local Cleaning Companies On The Look Out | Union is getting aggressive on behalf of Central Massachusetts' janitors
When a union called SEIU 615 made headlines last month with a protest on behalf of janitors at the DCU Center in Worcester, local observers could be forgiven if they didn’t know quite who was protesting.
The union has represented DCU’s housekeeping division since the stadium and convention center opened as the Worcester Centrum in 1982, and it has hundreds of other members in Central Massachusetts, but until recently it didn’t have an office, or much media visibility, in the area.
Now that’s changed. Local 615 opened an office near the DCU Center at Commercial Street in Worcester in May and it’s aiming to dramatically increase membership over the next few years.
Local 615’s members work throughout Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.
According to Adriana Fieldman, the union’s field director for Central and Western Massachusetts, the union’s master contract for janitors at commercial properties and office buildings (which is separate from the DCU Center contract) covers 250 or 300 Central Massachusetts workers, largely in Worcester.
Under that contract, unionized Central Massachusetts janitors make a starting wage of $9.40 an hour. That will rise to $10.40 by the time the contract ends in 2012, and it’s probably better than many non-union cleaners get, but it’s not a terrific deal.
Fieldman says she understands why the members haven’t been able to win a better contract.
She said only 40 percent of commercial cleaners in the area are union, and that means agreeing to a higher wage could be a seriously self-destructive move for the unionized companies because it would put them at a competitive disadvantage when bidding for business.
That’s why the current contract has a sort of escape clause for the workers. If union density in the commercial cleaning industry gets up to 65 percent (up from the current 40 percent) before the end of the contract, the union can reopen talks with the employers to bargain for a better wage.
To help reach that goal, over the past few months Fieldman has hired two organizers to reach out to janitors, plus another organizer who will rally support from the outside community and research the industry.
The head of one local nonunion cleaning company, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution from the union, said building managers and tenants should be concerned about the city becoming more of a union town for cleaners.
“If that happens in Worcester, you can expect prices to significantly increase for janitorial services,” he said.
But Ken Foscaldo, a managing partner of a union company, AM-PM Cleaning Corp. in Waltham, said he sees many of his nonunion competitors in Worcester paying as little as $6 or $7 an hour under the table and hopes a union organizing drive would change that.
“From a business standpoint, that makes it an uneven playing field,” he said. “But from a fair, equitable humane standpoint it’s not fair to the employees.”
Community-Minded
The strategy of rallying a larger community force around janitors was on display in the lead up to the DCU Center contract expiration. Union staffers called on visitors to the center to get behind the cause, even asking for support from donors during a blood drive at the stadium. In fact, the union was so focused on talking to the wider community that it got some flak for holding a rally that no actual DCU workers showed up for.
Fieldman said it’s hard for workers to make it to actions. Many were at work inside the center during the rally, and others were busy with the full-time jobs that they hold in addition to their part-time work at the stadium.
Whatever the strategy, it paid off to some extent. Fieldman said the new contract at the DCU Center gives the four full-time janitors a dental plan and an extra day off.
The 40 or so part-timers got a starting-salary increase from $8 to $9 an hour. By 2010, the pay rate will rise to $9.73, and employees will get an extra 25-cent boost if they work 250 hours over three months.
As with the commercial cleaners’ contract, it’s not great pay. But Fieldman said she knows the local market limits the prices the center can charge is customers.
“I think it would help if we had a hockey team that was very successful,” she said.
In general, Fieldman said, there’s no doubt the fate of the union’s Worcester-area members is all tied up with the fate of the city itself.
The better business is for building owners and their tenants, the less a few extra dollars, or a contribution to health insurance funds, will make them wince.
And Fieldman argues that one of the ways to improve the city’s attractiveness is to help low-paid workers like her members climb out of poverty.
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