2,000 Janitors at Downtown S.F. Office Buildings Strike
The union representing janitors who work at most of the city’s downtown office buildings went on strike Thursday, threatening to cripple the financial district if other unions honor the walkout.
The strike involves about 2,000 members of Local 87 of the Service Employees International Union, and affects 190 downtown office buildings, including almost all of the large ones.
“I think it will be a real hard and tough strike. A lot’s at stake,” said Jean Quan, a spokeswoman for Local 87. The union said the strike should be fully in place by this morning.
The San Francisco Labor Council has sanctioned the walkout, Quan said, which means that organized delivery people, window washers and building engineers also may stay off the job starting today, leaving the busy downtown district without essential services.
The strike was called after talks broke down between the union and the San Francisco Building Maintenance Contractor’s Assn., according to Barbara Kyle, another union spokeswoman. The workers’ contract expired June 30.
The union said the walkout was called after management refused to turn talks over to a federal arbitrator.
Chet Keil, a labor relations consultant who works with the contractor’s association, said a contract negotiated between 300 janitors and another management association last month should also apply to the larger group of janitors.
The contract ratified by the smaller group on June 3 preserved an hourly rate of $10.55, the highest pay in the nation for maintenance workers.
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