Proposal to Cut Salaries of Lindbergh Field Janitors Is Averted

Lindbergh Field janitors--who have not had a pay raise in at least six years--staved off a proposal Tuesday that could have cut their salaries by about 20%, from $5.39 an hour to $4.25 an hour, when the Board of Port Commissioners voted down the plan.

The janitors, who have no paid sick leave, no dental insurance, no seniority, minimal health insurance and one week of vacation a year, work for a company that is under contract to the San Diego Unified Port District, which operates the airport.

The 70 janitors who work at Lindbergh--many of whom are Latino and other minorities--have attempted through their new union to pressure the Board of Port Commissioners to change the situation. They want the Port District, in its new contract with Calhoun Maintenance Co., to stipulate fringe benefits and wages that would be subject to change depending on the outcome of labor negotiations.

Currently, the closest the Port District has come to dictating wages is requiring Calhoun to pay the prevailing wage for janitors, as determined by the federal Department of Labor for San Diego and Imperial counties. That is $5.39 an hour, a rate unchanged since at least 1982.

In February, several members of the Board of Port Commissioners expressed sympathy with the janitors’ plight, but said the workers are not technically Port District employees and that any interference by commissioners would put them squarely in the middle of labor negotiations.

The commissioners at that time told the Port District staff to rebid the contract, which expires at the end of June, and to study whether the contract could be changed to both help the janitors and keep the commissioners from becoming involved in labor negotiations.

On Tuesday, those changes were disclosed. Some of the recommended changes would help the janitors, according to both Port District Director Don Nay and Eliseo Medina, head of the janitors union--Service Employees International, Local 102.

Among those are provisions calling for a longer contract--which would give the maintenance contractor more time to amortize its costs and the union more stability to bargain--and minimum vacation benefits.

But on the major point of contention, wages and health and welfare benefits--Nay recommended that the Port District abandon its current reliance on the prevailing wage set by the Department of Labor and instead solicit bids that do not include minimum wage levels or fringe benefits.

“A dangerous precedent will be set by establishing wage and fringe benefit levels in district contracts where such is not required by law,” said a report signed by Nay. “The staff sees nothing to prevent other labor groups from coming to the board and asking to help draft contract specifications and establishing wage and benefit levels for its group too.”

In making the proposal, Nay said he was in part following the lead of both the city and county of San Diego, each of which never become involved in what their private janitorial contractors pay their employees. (But spokesmen for both agencies have told The Times in previous interviews that hiring the cheapest company available often leads to substandard work.)

Medina said the approval of such a provision--coupled with the Port District’s requirement to accept the lowest bid submitted--would in all probability cause the new contractor to hire janitors at the federal minimum wage, which will be $4.25 an hour on July 1.

“We feel it’s a step backward and inviting the contractor to come in and bid the minimum wage,” Medina said. “This would go from janitors not receiving a wage increase for eight years to getting a wage cut.”

At the very least, Medina said, the commissioners should leave the wages of the janitors at $5.39 an hour and “let us negotiate.”

“We are asking for fairness and justice and not the keys to the vault,” Medina said.

Commissioner Louis Wolfsheimer, who prefaced his comments by saying that a “stupid and intransigent union” had caused the downfall of his family’s longtime garment business in Maryland and Pennsylvania, said that by endorsing Nay’s recommendation, the Board of Port Commissioners would be in the company of those “who sneak in lettuce pickers in El Centro.”

It’s clear, he said, that a maintenance contractor would “hire as cheaply” as possible and that the reductions wouldn’t come in toilet paper, soap or brooms but by cutting salaries.

Although Nay’s recommendation was defeated on a 2-5 vote, Commissioner Dan Larsen--who has been adamant against the Port District setting any wage levels--said it was “right on.”

Speaking to Wolfsheimer, a lawyer, he said that everyone would like to “make $100 or $200 an hour that Mr. Wolfsheimer charges,” but that it wasn’t the Port District’s role to intervene in setting wages.

“Everyone has to start somewhere, and that’s usually at the bottom,” he said, claiming that “90%” of the work done in the country is accomplished without preset wage scales.

“We’re not saying they have to pay the workers minimum wage,” Larsen said of Nay’s recommendation. “Leave it to the market to determine the wage rate.” Joining Larsen in voting for the proposal was Delton Reopelle, the commissioner from National City.

Chairman Ray Burk, who said he also didn’t want to get in the middle of labor negotiations, called the issue “a very, very tough one.

“We’ve had a set of rules and now we’re changing those rules to the detriment of the employees,” he said before the vote. “As a human being, I feel bad about that . . . abandoning those people to a lesser wage scale.”

As a result of the vote, the matter was referred to the commissioners’ executive committee, which will meet with the Port District’s labor attorney in another attempt to resolve the matter, before the issue is brought back to the board.