Santa Offers Presents to Aid Cause of Janitors : Labor: His visits to L.A. office complexes turn out to be a campaign to pressure cleaning firms into recognizing union.

Arlene Kahn was on the phone at the reception desk of Century Towers Plaza, which manages two Century City office buildings, when Santa Claus strolled in Wednesday, followed by several friends and small children.

Delighted, Kahn told her caller that she had to get off the phone because Santa was there. She greeted him effusively.

Only when Santa began to speak did Kahn’s smile freeze. She was, she realized with dismay, being ambushed.

Santa explained he was there because Century Towers had been, in his mind, a naughty company.

Santa--who turned out to be Jono Shaffer, an organizer for Local 399 of the Service Employees International Union--said he had heard that Century Towers’ janitors were being exposed to health hazards when they used strong chemicals to clean bathrooms and other areas and that their requests for protective gloves had been denied.

He then reached into his red sack and offered Kahn a “present”: half a dozen pairs of yellow rubber gloves, each tagged with the logo of the union’s “Justice for Janitors” campaign, a 4-year-old national effort to unionize janitors.

“Santa,” Kahn said sternly, “I think you’re talking with the wrong people.”

That kind of demurrer is the root of a prolonged war between the managers of Los Angeles office buildings and Local 399.

Large office buildings routinely contract with large cleaning companies. Many of the companies regard unions as troublesome and expensive and have fought off union organizing drives.

Office complex managers contend that disputes over treatment of janitors are out of their hands and instead are the responsibility of the cleaning companies. In response, the Justice for Janitors campaign has staged numerous demonstrations at major Los Angeles office complexes, contending that the complexes have a social responsibility to pressure their cleaning companies to recognize the union.

As the result of a steady shift by office complexes to non-union cleaning companies, a typical janitor’s hourly wage in Los Angeles dropped from $7.07 in 1983 to $4.50 last year, according to a study done for the union by a UCLA graduate student in economics. This has allowed downtown office complexes to cut in half the percentage of rental income that goes to janitors wages, the study said.

Local 399 has been able to win representation for about half of the 1,500 janitors who work for cleaning companies that contract with major downtown office towers, usually obtaining $1-an-hour raises to $5 or $5.50 an hour, as well as overtime and health benefits. In Century City, however, the union has yet to unionize any janitors.

Which is why Santa Claus came to the pricey environs of Century Park East on Wednesday.

Shaffer, followed by a half a dozen janitors and an equal number of their children, marched gleefully into several Century City buildings to present packages of gloves and issue a plea to surprised receptionists or building managers “that you treat your janitors with respect.”

Union organizers said that while unionized janitors are routinely issued gloves to protect their hands, the cleaning company used by Century Towers Plaza--International Service Systems--has refused to do so, despite persistent requests by workers.

Shaffer said International Service Systems, which he said has 10 office building cleaning contracts in Century City, agreed to give gloves to workers in one of Century Towers Plaza’s buildings a week ago but only after workers had filed a complaint with Cal/OSHA.

A Cal/OSHA official confirmed the complaint and said an inspection of the building is ongoing.

“We use very strong liquids, and they really hurt our hands,” said Juana Lopez, a 28-year-old janitor who works in another Century City office building serviced by International Service Systems.

A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles office of the New York-based cleaning company, which employs 14,000 people throughout the United States, declined to comment.

Diane Factor, the industrial hygienist for the AFL-CIO’s department of occupational safety and health, said in an interview that gloves for janitors “is the minimal thing the employer should be doing. . . . Some of that (liquid cleaning) stuff is definitely in the toxic category.”

Such points of view were dealt with only briefly when Santa met Kahn.

After refusing to accept the gloves, Kahn got on the phone and called a security guard. Once he arrived, she asked Santa and his minions to leave the building.

Santa was nonplussed. He mused that “it was the first time I’ve ever had a Christmas present turned down.”

But, he said, he still had several other office buildings left on his route.