Janitors Tentatively OK Contract

With the deadline for a threatened strike just over an hour away, janitors who clean many of Los Angeles’ high-rises and commercial buildings tentatively agreed to a contract Monday that ends a four-month campaign for better wages and health benefits.

The agreement ends an intense public effort by the Service Employees International Union’s “Justice for Janitors” campaign, in which union organizers and members often staged large demonstrations that blocked traffic and lead to dozens of arrests, mostly for refusing to disperse. A union bargaining committee and representatives of janitorial contractors reached a settlement at 6 a.m., just an hour and a half before a strike deadline, union leaders said.

Representatives of the 15 cleaning contractors could not be reached for comment.

Several hundred workers, who arrived at the union’s Downtown headquarters intending to march, instead applauded the agreement announcement by officials of SEIU Local 399, whose say their prolonged campaign has organized 8,000 formerly non-union janitors.

Union spokesmen said the agreement means all janitors will earn $6.80 per hour and receive full health benefits by 2000, when the contract expires. Previously, wages ranged from $4.25 to $6.80, with some workers earning health benefits and many not receiving any. The janitors’ contract expired Friday; about 1,000 workers voted Saturday to authorize a strike.

Clara Ramirez, 32, who came to the headquarters prepared to strike, cried when asked about the contract agreement. Ramirez earns $4.25 an hour cleaning offices at Warner Center in Woodland Hills, where she has worked for 10 years.

“I am emotional because it is the first time the janitors at our building have won anything,” Ramirez said. “I haven’t heard all the details, but I am very happy.”

Organized in 1987, the Justice for Janitors campaign has garnered national attention for its often militant tactics in organizing a largely immigrant, low-wage work force at a time of dwindling union ranks nationwide.

The union says that janitors organized during the campaign now clean about 70% of the county’s major commercial office space.