Striking Janitors to Vote on Pact

Striking Los Angeles area janitors are expected to meet in a downtown parking lot today to cast their votes on a tentative agreement reached over the weekend with 18 cleaning companies.

Union leaders said the vote will occur behind the janitors’ union building on 7th Street, just after noon. The results should be announced by 2 p.m.

“The bargaining committee is confident the membership will accept it,” said Neal Sacharow, of the County Federation of Labor, an umbrella group that includes the 8,500-member janitors local union. He refused to reveal details of the proposed pact.

The strikers began the walkout three weeks ago.

“I think it’s a decent deal for both sides,” said Dick Davis, chief negotiator for nine of the 18 cleaning companies. Those firms represent 97% of the affected buildings. Companies had been using replacement workers.

If the janitors approve the deal, they can return to work Monday night.

That would be welcome news for many of the about 500 people who gathered Sunday for a short pep talk behind the Service Employees International Union building where the vote will take place. The group has been subsisting on meager savings and $300 in strike benefits.

At Sunday’s gathering, among the looming brick tenements, the mood was upbeat.

“I never doubted that we would win,” said Jose Gustavo, 40. “They say we are tired. But no, they are. We are much stronger than them.”

Gustavo, a Salvadoran immigrant, said his financial situation had become so dire two years ago that he had to take two full-time janitor jobs to feed his three children and buy sufficient clothes.

It’s a tough grind working 16 hours a day in the TransAmerica building and for the county government, but it allows him to save a little money, he said.

“My wife is not on welfare,” he said. “I support my family.”

Janitors in downtown and Century City earn $7.80 an hour, and those in outlying areas, $6.80 an hour. The union initially had sought a $1 an hour raise in the first year of the contract.

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Times wire services contributed to this story.