Janitors, 5 O.C. Firms Reach Tentative Deal

The aggressive labor campaign that won better wages and benefits for janitors in Los Angeles led to a tentative agreement late Wednesday with five companies that provide about 70% of the janitors for Orange County office buildings.

The contract, which still must be approved by some 3,000 members who joined the Justice for Janitors union in November, would be the first for janitors in the county. The tentative pact was reached after months of picketing, organizing and negotiating. Terms were not released.

But the fact that the union was able to expand the efforts it started in Los Angeles last year and seize upon the discontent in Orange County gives the local labor movement a shot in the arm.

“This is a major breakthrough, like the biggest organized victory in O.C. that I can recall,” said Kent Wong, a UCLA economist and labor expert. “Clearly there are changes going on there.”

Esmael Adibi, an economics professor at Chapman University in Orange, said lower-paid workers will continue to seek protection and higher wages through unions if inflation keeps rising at more than 3% a year.

“To improve their living standard, more and more lower-paid workers are going to start demanding wages that exceed the inflation increase,” Adibi said. “This is just the beginning.”

Justice for Janitors began negotiating in November with the Orange County companies, United Building Services, ABM Janitorial Services, One Source, United Building Services and Avalon Building Maintenance, union coordinator Andrea Dehlendorf said.

“Before this agreement, we were looking at minimum-wage workers with no holidays, no health insurance and no sick days,” Dehlendorf said. “Now we feel hopeful that they are on path to a brighter future.”

Dick Davis, a bargaining coordinator who represents the five companies, said he hoped the union would be able to ratify the tentative agreement.

“This being the first-time contract, we had a lot of ground to cover,” including grievance issues, no strike clauses, vacation packages and holidays, Davis said. “I feel good about the agreement for both sides.”

While neither Dehlendorf nor Davis would elaborate on the terms, both said the agreement is in line with the contract for janitors in Los Angeles. Next week, the union’s 12-member bargaining committee will present the terms of the tentative proposal to its members for a vote.

Employees at the county’s major janitorial contractors have tried to unionize since Justice for Janitors launched a host of rallies, demonstrations and a three-week strike in Los Angeles last spring.

That strike, which attracted nationwide attention, ultimately resulted in a 26% wage increase over three years for janitors there. Workers also received an immediate $500 bonus, health insurance and five days of sick leave.

The contract is significant not only because the companies have recognized the union but also because Orange County has long been a bastion of conservative politics and anti-union sentiment.

“You have a very aggressive union that seized upon the momentum from the Los Angeles movement and managed to gain headway in Orange County, which is not a union stronghold by any means,” Wong said.

Three of the biggest janitorial contractors in both counties already had signed agreements covering their employees in Los Angeles. Those companies, organizers said, were more receptive to the negotiations over Orange County workers.

“After the strike in Los Angeles, we looked around and saw that Orange County was the only major county in the state that was nonunion,” Dehlendorf said. A few other nonunion companies remain “on our radar,” she said.

“We’re not done” in Orange County, she said, noting that a demonstration is planned next week at one of those companies. She didn’t identify the target firm.

Linda Sanchez-Valentine, who heads the county’s Central Labor Council, said reaching an agreement was especially critical in Orange County, where housing prices top those in Los Angeles. The council represents 80 unions in the county and more than 110,000 workers.

“Many of the people cleaning some of the highest-rent districts in Irvine and Costa Mesa are receiving below-poverty wages,” Sanchez-Valentine said. “Combine that with the incredible shortage of affordable housing here, and you have a very sad picture.”