Contracts covering about 8,000 members of SEIU Local 26 will expire this winter. (file photo)
With shoppers are poised to swarm Black Friday sales across the Twin Cities, it means a busy weekend of work for the union members who clean local big-box stores. And they’ll be doing it – on Thursday, anyway – without holiday pay.
That’s something members of Service Employees (SEIU) Local 26 intend to address in contract negotiations with cleaning companies, set to begin in the coming weeks, workers said during a virtual press conference yesterday.
“Us working during the holidays, it brings a lot of income to the stores and to our companies, but I wonder why they don’t invest that money in us, the workers,” said Local 26 member Deyanira Rodriguez, a janitor with Carlson Building Maintenance who cleans Target and other stores across the metro.
“We are the ones who are doing the job. We deserve more. That’s the fair thing to do, and we are going to get it.”
Local 26 called the press conference to kick off a contract campaign that will prioritize paid holidays, affordable health insurance and higher wages for about 700 retail cleaning workers in the bargaining unit.
Retail janitors’ hourly wages begin at $14.50. Local 26 President Greg Nammacher said most members of the bargaining unit earn $15 per hour or less, and just 5% can afford to access the employer-sponsored health plan.
“Remember, it is these workers who were in the grocery stores during the pandemic when it was at its worst, when we didn’t even know what it was, cleaning up the discarded masks and gloves,” Nammacher said. “They were called heroes. It is time now to show it.”
Union members will look to build on gains they have made since joining SEIU in 2016, after a historic, six-year organizing campaign facilitated by the Twin Cities worker center CTUL.
Before unionizing, retail janitors’ wages began at just $9.50 per hour, and worker complaints of wage theft – as stores switched cleaning contracts, or as contractors outsourced work to subcontractors – were common.
Now, retail cleaning workers are among nearly 8,000 Local 26 members whose contracts are set to expire this winter. Earlier this year, these retail and office janitors, security officers and airport workers began strategizing together – and with members of other local unions who will be at the bargaining table this winter – about ways to leverage their collective strength for greater gains. The coalition unites about 20,000 union members in the public and private sectors.
“We’re not going to be silent anymore when many of the corporations in Minnesota made record profits during the pandemic,” Nammacher said. “It is time all these workers in these different sectors are able to move forward.”
For Rodriguez, that means being able to enjoy holidays at home with her family without taking a hit on her paycheck, or getting premium pay on the holidays she does have to work.
“One of the things I remember about Christmas when I was a kid, it was so beautiful to welcome Christmas with a very warm hug within our family,” she said. “Now, I would like to be able to offer that to our kids.”
Union Advocate 