Organizing drive pays off for big-box janitors with landmark first contract

February 22, 2017 by
Retail janitors celebrated recognition of their union last fall after a six-year campaign.

Retail janitors celebrated recognition of their union last fall after a six-year campaign.

What’s the value of a union contract? For nearly 500 retail janitors in the Twin Cities, who made history last year by forming the industry’s first metro-wide union, it’s a cool $4.5 million in wage increases and paid time off over the course of their new, three-year contract.

Local 26 of the Service Employees International Union, which represented the janitors who clean big-box stores like Best Buy, Target, Macy’s and others in negotiations with cleaning subcontractors, announced the landmark agreement in a press release today, calling it a “path forward for working families” to combat rising income inequality.

“While working people are under attack right now from the billionaires in charge of our country, we are showing that we can win if we stick together and fight,” said Maricela Flores, an employee of Carlson Building Maintenance who cleans the Target in Shakopee.

The “vast majority” of janitors in the bargaining unit are people of color, according to Local 26, so the contract’s gains will help combat Minnesota’s yawning disparities between white workers and workers of color.

The contract goes into effect immediately, and many union members will see their hourly wages jump from $9.50 to $11. They include Lizbet Vega Lopez, a Carlson employee who has cleaned the Cub Foods in Brooklyn Park for 12 years.

“This was not an easy fight, but I am so glad we stuck together and now have a union contract that moves us forward,” Lopez said. “I hope others will see our fight and realize that no matter how difficult the challenge may be, you can win positive changes if you are willing to stand up to those in power.”

In addition to wage increases and PTO, workers won up to three weeks of vacation time, stronger workplace protections and job security, and guidelines for workload conditions when covering absences.

Retail janitors’ new union grew out of a six-year campaign facilitated by CTUL, a Twin Cities worker center. Workers and community allies pressured corporations like Target and Best Buy to take responsibility for low wages and unsafe working conditions inside their Twin Cities stores by signing onto a “Responsible Contractor Policy.”

The campaign continues at Kohl’s, Home Depot and other big-box stores.

“We are contracted to clean the stores of some of the biggest corporations in the world, so it was a big win just to get to the negotiation table with our employers, and now we have won gains that cannot be taken away,” Lopez said. “We weren’t waiting on Trump’s empty promises and scapegoating. We decided to fight back and win changes for ourselves, and hope others do too!”

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Retail janitors win agreement with Best Buy on eve of shareholder summit

June 14, 2016 by
Workers celebrated outside Best Buy's corporate headquarters in Richfield this morning, hours after the company agreed to use responsible cleaning contractors inside its stores.

Workers celebrated outside Best Buy’s corporate headquarters in Richfield this morning, hours after the company agreed to use responsible cleaning contractors inside its stores.

 

A protest planned by retail janitors today outside Best Buy’s corporate headquarters turned into a celebration after executives agreed to partner with workers on efforts to ensure people who clean the company’s stores have safe and fair working conditions.

The agreement, reached late last night on the eve of Best Buy’s annual shareholder meeting, puts the Richfield-based corporation on track to join Target in implementing a Responsible Contractor Policy, organizers with the Twin Cities low-wage worker center CTUL said.

Target approved the policy two years ago, and it includes provisions ensuring a safe and fair process for workers organizing for a voice on the job. The agreement with Best Buy, according to CTUL, will ensure “a responsible janitorial contractor” cleans Best Buy stores.

Outside the shareholder meeting today, janitors and their supporters from the community praised Best Buy for doing right by workers who clean its stores.

“I’m happy that Best Buy has heard our voices and has taken a leadership role to improve the janitorial industry here in Minnesota,” said Jose Gonzalez, an employee of KBS who cleans an area Best Buy store. “I am confident that janitors who clean Best Buy will be able to begin a dialogue with our employer and improve our working conditions.”

One year ago, workers like Gonzalez banged on drums, carried signs and chanted slogans outside the annual shareholder meeting. Today, they quietly reflected on how far their campaign to raise wages and improve conditions for retail janitors – now entering its seventh year – has come.

“This news makes me very happy,” said longtime CTUL activist Maricela Flores, who cleans an area Target store as an employee of Carlson. “Today, because of our struggle to bring these injustices to light, Best Buy has listened to our petitions and is showing leadership by agreeing to contract a responsible janitorial contractor to clean their stores.”

Cleaning workers and supporters demonstrated outside Kohl's, urging the retailer to follow Best Buy's lead.

Cleaning workers and supporters demonstrated outside Kohl’s, urging the retailer to follow Best Buy’s lead.

The victory gives Flores and other workers a shot of momentum as they push other retailers to join Target and Best Buy – momentum they wasted no time putting to use.

After leaving the Best Buy campus, workers crossed the bridge over I-494 to demonstrate inside and outside a Kohl’s store. Two CTUL activists, employees of the cleaning contractor Kimco, described the conditions they face cleaning Kohl’s stores, including long hours and low wages with no voice on the job.

Workers have been pushing Kohl’s to address concerns about the cleaning contractor for more than two years.

It might not be Kohl’s, but other major retailers in the Twin Cities may be on the cusp of giving janitors less cause for protest and more cause for celebration. CTUL organizers today credited Herberger’s for taking “positive steps” toward implementing a policy similar to the one Best Buy approved.

“We hope that other stores will follow large corporations like Best Buy and Target in working to recognize the need for change in the retail janitorial field in Minnesota,” Flores said.

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Protesters to Best Buy: ‘Get out of the way so we can have justice’

June 9, 2015 by
Protesters demonstrate outside Best Buy's annual shareholder meeting.

Protesters demonstrate outside Best Buy’s annual shareholder meeting.

 

RICHFIELD – Inside and outside of Best Buy’s annual shareholders meeting today, Minnesotans called on the corporation to stop using its political clout to block policies that improve working families’ lives.

That includes proposed legislation in Minnesota that would provide workers and their families with the stability and security they need to ensure a healthy work-life balance – policies opposed by lobbying groups Best Buy helps fund.

Best Buy plays “an important role in the Chamber of Commerce and other business associations that have been opposing legislation that supports workers’ rights to take care of their families,” Veronica Mendez Moore, an organizer with the Twin Cities worker Center CTUL, told about 100 demonstrators at a rally outside the shareholders meeting.

CTUL, which has been supporting janitors’ campaign to improve wages and working conditions maintained by cleaning contractors that service big-box retailers, organized the protest with faith groups, labor unions and progressive organizations working to build support at the Capitol for basic worker benefits and protections.

The Working Parents Act, introduced by House DFLers last session and backed by labor, stalled after drawing swift opposition from the Chamber of Commerce and the Minnesota Retailer’s Association, another Best Buy-led lobbying outfit. The bill pulled together initiatives seeking to crack down on employers who commit wage theft, require fairness in employee scheduling and guarantee workers access to earned sick time and paid family leave.

Leticia Zuniga describes what happened as a delegation of workers and their supporters met with Best Buy executives during the shareholder meeting.

Leticia Zuniga describes what happened as a delegation of workers and their supporters met with Best Buy executives during the shareholder meeting.

Too many of the jobs created during the current economic recovery don’t provide those benefits, janitor Hilario DeLeon told the crowd through a translator.

“Where I work we have no benefits at all,” DeLeon said. “We want to be able to have vacation. We want to be able to have paid sick days.”

DeLeon has cleaned the Target in downtown Minneapolis for seven years, and he said conditions deteriorate as contractors, looking to offer big-box retailers the lowest bid, seek new ways to cut costs. If Best Buy won’t agree to hold contractors to higher standards, he said, the company should at least stop using its clout at the Capitol to oppose raising the floor for everyone.

“We know that Best Buy has been getting in the way of our efforts,” DeLeon said. “We want Best Buy to get out of the way so we … can have justice.”

As protesters rallied outside, a delegation of activists gained access to Best Buy’s shareholder meeting by holding stock in the company or acting as a supportive shareholder’s proxy. Leticia Zuniga, a janitor and CTUL member who cleans Herberger’s, said a three Best Buy executives met with the delegation privately as well.

“We talked a lot about the problems there are in this industry: the rampant wage theft, workers not getting paid on time or with pay stubs, not knowing what hours they’re getting paid for,” Zuniga said. “We asked Best Buy to sign a responsible contractor policy, and they said they’d get back to us in a month.”

Ironically, the janitors who will clean up after today’s shareholders meeting are union members who enjoy many of the benefits workers inside Best Buy’s stores are fighting to win.

Ricardo Chavez, a member of the Service Employees International Union who works inside the corporate headquarters, joined the protest. He earns a fair wage with good benefits, predictable scheduling and access to paid sick days.

“But I know my brothers and sisters that work cleaning Best Buy’s stores right next door don’t have access to any of these benefits,” Chavez said. “Thousands of workers all over the state do not have access to these benefits, and all of us deserve them.”

Indeed, about 1 million workers in Minnesota do not have access to paid sick and safe time to care for themselves or their family members, TakeAction Minnesota Director Dan McGrath said, yet policies requiring employers to provide sick days are generally popular among voters.

“These corporations are created for people to make money,” Pastor Doug Mork of Cross of Glory Lutheran Church said. “They shouldn’t be cutting back our democratic voice.”

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