Outbreak adds urgency to janitors’ push for sick pay

March 4, 2020 by

Ahmed Kahsay, a janitor at MSP Airport, speaks at a press conference called by his union, SEIU Local 26, to discuss the coronavirus, as Local 26 President Iris Altamirano (R) listens.

The coronavirus outbreak has Edith Patiño worried not just about her family’s health, but her ability to pay the bills, too.

After eight years working as a janitor for Minneapolis-based Harvard Maintenance, Patiño gets just four days of earned sick and safe time per year. When she runs out, Patiño said, she often goes to work sick rather than lose hours toward her paycheck.

What would it mean to miss work for two weeks while recovering from COVID-19?

“I am the head of my household,” Patiño said. “It would be detrimental. I would have to ask for government assistance, which I don’t want to do and have never had to do. But if I can’t work, I have no other option.”

Public response to the epidemic has put a grim spotlight on limited access to paid sick time in the U.S., particularly for low-wage workers like Patiño.

According to federal labor-market statistics, 73% of all private-sector workers had access to paid sick leave last year, but less than half of workers in the lowest 25% of earners. Access to paid sick time also was lower among workers in service occupations, who are most likely to interact with the public, making containment of the outbreak more challenging.

As news broke today that two passengers arriving at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport had been asked to self-quarantine, the union representing 4,000 Twin Cities janitors, including about 200 who clean the airport, carried a new sense of urgency into contract negotiations with local cleaning contractors.

Among janitors’ top demands is an increase in their earned sick and safe days, to a minimum of six per year.

Iris Altamirano, president of Service Employees International Union Local 26, said union members “will be on the front lines” of preventing the virus from spreading in Minnesota. “Our workers are being given new tasks to do right now, like wiping down chairs, doorknobs and other surfaces,” Altamirano said.

About 4,000 janitors across the Twin Cities, members of SEIU Local 26, went on a 24-hour strike over unfair labor practices last week.

Should they fall ill from the virus, janitors want their union contract to provide basic protections for themselves and their communities, like paid sick time and affordable health insurance. Altamirano said the union hopes to use its leverage at the bargaining table “to tackle something bigger than just us.”

“We know right now we’re under threat, and we are part of the solution to containing that virus,” Patiño added.

If negotiators fail to make meaningful progress on those demands and others in contract talks scheduled through Friday, the union’s 4,000 members, who staged a 24-hour strike last week, plan to begin an open-ended strike over unfair labor practices Monday.

“We are coming into these negotiations very hopeful we can land a settlement but preparing to do whatever we have to do to get a fair contract,” Altamirano said.

Local 26 members in negotiations are employed by over a dozen different subcontractors to clean corporate office buildings across the Twin Cities. They voted unanimously Feb. 8 to authorize a ULP strike over the companies’ practices of stalling and refusing to give information, and to settle a fair contract.

Filed Under: Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Strikes surge nationwide

March 2, 2020 by

About 4,000 janitors across the Twin Cities, members of SEIU Local 26, went on a 24-hour strike over unfair labor practices last week.

Some 4,000 Twin Cities janitors walked off the job Feb. 27 for higher wages, paid sick days and other demands.

HealthPartners brought 1,800 nurses, technicians and other caregivers at its metro-area clinics to the brink of a strike before reaching a last-minute deal.

And next Tuesday, 3,600 union educators, frustrated by the district’s refusal to consider their student-centered contract proposals, could go on strike in St. Paul.

Strikes have been in the news a lot here lately, but it’s not just a local phenomenon.

According to labor market statistics released by the federal government last month, the number of U.S. workers who participated in major strikes surged in 2018 and 2019.

On average over those two years, 455,500 workers joined major strikes or work stoppages involving 1,000 or more people. That’s the highest two-year average in 35 years, and more than the total number of striking workers in the previous six years combined.

The numbers suggest that, despite low unemployment and steady economic growth, the U.S. economy isn’t as great as some would claim, particularly not for working people.

St. Paul teachers Remi Eichten (L) and Mary Rddad prepare signs for a potential strike beginning March 10. The #RedForEd movement to restore public school funding sparked strikes across the country, with some 237,400 educators joining strikes in North Carolina, West Virginia, Los Angeles, Chicago, Kentucky and Oregon last year, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, the nation’s highest-ranking labor leader, said the strike surge reflects a “sea change” taking place nationwide.

“Working people, completely fed up with an economic and political system that does not work for us, are turning to each other and using every tool at our disposal to win a better deal,” Trumka said. “Because of the courage of every worker who said enough is enough, we all stand on a stronger foundation today. Solidarity works. And we’re just getting started.”

Despite healthy corporate profits, wage growth has been slow since the economy emerged from the Great Recession. The 2017 tax cut, which President Trump promised would raise average household wages by $4,000, has overwhelmingly benefited corporations and the wealthy instead.

Youth climate strikers and other environmental activists picketed in solidarity with striking janitors, whose contract demands include getting contractors to commit to green cleaning practices.

Executive pay, meanwhile, continues to outpace the wages of average working people. In 2018, CEOs at the largest publicly traded companies earned, on average, 287 times more than the median employee.

Historically, worker frustration has boiled over onto the picket line when working people feel they have leverage, said historian Peter Rachleff, co-director of the East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul.

The low unemployment rate likely has emboldened people to stand up for themselves and risk employer retaliation, knowing they can easily find another job. Frustration, meanwhile, has been building for decades, as gains in productivity have failed to trickle down into workers’ paychecks.

“Much of this productivity growth has also emanated from a growing intensification of work, which has made life on the job harder and more stressful,” Rachleff said. “So workers are not only generating more wealth, which is being captured by their employers, but they are also just plain working harder.”

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Union solidarity drives fight for $15 at MSP Airport

January 22, 2020 by

Ahmed Abdul Aziz, a member of Teamsters Local 120 who works for a rental-car agency, speaks before the Metropolitan Airports Commission in favor of a $15 minimum wage.

They may work different jobs or carry different union cards, but workers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are fighting together to raise MSP’s minimum wage to $15.

And their solidarity is paying off.

The Metropolitan Airports Commission, which oversees operations at MSP Airport, is advancing an ordinance that would raise the minimum wage in three increments, reaching $15 per hour by July 1, 2022. That’s the same date ordinances in St. Paul and Minneapolis tick up to $15 for large employers.

At a final public hearing on the draft ordinance yesterday, commissioners listened to testimony from airport workers who stand to benefit, including members of the Service Employees International Union, Teamsters Local 120 and UNITE HERE Local 17.

Obang Okelo, a Local 17 member who works for airline caterer LSG Sky Chefs, told commissioners the raise would help him finally afford health insurance. For Michael Schofield, who works in an airport bookstore, the raise would mean more time to spend with his family.

“I work full time for Delaware North, but I have to have a second job because, like many, I have a family to support,” Schofield said, adding that he sees his co-workers at the bookstore clock out after an eight-hour shift, only to clock back in for work at another airport job. “They’re essentially working 16-hour days,” he said.

Obang Okelo tells commissioners raising the minimum wage would help him afford health insurance.

SEIU Local 26 member Glen Brown, a wheelchair attendant at MSP, said it’s not right that airport workers get poverty wages while corporations making money off the airport earn record profits. For most of the five years he’s worked at MSP, Brown told commissioners, his hourly pay has been under $11.

“I make this amount despite seeing the news stories about airlines making billions in profits,” Brown said. “I make this much despite seeing news stories about MSP Airport being one of the best in the country since 2016. I make this despite seeing airline CEO’s like Ed Bastian at Delta making $6,300 an hour.

“That just doesn’t sound fair to me.”

Several community supporters at the hearing agreed.

“It’s not right that we have a world-class airport … and depend on poverty wages in order to provide that service,” House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler, a DFLer from Golden Valley, said.

Mary Sansom, a retired member of Machinists Local Lodge 1833, urged commissioners to put themselves in airport workers’ shoes.

“These are not easy jobs, and minimum wage is not sufficient,” said Sansom, who worked at MSP for 47 years. “And if anyone in this room believes that surviving on minimum wage is OK, then I challenge you to do it.”

Fortunately, the MAC appears to be taking workers’ concerns seriously.

Last August, the MAC unveiled an initial draft of the wage ordinance. It included language workers oppose, including a lower wage floor for tipped workers, known as the “tip penalty,” and exemptions for employers with collective bargaining agreements.

Misrak Anbese (R), an SEIU Local 26 member and longtime airport employee, appears before the MAC with Local 26 Presdident Iris Altamirano.

A month later, airport unions turned out hundreds of members and supporters to a public hearing on the proposal. Over 50 testified, and all spoke in support of a $15 minimum wage for all MSP workers, with no carve-outs or exemptions.

That’s exactly what they got just two weeks later, when the MAC revised its draft ordinance. Now, union organizers anticipate a vote in February or March.

Airport workers got more good news earlier this month, when the MAC released results from a survey of airport employers. Over 80% of those who responded anticipated the wage hike would not affect their ability to do business at MSP, and nearly 90% said the change would not impact the number of workers or total hours on their payrolls.

At the public hearing Tuesday, a handful of airport concessionaires disputed the survey results. They echoed now-familiar warnings about job cuts and business closings heard during debates over the minimum wage in Minneapolis and St. Paul in recent years.

But Wade Luneberg, Local 17’s recording secretary, said airport employers will lose experienced workers to neighboring cities if their wages fail to keep pace. And the airport, which has been showered with awards for its efficiency and service in recent years, has an interest making sure that doesn’t happen.

“These workers are the first and last impression for the flying public, and literally care for the public,” Luneberg told commissioners. “They work in a secure environment that isn’t easy to get to – or into. They keep challenging schedules, balancing multiple jobs and family commitments. They’ve made a commitment to this facility, and they’ve made a life here at MSP.

“Airport workers deserve $15.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Fight for $15’s next target: MSP Airport

November 26, 2018 by

MSP Airport workers and supporters march for $15 on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

Emboldened by minimum wage victories in St. Paul and Minneapolis, workers seeking a raise at MSP Airport used the busiest travel day of the year to inject new energy into their fight for $15 and union rights.

The rally outside Terminal 1 last Wednesday brought together the people who make MSP work: unionized janitors, servers, cooks, cart drivers, bag runners and other frontline staff. They marched outside the ticketing area, carrying signs and joining chants calling on the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) to raise the minimum wage to $15 for all airport workers.

Glen Brown, a wheelchair assistant and member of Service Employees International Union Local 26, earns just $10.65 per hour working for airline contractor G2. At the rally, the St. Paul resident recalled watching his city council and mayor pass a minimum wage ordinance earlier this month – and resolving to fight for the same at MSP.

“We deserve the same pay and respect as workers in cities that border the airport,” Brown said, noting that U.S. airlines raked in $15.5 billion in profits last year – profits that “our work helped make possible.”

“There are thousands of us making around what I make, while Delta CEO Ed Bastian makes $6,300 per hour,” Brown added. “A $15 wage floor at MSP would mean stability and security for so many families.”

 

Although workers like Brown are pushing the MAC to follow Minneapolis and St. Paul on the path to $15, it was initially Minneapolis and St. Paul that followed the MAC’s lead in setting higher labor standards than the state requires.

In June 2015, airport commissioners approved a measure raising the minimum wage to $10 for most workers at MSP, which does not fall under the legal jurisdiction of either Minneapolis or St. Paul. That raise came on the heels of a measure passed in December 2014 requiring airport employers to offer earned sick and safe time benefits.

But historic $15 minimum wage ordinances on the books in neighboring St. Paul and Minneapolis are poised to erode airport workers’ minimum-wage advantage. That could lead to under-staffing, workers at the rally warned.

Advocates say nearly 3,000 workers would benefit from raising the minimum wage to $15 at the airport, a boost of close to $13 million into the Twin Cities economy for the people and families who need it most.

Feben Ghilagaber, a UNITE HERE Local 17 member who has worked in food service at MSP for 13 years, said she supports a $15 minimum wage because one job at the airport should be enough for workers to support themselves.

“When I see my co-workers working 16-hour days, I always wonder who’s watching their families?” Ghilagaber said. “Who’s raising their kids?”

Other unions that supported the rally included Teamsters Local 120 and the Machinists, which is supporting Delta Air Lines ramp workers organizing for a voice on the job at MSP and airports around the U.S.

“Delta Workers helped to start the movement for $15 here at the airport four years ago,” ramp worker Marty Knaeble said. “We will be there at the finish.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Kip Hedges: Labor has a big stake in St. Paul’s fight for $15

August 1, 2018 by

Former Delta baggage handler Kip Hedges was fired for speaking up in favor of $15 for all workers.

There’s no question, the labor movement is under severe attack. The Janus decision is only the latest example of damage inflicted on workers by the billionaire class of the United States and their political allies.

How can we rebuild? How can we, as a union movement, be relevant to millions of workers who know little of unions? Because of nearly four decades of defeats, retreats and attacks on labor, many of these workers have never been in a union and don’t have family members or friends who have been in unions.

The fight for a $15 minimum wage must be part of any fightback strategy. Why? First, because using 15 as part of a union organizing strategy can pay real dividends. At MSP airport the demand for $15 was a key part of the Service Employees International Union’s ability to bring 700 aircraft cleaners and cart drivers into the union. Like many positions that had once been career jobs, outsourcing had turned these into minimum-wage jobs. When SEIU Local 26 became a champion of $15 for all airport workers, aircraft cleaners started to pay real attention to the union.

Another string of impressive organizing victories came when United Food and Commercial Workers Local 653 used the demand for $15 to win union representation for hundreds of grocery workers at Minneapolis food co-op stores.

Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL), a Twin Cities worker center, has been at the forefront of the Fight for 15. It has effectively organized to bring hundreds of mostly immigrant workers into the labor movement. This is, in no small part, because workers saw CTUL fighting alongside them for higher wages and dignity even before they were in a union.

The second reason why 15 must be part of rebuilding the union movement is because we must break out of our isolation. The labor movement was at its strongest when we took on fights that benefited the entire working class, like the 8-hour day, unemployment insurance, workers compensation, social security and an end to child labor. By leading these fights, unions brought many unorganized workers into the labor movement.

Too often we have moved away from the philosophy of solidarity, the idea of social movement unionism. Instead of fighting for Medicare for All, the fight becomes for better health insurance for just our members. Instead of fighting for real increases in Social Security, we fight just for our pensions or an increase in company contributions to our 401(k).

We know from years of experience how this ends up. Our employers are able to isolate us from other workers and then pick us off. If the working class as a whole is drowning, it’s only a matter of time before the rising waves wash union workers away as well, no matter how skilled we are or how secure we feel.

If we are able to attract and become relevant to young workers, workers of color, immigrant workers and workers on the low end of the pay scale, then unions actually have a bright future. The fight for 15 is a key part of that future.

Here in St. Paul we expect that the City Council will be voting on an ordinance to raise the minimum wage by late November. We still face a fight over carve-outs like a lower minimum wage for tipped workers (often called a tip penalty), an expanded youth training wage and a lower minimum wage for personal care attendants and other workers. We are demanding One Fair Wage for all St. Paul workers, no carve-outs or exemptions.

Unions and union retirees have been at the center of the Fight for 15 in St. Paul. Union members always show up strong at 15 rallies and turn out for public listening sessions. There will be another opportunity to have an impact on Saturday, Aug. 4, during the next minimum wage listening session sponsored by the city. It’s scheduled from 9 to 11:15 a.m. at the Metropolitan State University Student Center, 690 East Seventh Street.

Please come to support One Fair Wage of $15 for St. Paul!

– A former baggage handler fired by Delta for his support of 15 for all airport workers, Hedges remains active in local organizing campaigns, including the 15 Now campaign and the union drive at Delta Air Lines.

Filed Under: Labor Voices Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Minnesota gained 46,000 union members last year, reversing decade-long decline

January 19, 2018 by

Working people’s voice grew stronger last year in Minnesota, where organizing gains pushed union membership to its highest point since 2004, according to federal data released today.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual report on union membership shows Minnesota gained 46,000 union members from 2016 to 2017, the largest year-to-year gain since 2000. The state’s union population, 411,000, was at its highest since 2004.

Union members grew as a share of Minnesota’s total workforce as well. Union density increased from 14.2 percent to 15.2 percent in 2017, its highest point since 2010.

The report shows Minnesota unions are reversing a trend of decline that began over a decade ago.

“These numbers show that despite political threats from Washington, more working Minnesotans are exercising their freedom to join together in unions to negotiate for a better life,” said Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy, president of the state’s largest labor federation.

Driving the uptick in union membership are organizing gains Minnesota unions have made recently on several fronts, including the service sector, retail and higher education. Some highlights include:

• More than 500 retail janitors, after a six-year campaign with the Twin Cities worker center CTUL, won their first union contract last February.

• Retail workers at three Minneapolis co-ops – Seward, Eastside and Linden Hills – voted to unionize in 2017, as did workers at Whole Foods Co-Op in Duluth.

• The Mayo Clinic’s move to outsource food-service work in 2016 sparked a flurry of organizing activity in Rochester. Some 250 workers have formed four separate bargaining units with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, which went from representing about 50 percent of Mayo’s food service staff to representing all of them.

• Adjunct faculty members at colleges and universities nationwide are forming unions to push back against a higher-ed model they consider unsustainable. In Minnesota, SEIU Local 284 helped adjunct faculty at Augsburg and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design organize in late 2016.

The BLS report also reflects renewed emphasis Minnesota’s public sector unions are putting on membership. With the U.S. Supreme Court likely to rule so-called “fair share” fees unconstitutional later this year, teachers and other public-service workers are scrambling to shore up support among their co-workers.

AFSCME Council 5, which represents over 40,000 public-service workers statewide, converted thousands of “fee payers” into full-fledged members last year, on top of organizing new units at seven different employers, bringing 225 new members into the fold.

Of course, an increase in union power isn’t just good for union members. “It’s no coincidence that as union membership increased in 2017, so did Minnesotans’ average wages,” McCarthy said. “Union workers set standards for wages and safety that benefit all working people.”

Nationally, the number of union members rose by 260,000 to 14.8 million. Union density remained unchanged at 10.7 percent.

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

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!”

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

‘End run’ around local sick-pay victories advances at Capitol

February 3, 2017 by

web-localcontrol-buttonsCorporate special interests clashed with working people during a Capitol hearing last night on legislation that would roll back ordinances extending earned sick and safe time to an estimated 150,000 workers in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The local preemption bill, authored by Rep. Pat Garafalo (R-Farmington), passed its first committee hearing after a lengthy round of public testimony. A companion bill in the Senate will receive its first committee hearing Monday.

The measure would restrict local governments from establishing higher employment standards – like earned sick time, fair scheduling and minimum wage – within their boundaries. Additionally, it would strike down any such ordinances passed after Jan. 1, 2016, nulling historic victories on earned sick time in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Minnesota Nurses Association director Rose Roach, who co-chaired a citizen task force that helped draft St. Paul’s sick time ordinance, called Garafalo’s bill “an end run around the will of the people” in her city.

Roach was among dozens of people who lined up to testify on the measure before the House jobs committee. An overflow crowd spilled into two additional hearing rooms, and the committee’s decision to take a dinner break – passed by a party-line, roll-call vote – drew groans from those still waiting for their chance to speak.

A diverse group of working people, religious leaders and small business owners voiced concerns with the bill, which they called a corporate power grab.

“We see what’s going on here,” Javen Swanson, pastor at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in St. Paul, told committee members. “Businesses don’t want to expand worker benefits or increase wages. And with vast resources and an army of lobbyists in Washington and here in St. Paul, they usually get their way.”

Indeed, lobbyists for several industry associations and trade groups – representing restaurants, banks, temp agencies and others – spoke in favor of stripping local governments of their power to set higher workplace standards. A “patchwork” approach to workplace regulations, they warned, creates bookkeeping headaches for firms doing business across the state.

Doug Sams, owner of D. Brian’s catering, said his employees are like family, and he worried that different wage-and-benefit standards would drive a wedge between employees in different municipalities. “I’m looking at this as a challenge for me to keep my family together,” he said.

Mike Griffin, field director for Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, rallied opponents of the local preemption bill during the House jobs committee's unexpected dinner break.

Mike Griffin, field director for Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, rallied opponents of the local preemption bill during the House jobs committee’s unexpected dinner break.

But one after the other, working people at the hearing came forward to express fear and outrage that state lawmakers would seek to undermine their efforts to secure the sick time necessary to care for themselves and their families.

“My whole working life I have been a number, and an easily replaceable number,” retail worker Katie Drahos, a member of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, told committee members. “I have no say in the corporate world. My only saving grace is that I am able to lobby for my interests at a city level.”

“We get sick because we are human beings, so we need sick time,” SEIU Local 26 member Kadra Ali of St. Paul said. “If I miss one day at my job because I’m sick, I miss my check, or if I stay with my children when they get sick.”

Several small business owners joined workers in opposition, including Todd Mikkelson, a small business owner from Orono. While corporations and industry associations might have the ear of state and national lawmakers, he said, Main Street businesses have the ear of their local officials.

“To take away our local control of things is nothing more than an intrusion,” Mikkelson said. “City councils are listening to us constantly. We have much easier access to them, and they are our neighbors. To stifle them is to stifle us.”

If it’s uniformity corporate interests want, Swanson offered a proposal: “Let’s use St. Paul’s sick time ordinance as a model for statewide legislation that protects the most vulnerable members of our communities,” he said.

Filed Under: Organizing, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

After security contractor reneges, officers at Eagan postal facility strike

September 12, 2016 by

Striking Command security officers (L to R) Laurie Mattson-Collier, Isabel Alvarado and Vicky Berg walk the picket line in Eagan.

Striking Command security officers (L to R) Laurie Mattson-Collier, Isabel Alvarado and Vicky Berg walk the picket line in Eagan.

 

Laurie Mattson-Collier left a meeting with Command Security Corporation managers last month relieved they had reached a compromise to stave off severe pay cuts for her unit of 13 security officers at a postal facility in Eagan.

Less than a week later, Command told Mattson-Collier it was backing out of the verbal agreement, citing opposition from “stakeholders” in the corporation.

“I was just devastated,” Mattson-Collier said. “I started cussing. I really try not to cuss, but I was so upset.”

The workers, members of Local 26 of the Service Employees International Union, held a one-day strike today, protesting what they called an “act of bad faith” by Command.

After taking over the security contract for the U.S. Office of the Inspector General’s facilities in June, Command announced changes to a longstanding practice, upheld by other security contractors, of compensating workers who forego fringe benefits like health insurance.

Laurie Mattson-Collier and her husband were forced to move in with their daughter after Command gutted her paycheck.

Laurie Mattson-Collier and her husband were forced to move in with their daughter after Command gutted her paycheck.

The change meant a pay cut equivalent to $4.27 per hour for workers like Mattson-Collier and Vicky Berg, who gets her health insurance via Medicare. Some workers have quit, she said, and others have been forced to take second jobs.

“I’ve heard stories about some of my co-workers even having to put insurance premiums on their credit cards,” Berg said. “This is how they treat experienced, dedicated employees who are the first line of security for such a vital building?”

Mattson-Collier, who has worked security at the Eagan facility for 13 years, said she and her husband, who is disabled, had no choice after he paychecks plummeted in value but to move in with their daughter.

“This is a nightmare,” she said. “We do important work, and it is hard to believe that we are being treated this way.”

Command cited payroll taxes as its motive for looking to eliminate the additional compensation. Workers were hopeful the company would agree to continue the practice if they covered the taxes themselves.

The two sides currently have no additional bargaining sessions scheduled. Workers warned that without a deal upholding fair compensation levels, more longstanding officers are likely to find other work, undermining the security of the Office of the Inspector General.

Members of Local 7019 of the American Postal Workers Union, who work inside the Eagan facility, picketed alongside security officers, showing their support for the strike.

“I don’t trust Command any more,” Mattson-Collier said. “For them, I think it’s all about the dollar.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , ,

UPDATE: With strike deadline looming, janitors reach landmark tentative pact

March 3, 2016 by

 

Members of the Minneapolis RLF's People of Color Union Members Caucus rally in support of janitors' contract campaign.

Members of the Minneapolis RLF’s People of Color Union Members Caucus rally in support of janitors’ contract campaign.

 

Union janitors in the Twin Cities reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract with area cleaning contractors after a marathon bargaining session ended in the early-morning hours March 7. The settlement prevented janitors from staging a second strike.

About 4,000 janitors, 90 percent of whom are people of color, will see their wages increase by 12.3 percent over the next four years as a result of the new contract – proof, union leaders said, that collective bargaining can be an effective tool in fixing the Twin Cities’ alarming racial disparities.

Maplewood resident Brahim Kone, who works as a janitor in downtown St. Paul and served on SEIU Local 26’s bargaining team, said the new contract includes “the largest raise in decades for Twin Cities janitors, moving full-time workers like myself over $15 immediately.”

“This is a big win for our union and a big win for our community,” Kone added. “Janitors stood together through many months to win what is right, and we are so excited for this victory.”

In addition to wage increases, the contract extends full health benefits and paid-sick days to part-time janitors, improves health insurance coverage while protecting low premiums, and includes a new “just cause” clause that protects janitors from being fired without reason.

"If contractors want a strike, they'll have one. And we'll all support the janitors," St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper said.

“If contractors want a strike, they’ll have one. And we’ll all support the janitors,” St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper said.

Landmark safety language

The contract also includes landmark language to address workload concerns.

A report released earlier this year found staffing cuts over the last decade have created dangerous, backbreaking conditions in the industry, with many janitors cleaning the equivalent of 20 homes in one night on the job. And building-cleaning and maintenance occupations had the highest rate of lost time due to work-related injury or illness in Minnesota during 2014.

New protections in the contract will give janitors a voice in assessing the safety of their workloads. The contract also calls for a professional study of the workload issue by the University of Minnesota.

Lucia Guaman, a janitor who works for Harvard cleaning RBC Plaza in Minneapolis, said a supervisor once responded to her workload concerns by telling her to “vacuum with one hand, mop with the other and dust with your mouth.” That’s likely to change under the new contract.

“People were intimidated to discuss workload or even report when they get injured,” Guaman said. “Now we have an avenue to fix this crisis, and we hope this means we no longer will hear stories about janitors too hurt and sore from work to play with their children.”

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