Janitors Reach Tentative Agreement on Wages, Benefits, Four-Year Pact for L.A. County

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Janitors announced a major breakthrough in contract negotiations at a press conference with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa and Robert F. Maguire III, CEO of Maguire Properties, Inc. at City Hall today. For the first time ever, 6,700 janitors in Los Angeles and Orange counties will have one master contract. Previously, there were two separate contracts for each county that both expired April 30. Janitors reached tentative agreement for Los Angeles County this afternoon.

“This will help us to provide for our families in the way we want to, just to have a safe, decent place to live and make it possible for our children to have a better future,” said Grey Pichinte, a janitor and member of the contract bargaining committee, comprised of Los Angeles and Orange County janitors. “Today we won justice for all janitors in Los Angeles and we will keep fighting until we win for Orange County and statewide.” The janitors’ union SEIU Local 1877 represents 20,000 janitors from San Diego to the Silicon Valley and all the way up to Sacramento; all are currently in contract negotiations.

TENTATIVE AGREEMENT FOR LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Janitors announced they won a tentative agreement that would boost total compensation nearly 25 percent over the life of the contract. Janitors won wage increases of more than $1,000 a year every year over the life of the four-year pact for a compounded total of $10,000 per janitor.

“As a result of this deal, thousands of hardworking janitors and their families will enjoy improved wages and maintain quality healthcare, while building owners and contractors will enjoy lower turnover and higher quality services,” said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa.

Janitors will continue to receive full employer-paid family healthcare, a pension, and now, for the first time, they will receive vision coverage. Janitors that work on the outskirts of the county will now be able to move into higher-paying buildings and earn better benefits based on seniority, once the contract is ratified.

NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUE FOR ORANGE COUNTY

Janitors are scheduled to appear at the Irvine City Council meeting Tuesday, May 13 to conduct an emergency briefing with elected leaders regarding the situation in Orange County. Negotiations to settle wages and benefits for 2,000 Orange County janitors are scheduled to resume on Wednesday, May 14.

“I’m proud to be a friend to the janitors who work hard to provide for their families; it’s what we’ve always done over the years and we’ll continue to do because working families deserve quality of life and the peace of mind that family healthcare provides,” said Robert F. Maguire III, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Maguire Properties, Inc., one of the largest corporate real estate owners in downtown Los Angeles and Orange County.

RESULTS OF THE STRIKE

Today’s announcement comes just days after the janitors voted overwhelmingly to approve an unfair labor practice strike and began staging walkouts on Wednesday, May 7 after round-the-clock contract negotiations broke down.

At that time, the cleaning companies and their corporate clients had refused to adequately raise wages for janitors who clean some of the most expensive office buildings in the entire country. The contractor’s proposal would have forced the majority of union janitors into second-class status, which was unacceptable to the janitors’ union.

The tentative agreement announced today for Los Angeles county will begin to bring those janitors out of second-class status and raise wages from $22,256 to $26,728 a year by the end of the four-year pact. Janitors that work in downtown and Century City will see their wages jump from $24,960 to $29,328 a year when the contract expires, April 30, 2012.

ELECTED LEADERS AND BUILDING OWNERS INVOLVEMENT

Los Angeles City Councilmembers present at the announcement include Richard Alarcón, Eric Garcetti, Wendy Greuel, Janice Hahn, José Huizar, Ed Reyes, Bill Rosendahl and Jack Weiss.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa’s labor advisor Julie B. Gutman, and David C. Sears of JP Morgan and chair of the Building Owners Managers Association of Greater Los Angeles (BOMA-LA) labor relations janitorial subcommittee facilitated round-the-clock negotiations between the janitors and the cleaning contractors to reach the tentative agreement on wages, benefits and other issues for Los Angeles county.

“This is an example of what we can accomplish together when elected leaders and the building owners get engaged,” said Mike Garcia, president of the janitors’ union SEIU Local 1877. “It’s still an open question if the building owners in other counties from San Diego through the Silicon Valley and into Sacramento, will step up and help prevent labor disruptions.”

Janitors in Orange County, San Diego, Silicon Valley, and the Bay Area are now working under expired contracts. Cleaning contractors and the building owners are largely the same across the state.

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1877 is part of SEIU United Service Workers West, representing more than 40,000 janitors, security officers, airport service workers, and other property service workers across California. SEIU is the nation’s largest and fastest growing union in North America with more than 1.9 million members.