Janitors prepare for strike vote
Janitors that clean some of Sacramento's largest buildings are poised for a strike vote Saturday to protest stalled contract negotiations with local building maintenance companies.
Service Employees International Union Local 1877 has also organized a rally at noon Thursday at Cesar Chavez Park to attract support for local janitors who earn $8.50 an hour cleaning big office buildings on Capitol Mall and elsewhere in the region.
Contract negotiations for about 2,000 janitors employed by 13 unionized janitorial firms that do business in Sacramento kicked off in March. Their contract expired May 31, but both sides approved a two-week extension that ends Saturday.
There's been general agreement on non-economic issues, leaving the big items — wages and benefits — on the table, a union spokesman said.
Local 1877 represents more than 20,000 janitors in the state whose contracts expired this spring. The union has already reached agreement with employers in the Bay Area, Orange County, Los Angeles and San Diego payday loans bad credit payday advance. Bay Area janitors won a $2.40 per hour wage increase over four years.
Many Bay Area janitors earn $17 an hour, twice as much as a their counterparts in Sacramento.
"Our negotiating team is focused on the economic issues that make the difference between janitors providing for their families and merely surviving," said Mike Garcia, president of SEIU Local 1877. "We are fighting to improve janitors' wages and securing health care for more of their family members. There is no doubt we can reach a fair deal here, just as we have in the Bay Area and Southern California, with many of these very same companies."
A representative for the unionized building maintenance companies could not be reached for comment.