Dec 28, 2007 7:16 am US/Eastern
Office Cleaners Reach Tentative Contract Agreement
CHEVY CHASE, Md. (AP) ―
Thousands of office cleaners in the District of Columbia, Baltimore and Montgomery County reached a tentative agreement late Thursday on new four-year contracts, avoiding a possible strike, union officials announced.
Officials with the Service Employees International Union said the new contracts would provide wage increases of up to 28 percent over four years and better health care benefits. Union members must still ratify the contracts.
"These contracts ... will help lift cleaners out of poverty," Mike Fishman, president of the SEIU 32BJ local, said in a statement.
The agreement was reached with the Commercial Building Cleaning Contractors Association, which represents cleaning contractors that include Red Coats, American Building Maintenance and Unicco.
Contracts covering about 2,200 cleaners in Baltimore and Montgomery County were set to expire Dec. 31, and workers had threatened to strike as early as next week. Contracts covering 4,500 D.C. cleaners were set to expire in April.
Some of the buildings that could have been affected by a strike included the headquarters of Legg Mason in Baltimore, the Discovery Communications offices in Silver Spring and large office buildings in Bethesda and Rockville.
The contract with the D.C. cleaners calls for a 24 percent pay increase over the next four years. And for the first time, all part-time cleaners would receive life insurance, employer-paid family benefits for prescription drugs, dental and vision.
In Montgomery County, the agreement calls for a 27 percent pay increase while in Baltimore the agreement provides a 28 percent increase. Cleaners in both jurisdictions also would receive up to two weeks vacation and employer-paid family prescription drug coverage.
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