Union cleaners avoid strike, reach deal before deadline

A Jan. 1 strike of 10,000 union janitors on Long Island and throughout the tristate region has been averted after a tentative agreement with dozens of regional cleaning companies was reached late last month, union officials said.

Around 700 union building cleaners at offices, schools and medical facilities on Long Island were poised to walk off the job when the old contract expired, according to officials with Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union.

Union members on the Island had voted to authorize a strike earlier in December, along with workers in the Hudson Valley, Rockland, Westchester, Albany, throughout New Jersey and in Fairfield County, Connecticut. On Dec. 22, a tentative deal was reached ahead of a Dec. 31 deadline.

“This contract really reflects a commitment to making sure that people who clean offices, that they and the work they do is valued, respected, and is fairly compensated,” said Lenore Friedlaender, a top official at Local 32BJ SEIU.

Friedlaender said many of the union members work second and third jobs to get by.

“It’s overwhelmingly an immigrant and Latino workforce,” she said. “This is going to make a difference not just for the workers and their families, but for the communities they live in.”

The new contract raises wages for Island cleaners by nearly 19% — or $3 — over the course of four years, starting with a $1 increase if the contract is ratified later this week. The current wage rate for union cleaners in Nassau and Suffolk counties is $16 an hour, which on Jan. 1 became the state’s minimum wage for the Island.

Additionally, the contract adds Juneteenth as a paid day off for union members.

The Long Island workers were among 10,000 cleaners in the tristate region negotiating for a master contract that covers wages and benefits at more than 80 employers.

The largest employers involved in negotiations include American Building Maintenance, Pritchard Industries, Aramark and Collins Building Services, the largest employer subject to the contract on Long Island, the union said.

“I’m happy about the wage increase,” Marda Mendez, 54, said in Spanish through a translator. “It’s something I didn’t have last year. It’s going to help with my budget and it’s going to help me and my co-workers handle bills.”

Mendez, a Massapequa resident who’s been a union cleaner for 25 years, said the strike push showed what workers were willing to do to secure a fair contract.

“The employers were able to see that we were ready,” she said. “They were reminded that we were essential workers and we’re a key piece of making their work possible.”