Twin Cities janitors reach tentative deal

Minnesota’s property services union reached a tentative agreement with employers early Saturday, ending a historic strike that gained new benefits for janitors across the Twin Cities.

Officials with SEIU Local 26 said the agreement was reached after nearly 20 hours of bargaining. If union members approve the four-year contract, the hourly wages of nearly 4,000 janitors will increase to $20, with raises of more than 17% during the life of the contract. They also would earn more sick days, have lower health care costs and, for the first time, get life insurance and paid retirement accounts.

Members will vote on the agreement next Saturday.

SEIU Local 26 President Greg Nammacher said the pact is a “significant step forward” for Twin Cities’ janitors.

“These are, far and away, the biggest percent increases that we have accomplished in a contract,” Nammacher said, adding that union members pushed for life insurance and retirement benefits after six essential workers died in the pandemic. A survey commissioned last year found that 67% of members had no savings due to illness and losing time from work.

“Those [factors] really had an economic hit on a group of people that already were really struggling to make ends meet,” he said. “That was part of where our demand around an employer-paid retirement came from —really wanting to start to structurally fix that, so in the future people have something more concrete to depend on.”

Saturday’s announcement comes after negotiations between SEIU and cleaning companies failed over wage issues. Thousands of janitors launched a three-day strike in response, picketing outside office buildings, the State Capitol and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Police arrested 15 people who picketed at the airport Wednesday, including National SEIU Executive Vice President Neal Bisno.

Although the union represents more than 8,000 janitors, security officers, window cleaners and airport workers, Saturday’s agreement would affect commercial janitors comprised mostly of immigrants and people of color. SEIU Local 26 officials say those union members clean buildings that house “some of the richest corporations in the world” and work for large subcontractors such as ABM Industries, Marsden, Harvard Services Group, Carlson Building Maintenance, IFS Group and ISS Facility Services.

“We fought extremely hard and we got the best deal we’ve ever had because we were willing to go out on strike. We won a retirement plan and higher raises, and we helped expand union rights,” janitor Mike Bartos said in an SEIU statement. “We are proud of how hard we fought and are going to be ready to come back in four years to keep winning more of what we deserve.”

Separately, 1,000 workers from a dozen nursing home facilities launched a one-day strike on March 5, demanding better pay and work conditions. While picketing that day, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa President Jamie Gulley said staffing was down 25% at nursing homes with staffers participating in the strike. That work dispute remains to be settled.

Staff writer Dee DePass contributed to this story.