Striking janitors to return to work Thursday; 15 arrested at MSP Airport

Twin Cities janitors who staged a three-day strike this week will be back on the job Thursday, and the union representing them said talks to resolve differences will resume Friday.

On Wednesday, the final day of the unfair labor practices strike, 15 people demonstrating at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport were arrested following a rally outside Terminal 1, according to officials from the SEIU Local 26, the union representing the janitors.

National SEIU Executive Vice President Neal Bisno was among those who blocked the upper-level roadway in an act of civil disobedience and were arrested by police, the union said in a statement. Most of those arrested were supporting airport workers who are seeking pay increases.

The strikers had permission to picket in a designated area at the airport provided they did not disrupt operations, said Jeff Lea, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which runs MSP. But when they spilled onto the road and did not leave after getting several requests to do so, airport police moved in.

Those arrested were issued misdemeanor citations for failure to obey a lawful order, presence at an unlawful assembly and trespassing, and then released, Lea said.

Wednesday’s arrests came after nearly 4,000 janitors seeking better pay, cheaper health insurance and retirement benefits marched and picketed in downtown Minneapolis — and for three days didn’t clean nearly 100 buildings including Ameriprise Financial, IDS Center, the Hennepin County Government Center and the Minneapolis Public Service Building.

Christopher Haugabrook, a janitor at the MSP Airport who took part in the strike, shared his excitement around the strike and his hopes of reaching a fair deal soon.

“It was so powerful to see my co-workers standing up for fair wages and retirement benefits over these days,” he said. “We marched outside of the buildings where we clean, we brought hundreds to the capitol and we saw people willing to take arrest at the MSP Airport in support of us. We are going into bargaining ready to win a contract that respects our work and shows what we are worth. This strike has been so powerful and we’re showing what we say is true: when we fight, we win!”

Union members had voted in February to authorize a strike if they could not reach a contract agreement with their employers, which include ABM Industries, Marsden Services and Harvard Services.