CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Dozens of commercial office cleaners marched through Conshohocken on Tuesday demanding a favorable union contract, about two weeks before their current contract expires.
The SEIU Local 32BJ union represents nearly 2,000 office janitors in the Philadelphia suburbs and Delaware, who work at more than 150 buildings. They banded together to negotiate a new four-year contract with Building Operations Labor Relations.
"We're just here asking for fair wages," said Daisy Cruz, the union's district director. "We're in the middle of negotiations. We've already had two sessions." Negotiators have another session this week.
The current contract expires on Dec. 15. According to a statement from the union, building owners in the Philadelphia area are set to collect an estimated $3.5 billion in rent this year from more than 113 million square feet of commercial office space. The average asking commercial rent in the suburban counties is cited at $28.54 per square foot. Union representatives said wages and benefits for employees represent 4.5% of owners' costs per square foot.
Meanwhile, the union said the current starting wage for janitors is $16.50 an hour with paid time off and other benefits, including access to employee-paid health care for full-time employees. However, they said total earnings for workers are down, due to rental prices in the area rising 12% since the COVID-19 pandemic.
"A lot of these members work two or three jobs just to make ends meet," Cruz said. "Just like the cost of living is going up for everyone, it's especially going up for our members."
Marcelina Lemus has been working for the last eight years as a commercial office cleaner. She has some major issues with contract proposals they've received from BOLR.
"They don't want to give them raises. They want to take vacation away from them, also they want to cut hours," she said.
However, Cruz says they're optimistic about reaching a new contract with BOLR. "We've made some progress on language. The wage proposal they put on the table is not something that our members would be able to live off of," she said.
"They're struggling paycheck to paycheck right now. We're hopeful that we'll be able to get something that shows our members that their employees care about them, respect them but also [that] they'll be able to take care of their families."
KYW Newsradio reached out to BOLR for comment, but calls were not immediately returned.
