Janitors authorize strike

Negotiators facing Tuesday deadline for agreement; issues include service companies seeking to exclude 2,000 workers from contract

JANITORS represented by the Service Employees International Union are voting to authorize a strike if an agreement with building service contractors isn’t reached by the time their contract expires on Tuesday.

The negotiations come at a time when the commercial office market is softening, as the recent office construction boom combines with contraction in the oil and gas business to boost vacancy rates and lower rents.

One of the main areas of contention is who would be covered by the union contract. The Houston Area Contractors Association, which represents the cleaning companies that hire the janitors, wants to exclude about 2,000 of the union’s 3,500 members from the contract. Those members, most of whom work in buildings outside the I-610 loop, would be left without the protections and benefits gained when the union was formed in 2006: $9.35 an hour, a week of paid vacation, and health care benefits for those who work more than 30 hours a week.

John Nesse, a St. Paul, Minn.based attorney who is representing four of the building service contractors, declined to comment on details of the negotiations, which are scheduled to wrap up Thursday and Friday. “We are committed to negotiating a contract that reflects the reality of the market,” he said.

The companies include New

York-based ABM, Miami-based Harvard, San Antonio-based ISS US, and GCA Services Group, which is based in Cleveland. They contract with the commercial landlords for maintenance services.

SEIU is seeking a 35 percent raise over four years to put Houston janitors more in line with their union represented counterparts in markets like Baltimore and Chicago, who make upwards of $12 an hour. The union also wants to guarantee workers a minimum number of hours. Right now, many only get 25 hours a week, making them ineligible for health insurance and needing a second job.

“I barely survive with that,” says Norma Guerra, 40, who spends five hours a day at her janitorial job and another eight hours a day as a housekeeper. “At the end of the month, I want to have enough money to pay my bills.”

Mark Mulligan / Houston Chronicle Mercedes Herrara, an organizer with SEIU, leads a chant during a rally in front of One Allen Center on Wednesday.

Mark Mulligan / Houston Chronicle Janitors, supporters and SEIU members and staff rally on Wednesday in front of One Allen Center, a building that members of their union clean, in advance of a vote for a new contract with the contractors that employ them.