A dirty deal for cleaners
It was music to their ears when the 150 people who clean the New York office of WeWork, a shared-office-space provider, were told they could reapply for the jobs they were about to lose. But the news turned out to be not that great after all.
The workers’ employer, Commercial Building Maintenance, ended its contract with the Manhattan-based company barely a week after the employees demanded better wages. Their last day will be Sunday.
WeWork decided not to use contractors any longer, but to hire workers directly. The $10 billion company invited the Commercial Building employees, some of whom have been cleaning their offices for more than a year, to fill out job applications.
WeWork President Artie Minson made it clear in a blog post that the new positions — now called “community service associates” and “community service leads” — entail greater responsibilities. This could mean that some laid-off cleaners would not be rehired.
“While these new positions are much broader than the cleaning services we have been contracting with CBM for, we will be interviewing all CBM employees and we expect that a number of the current CBM employees will meet the qualifications,” Minson wrote.
Commercial Building, a nonunion company, pays its employees a miserable $10 an hour — about half the wages unionized janitors make — but WeWork has said the rehired workers will be paid $15 plus health care, a 401(k) plan and stock options.
Although the new offer is a much better deal, the salary is still below what unionized janitors make. Also, the workers, most of whom are Latino immigrants, fear it sets some unfair barriers, like the new “ability to communicate in English” requirement.
“What is that, exactly?” said Alejandrina Marte, 56. “Speaking is not part of my job. I work with my hands, and so far I haven’t had any complaints. Many of us do not know English, but we do a good job.”
Marte was part of a group of 10 workers who, accompanied by state Sen. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan) went to the WeWork offices on Wednesday to turn in their job applications in person. Despite Hoylman’s presence, security guards turned them back at the door.
“They said we needed an appointment,” Marte said. “I felt they didn’t care about us.”
Another concern is that WeWork has said it will hire only 100 workers.
“The company is expanding . . . and we hope the English requirement is not used as a pretext to not hire some workers,” said Rachel Cohen, an organizer for Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, which has been helping the workers articulate their demands. “We think all of the workers should be able to keep their jobs, to unionize and to be paid the prevailing wage of $18 an hour.”