After the expiration of the contract, SEIU officials, at the request of Mayor Thomas Menino, agreed to postpone strike action and to continue negotiations with the Maintenance Contractors of New England, an association of 30 cleaning companies. Failing to reach an agreement, union officials decided to organize a selective strike against Unicco Service Co., a national office-cleaning company that cleans 1,450 buildings in the area.

On the first day of the walkout, janitors picketed 16 major Boston office buildings, including One Beacon Street, 100 Federal Street, 100 Summer Street, One and Two International Place, Russia Wharf, the World Trade Center, and the John Hancock Building. The second day, another 11 city buildings and 19 in the suburbs were struck. By the end of the first week, more than 2,000 workers were on the picket lines in front of 63 buildings.

The slogans carried by strikers on their signs explain their demands: "Part time work doesn’t work" "$39 a day is not enough" and "Health care for our families."

According to press reports, the cleaning bosses have agreed to increase wages to $12.50 an hour from $10.20 over four years, and to expand some medical coverage for full-time workers. But they have balked at creating more full-time positions as demanded by the union. Seventy-five percent of the janitors are employed on a part-time basis and have no medical benefits.

Workers on the picket line explained that they usually work about four hours a night Monday through Friday with an ever increasing workload.

The Boston Herald, voicing the bosses’ point of view, argued against the union’s demand for full-time jobs, declaring, "Union leaders have simply refused to acknowledge that some workers for whom this is a second job want part-time work. They have also failed to admit the economic reality that a conversion to full-time jobs will leave many of those workers just flatly out of work."

On the second day of the strike, Unicco advertised in the Boston Herald for temporary workers for all shifts. Within a couple of days, some buildings were getting cleaned with replacement workers and union members who have crossed picket lines. The union estimated that 5 percent of its members were crossing the picket lines, while cleaning industry sources put the figure higher.

During rush hour on October 2, more than 300 janitors and their supporters converged on 100 Summer Street where they briefly rallied and then marched through the streets of downtown Boston chanting "Unicco escucha! Estamos en la lucha!" ("Listen up, Unicco, we’re here to fight!")

In response, Mayor Menino won a court order on October 3 barring janitors and their supporters from staging street demonstrations without permits.

Earlier that day, workers and others in solidarity with the janitors marched down Boylston Street, a tony shopping district in downtown Boston. They were joined by delegates to the Massachusetts State AFL-CIO convention taking place in the city.

Also that day, 26 supporters of the janitors were arrested as they blocked traffic at the entrance to the Callahan Tunnel, the major thoroughfare to the airport and the suburbs and towns along the North Shore.

AFL-CIO state president Robert Hayes commented, "He likes to say he’s labor’s mayor. Preventing these working people from expressing themselves is not what one would expect from labor’s mayor."

Menino claimed to be "sympathetic" to the janitors but that he was "concerned about the public safety."

In August the Boston City Council passed a resolution "requesting" that "the commercial real estate community and their chosen maintenance contractors offer decent wages and benefits, including health care, in line with cities like New York and San Francisco that have similar cost requirements."

Janitors struck in Los Angeles in 2000, winning a 26 percent wage increase.

On the third day of the strike here, John Hancock Financial Services said it would be willing to spend up to $1.5 million more for cleaning services to help ensure higher pay and health insurance for janitors.

After the walkout began, Standard & Poor’s lowered Unicco’s credit rating and placed it on "credit watch" with "negative implications," citing expected weakness in its operating performance.

Ted Leonard is a packinghouse worker in the Boston area. Sarah Ullman, a garment worker, contributed to this article.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home