Clean Campaign
Oct 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Mike Janssen
Perhaps it is a sign that retail real estate has become a mature industry.
After decades of flying under the radar screen of organized labor, malls have suddenly become a battleground for unions. Over the past three years, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) — the largest union in the nation with more than 2 million members — has waged a campaign to organize janitors at properties owned by some of the nation's largest mall owners.
Since May, SEIU has focused on Chicago-based General Growth Properties, the second-largest owner of malls in the United States. Currently, it is trying to organize janitors at more than 20 malls — about 10 percent of the firm's portfolio.
And things are getting nasty.
SEIU is employing a media campaign against General Growth and it's not limiting itself to talking about issues of workers' rights, benefits and wages. For example, in May, during the ICSC Spring Convention at a hotel across the street from the Las Vegas Convention Center, SEIU, along with several other groups, conducted a Monday morning press conference claiming teen curfews enacted at some General Growth properties were unfairly targeting youths of color. Then in September, the group sponsored a national conference call through a group it funds — Good Jobs First — accusing General Growth of draining community coffers by seeking tax breaks and subsidies.
An official from General Growth says that SEIU is using the other issues to target the company, but its real focus is elsewhere. “The SEIU is not really concerned about tax fairness or justice for employees,” says Jim Graham, General Growth's director of public affairs, in reference to the Good Jobs First study. “They simply want to increase their dues-paying membership.”
On that front, since July, service employees at General Growth-owned malls have filed a total of 37 charges of unfair labor practices against the corporation and two cleaning contractors. The janitors allege that they were threatened, interrogated and spied on for engaging in union activity.
“In terms of the industry in general, [General Growth] is behind the curve” on workers' rights, says Kevin O'Donnell, an SEIU spokesman. “You're seeing them work with contractors who don't respect workers' civil rights and don't respect workers' freedom to choose a voice on the job.”
The drive to unionize janitors at General Growth marks the latest chapter in SEIU's larger campaign against mall owners and contractors. The shopping center industry has shown diverging attitudes toward unions. In 2004, SEIU began agitating against Westfield Group, and last year it expanded the campaign to Simon Property Group. Westfield and Simon each reached pacts with SEIU in December to raise wages and improve health benefits for service employees.
Companies such as General Growth that decline to meet the union's standards could continue to find themselves bearing the brunt of unflattering publicity. But to satisfy SEIU, mall owners might have to require contractors to improve wages and benefits, which could affect their bottom lines as well.
Yet industry resistance to union demands goes beyond General Growth. This year ICSC opposed the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that would have allowed employees to unionize by signing cards instead of holding elections. (ICSC did not return calls seeking comment on the campaign and its implications for the industry.)
SEIU is part of the Change to Win Coalition, which broke off from the AFL-CIO two years ago. Both federations support the Employee Free Choice Act, and the AFL-CIO intends to continue pushing for its passage in Congress. Card-check unionization is “the most democratic process for workers to form a union free from intimidation,” says an SEIU spokeswoman.
So far, General Growth and its contractors show little sign of following Simon and Westfield to a spot in SEIU's good graces. The union aims to persuade the companies to allow their janitors to join its ranks. It also seeks to persuade General Growth either to require its janitorial contractors to increase wages and benefits or to work with other contractors who already meet its standards.
Representatives from General Growth and its contractors call SEIU's allegations and publicity campaigns part of an organized effort to tarnish their names.
