Clean Campaign
Oct 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Mike Janssen
Higher pay, health plans
In the dispute with General Growth, workers are seeking a 10(j) injunction that would bar General Growth and its contractors “from interfering in workers' freedom to choose a union,” according to a press release. Violations have been “so severe and frequent that workers need this extra level of protection so that their rights are guaranteed,” says SEIU's O'Donnell. The charges center on nine malls in California, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey and Washington.
Janitors allege that supervisors from two contractors — The Millard Group and Service Management Systems (SMS) — fired, threatened and interrogated employees active in their unions. Workers also accused General Growth officials at Park Meadows Mall of spying on union representatives and denying pro-union workers access to the site.
“We want to stop the abuses from the employer, and we deserve better benefits,” said Christian Valle, a janitor at Paramus Park, through an interpreter provided by SEIU. Valle and coworkers began trying to unionize several months ago.
Maria Trejo, a janitor at Park Meadows for more than five years, says she and her colleagues are overworked and coping with inadequate staffing. A Millard supervisor ordered Trejo and her coworkers to remove pro-union stickers, she says.
Jerry Kwiatkowski, executive vice president for Millard, calls SEIU's press releases about the charges “incomplete and inaccurate,” adding, “We do not believe a union is necessary for Millard employees.”
Millard recently raised wages at properties it took over and strives to create “a team environment where employees can resolve issues directly with the company,” he says.
“There is no need for Millard employees to pay a union to speak for them,” Kwiatkowski argues. An SMS spokesman says the employer is cooperating with the NLRB review and denies the charges. But SEIU accuses the firms of paying too little to cover necessities such as food, rent and transportation. The employers also offer no health care or other benefits, the union alleges.
General Growth recently took steps to address these issues, a move that Graham says is unrelated to SEIU's campaign. General Growth will require its janitorial vendors to commit to minimum pay standards as they renew contracts over the next two years.
The corporation will also raise wages for janitors at more than 40 of its malls. Wage hikes will correspond to surveys of wages paid to comparable workers in the area, with most falling in the range of 20 percent to 25 percent. Trejo says she recently received a raise of $3.15, bringing her hourly wage to $10.15 an hour.
General Growth also plans to offer health insurance plans to individual workers and families, with employers paying 75 percent of the costs. General Growth will ultimately bear the cost of the policies, for which more than 3,000 janitors will qualify.
“We are proud to have initiated that code of conduct for our vendors, because janitors are some of the most important workers laboring in our malls,” Graham says.
These steps, however, have not thrown SEIU off the trail. In the charges filed with the NLRB, janitors say that these wage hikes and health-care offers amount to an attempt to undermine the unionization drive.
O'Donnell calls the changes “a step in the right direction” but says few workers will be able to shoulder the 25-percent share of the health insurance plans being offered. He also notes that the plans and pay hikes are not guaranteed to last.
“Janitors know that these promises came after they stood up to form a union,” he says. “And they know that these things can be taken away just as easily.”
