May 24–31, 2001

hall monitor

A Clean Political Fight

Members of the cleaning staff at City Hall are busting out more than their mops and rags. They are sharpening their pencils and mounting a letter-writing campaign to Mayor Street. The union representing City Hall janitors is demanding a new contract with decent wages and benefits.

Colin Services and Team Clean, Inc. employ City Hall’s 35 cleaners. The janitors are represented by Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 36, but they are going on their third year without a contract. They are prepared to strike if that’s what it takes to get a new collective bargaining agreement, the union says.

All of the cleaners in City Hall are Philadelphia residents, and the majority of them are black or Latino. Although they keep Philadelphia’s municipal palace clean, these workers make $2 to $3 per hour less than their counterparts working in office buildings across the city, according to SEIU Local 36.

In recent years, SEIU’s Justice for Janitors campaign has forced higher wages for cleaning staff at countless privately owned office buildings. Now, the union is taking on the mayor directly. Justice for Janitors is distributing a sample letter to Street, via fliers and the Internet, urging him to "help these hard-working Philadelphians achieve justice."

"I am writing to you to express my disappointment about the treatment of janitors who clean and care for Philadelphia’s City Hall," the letter begins. "Day in and day out — from sun up to after dark — they empty trash, buff floors, clean offices and rooms, and scrub and wash our most prominent and most treasured public building. They deserve and have earned our respect and support."

The City Hall cleaning staff continues to work under a collective bargaining agreement that expired February 1999. Union members say attempts to renegotiate contract terms with Colin Services and Team Clean have resulted in an impasse over wages and benefits.

Mayoral spokesperson Luz Cardenas says union fliers are posted around City Hall, but the mayor has not received a deluge of letters on the issue. Managing Director Joe Martz is overseeing negotiations with SEIU Local 36, but he did not return calls before press time.

In addition to the letter writing initiative, the Justice for Janitors campaign is planning a demonstration outside City Hall on May 31.

—Gwen Shaffer