SEIU 32BJ Building Cleaners Win Historic Wages and Protections

Over 3,000 commercial building cleaners, members of SEIU 32BJ in Connecticut, are starting the year with historic increases in wages and expanded benefits instead of having to walk the strike picket line.

Two contracts, one covering cleaners in Hartford and New Haven counties and the other in Fairfield county, were won after overwhelming strike votes, rallies and support from elected officials.

The central Connecticut agreement with dozens of companies in the Connecticut Cleaning Contractors’ Association provides 1,600 workers unprecedented wage increases between 15.9 and 17.7 percent over four years. Two more paid days-off, including Juneteenth, and improved contributions to the pension fund were also won.

The 32BJ members clean Hartford’s commercial buildings, from the Hartford and Travelers Insurance companies to state and municipal buildings like New Haven City Hall and the State Capitol, the UConn campus in Hartford and UConn Health Center, and major manufacturing locations like Pratt & Whitney.

“This contract secures wage increases that allow our members to keep up with inflation, and it extends some important new benefits, like the Juneteenth holiday.  After the trials of the pandemic, which took many members’ lives and threatened countless more, it takes a big step toward ensuring a brighter future for them, their families, and their communities.” said 32BJ SEIU Vice President Rochelle Palache, who leads the union in Connecticut.

This Central Connecticut contract is part of the union’s campaign to win strong new contracts for over 70,000 building cleaners across the East Coast, including the new Tri-State agreement covering 1,400 cleaners in Fairfield County, plus 8,600 more in the Hudson Valley, Long Island, and across New Jersey where a strike was also averted.

It is the first combined labor agreement covering 10,000 cleaners in three states in a single contract and includes an average 4 percent wage increase each year over four years, expanded access to pensions, protections against workforce reduction and sexual harassment, and Juneteenth as a paid holiday.

“Thanks to all the support we received from members in all three states, we have achieved a fantastic tentative agreement,” said Esther Alamias, a 32BJ SEIU bargaining committee member and a cleaner in Greenwich, Connecticut. “We got the wage increase that we need to stay ahead of inflation, additional paid-time off, including the important holiday of Juneteenth, and an extension of retirement benefits, which is a great victory for future workers, too.”