Janitors seek full-time jobs, self-sufficiency

So a year ago, when her job as a building cleaner became full time, she was ecstatic. "When I was part time, the state was helping me with welfare" such as food stamps and health care, she noted.

But when her job became full time, her income rose and she became eligible for benefits provided in the contract between cleaning company managers and her union, Service Employees International Union Local 26.

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SEIU Local 26 member Kadijo Mohamed (above, center) addressed the outdoor gathering at Hennepin County Government Plaza, flanked by SEIU organizer/interpreter Muna Noor (left) and SEIU Local 26 president Javier Morillo-Alicea (right). Outfitted with red and white Santa hats and purple vests, SEIU members (below) walked through the skyways to Nicollet Mall.

Photos by Steve Share, Minneapolis Labor Review

The self-sufficiency of Mohamed and many others is in jeopardy, the union says, as employers go to the bargaining table to demand a reduction in full-time workers. To bring attention to the issue, Local 26 members rallied outside the Hennepin County Government Center Wednesday, then walked through downtown skyways.

They wore red-and-white Santa Claus caps and purple vests proclaiming "Justice for Janitors" and "Health care for all workers."

Full-time status and family health care coverage are key issues in negotiations for some 4,400 janitors who clean downtown buildings in Minneapolis and St. Paul, said Javier Morillo-Alicea, president of the local union.

"In the last three years, we have moved over 50 percent of our members to full-time jobs," he said. The employers "want to take away our full-time jobs and health care."

Two negotiation sessions have taken place and more talks are scheduled this week, the union said.

What\’s decided at the bargaining table will have a direct effect on workers like Mohamed. A five-year-employee of Marsden Building Maintenance, she cleans offices in the Wells Fargo Mortgage building to support herself and her four children.

"The employers want to push us down to part-time," she said. "We don\’t want to go backward."

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