King County sanitation workers, wearing their union’s colors of purple and yellow, gathered in Seattle on Friday for a rally and warned that 4,000 sanitation workers could walk off the job as early as June 30 if a new collective bargaining agreement is not reached.
Service Employees International Union 6 cleaners are employed by major cleaning services: ABM, SBM Management Services, Pacific Building Services, and Alliance Building Services, to name a few. These cleaners are scattered throughout the Seattle area, but converge in downtown Seattle, as many of them work in buildings there.
SEIU6 janitors and employers are negotiating before the current contract expires on June 30. If no agreement is reached, the janitors could go on strike.
The region’s largest union has agreed to support the strike by banning other union members, including garbage workers, from working in the buildings where janitors represented by SEIU6 are striking.
The employers did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.
In a march through downtown Seattle on Friday, hundreds of union members chanted “No contract, no peace” and “Sí, se puede” – a Spanish labor slogan for “yes, it can be done” – and were backed by drums, loud music from speakers and even a mariachi band. The group marched from the F5 Tower on Fifth Avenue to Safeco Plaza on Fourth Avenue and ended their rally at the DocuSign Tower on Third Avenue – the common denominator being that each building has SEIU6 janitors working in it.
According to the union, SEIU6 janitors earn an average of about $45,000 a year, leading many to work multiple jobs to bridge the widening gap between wages and rising living costs.
“The struggle is real. … Many of our members are just having to sacrifice everything right now,” said Zenia Javalera, president of SEIU6. “They’re working two or three jobs and can’t spend time with their families.”
“Our members are literally one paycheck away from being homeless right now.”
The SEIU6 cleaning sector represents 4,000 members and typically renegotiates its contracts about every four years. This most recent contract was extended for a year due to the pandemic.
The latest negotiations are making progress, with the main focus being on wages and health insurance. It is unclear whether there will be a strike.
“Right now, we have a good contract overall,” Javalera said. “Our members are not cleaning toilets because of the good wages they get for it. It’s really because of the quality health care we have.”
Javalera, 36, said employers initially offered only a wage increase of 15 cents per hour during negotiations, but have since improved their offer.
“We saw how disrespectful it is to start with 15 cents, but the table is moving,” Javalera said. “We are not asking for handouts. We are asking for help.”
Since the majority of janitors work at night, in the event of a strike, they would all stop working.
After SEIU6 announced its intention to strike last month, the board of directors of the Martin Luther King, Jr. County Labor Council authorized a strike. Failure to agree to a contract by the end of June “will lead to work stoppages in other sectors, including delivery and sanitation,” the SEIU6 statement said. That means other unions have agreed not to break picket lines and avoid striking locations.
King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay and state Rep. Mia Gregerson, Democrat from SeaTac, were in attendance to show their support for the union.
Amir Kalabic, 58, sits on the collective bargaining committee; this is his fourth contract. He and his wife have worked on the Amazon campus for 18 years. Kalabic, an immigrant from Bosnia-Herzegovina, now has two other jobs in addition to his work as a janitor.
“We have never thought about a strike as much as we have this year,” Kabalic said on Friday. “They don’t see us as human beings.”
Kalabic and his wife earn “a little over” $45,000 a year from their caretaker work.
“The rent is so high, gas, food, everything is getting more expensive,” Kalabic said. “I don’t know what will happen when I retire.”
The SEIU6 union is diverse; its members speak 30 languages. According to Jaalera, most members are immigrants, refugees or people of color.
“We believe that the ability to get a good contract is also a racial issue because our members are left at the bottom,” Javalera said. “We have to make sure that we welcome them in a dignified way.”
Health insurance for the whole family, which is currently 100% funded by the employer and free for employees, is at risk under the new contract.
This is a big problem for 55-year-old Anthony Simpson, whose 5-year-old son just had his tonsils removed. His current company insurance fully covered the operation.
“They’re trying to get rid of it and make us pay for it,” Simpson said.
Simpson is a member of the negotiating team and has worked in the cleaning industry since moving to Seattle 10 years ago. He currently works the night shift for American Building Maintenance.
“If the owners ever came into the buildings at night … and saw what the night workers are doing,” Simpson said, they would realize that the workers “deserve everything they negotiate for.”
