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Wednesday, Apr 4, 2012 | Updated 9:55 PM CDT

Chicago’s downtown janitors are ready to strike.

The group’s union president said janitors at downtown Chicago office buildings will walk out if a contract compromise isn’t met before contracts for 13,000 janitors in Chicago expire on April 8.

“We certainly hope its not going to come to a strike, but on the other hand we’re fighting for the future. What happens in the nest three years is going to determine what happens to our children for the next 30 years,” said Tom Balanoff, Service Employees’ International Union Local 1 president.

He told the Chicago Sun-Times the Building Owners and Managers Association with which the union is negotiating has “made progress toward insurance,” but wage demands remain unmet.

BOMA Chicago declined to comment to NBC Chicago on Wednesday, but the organization’s executive vice president told the Sun-Times he is “cautiously optimistic” a deal will be reached.

On Saturday, more than 2,000 Chicago janitors voted to give their bargaining committee the power to strike.

“We are the 99 percent. We’re living in poverty while our bosses are getting richer. It’s time to stand up for good jobs. This contract is about more than wages its about the kind of future our families will have,” said janitor Ed Washington.

The union says workers struggle to make ends meet on an income of $20,000 below the cost of living in Chicago.

“We hope Chicago’s major building owners live up to good business practices and support the good jobs with benefits that will help our economy grow,” Balanoff said.

The group cleans offices for Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, General Electric, CME Group, Boeing and Tishman Speyer.

Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/business/Downtown-Chicago-Janitors-Ready-to-Strike-146080205.html#ixzz1rC8Rjfij

CHICAGO – They lined the cavernous streets of the financial district here, waving flags and holding signs saying, “I AM A MAN, I AM A WOMAN, I AM A JANITOR.”

Only this time, it was April 4, 2012, and it was janitors, not sanitation workers, carrying the signs. With a united front of community members standing shoulder to shoulder with them, they did it here this morning in homage to the Memphis sanitation strikers Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was leading just before his April 4 assassination 44 years ago.

“People of all faiths and people of no faith stand here with the janitors today,” declared the Rev. Booker Vance, who as a youth, had worked with the iconic civil rights leader. Vance condemned “corporations that are using the financial crisis as an excuse to pay workers wages on which they cannot support themselves and their families. These men and women,” he said, pointing to the hundreds of janitors holding up their signs, “deserve a living wage, and a contract, but, most of all, they deserve respect.

“It is a sin, it is an abomination, it is a disgrace when companies treat workers as though they were less than human,” he declared, asking the crowd rhetorically, over and over again, “How long for justice?”

“Not long,” their voices rang out in response, over and over again, evoking the memory of countless King rallies marked by the same exchange between the iconic civil rights leader and his listeners.

For the first time ever, the Service Workers’ janitorial contracts in Chicago and 10 other cities expire in the same year, 2012.

The sunshine and blue skies overhead here contrasted sharply with the rain and clouds that often hung so heavily over the picket lines in Memphis in 1968.

The weather was a welcome boost to the spirits of the Chicago janitors today who had just authorized a strike if their bosses don’t agree to a new contract by April 8, the date the current one expires.

“Some 13,000 janitors who clean downtown and suburban commercial buildings, Chicago Public Schools, City of Chicago facilities and Chicago’s airports are fighting for wages that would enable them to pay their bills and the health care needs of their families,” said Nell McNamara, a spokesperson for SEIU’s Local 1. “As the janitors struggle to keep their families out of poverty, building owners and office space tenants like Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase are making huge profits.”

The struggle for economic justice by 13,000 janitors in Chicago is especially significant, she said, when the overall economic situation in the city is taken into account.

Chicago has the highest poverty rate, the second highest foreclosue rate and the highest rate of racial income disparity of any major city in the U.S. Many of the city’s janitors are African American or Latino.

On the 44th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. King the poverty rate in Chicago for African Americans is nearly 30 percent and for Latinos it is 20 percent.

On the opposite economic pole Chicago is home to 27 Fortune 500 companies and is sixth in the nation for cities with the most millionaires.

“These contrasts are reminders that the goals of Martin Luther King Jr. have not yet been realized,” McNamara said.

http://peoplesworld.org/evoking-dr-king-chicago-janitors-cry-out-for-respect/

CHICAGO, April 4 (UPI) — A services employees union in Chicago said rank-and-file members have authorized a strike if a deal is not struck by Sunday, when their contract expires.

The Services Employees International Union Local 1, which represents 13,000 custodians, is holding talks, separately, with management firms that cover downtown Chicago and outlying suburbs, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Wednesday.

The newspaper said 4,000 union members clean and maintain commercial buildings downtown, while 3,000 work in suburban buildings. An additional 2,000 union members work in public city buildings, including schools, and 3,500 work in area shopping malls.

“The big issues are funding (health) insurance enough and wages,” said Tom Balanoff, SEIU Local 1 president.

Balanoff said the Building Owners and Management Association has “made progress towards insurance, but we’re not there yet. On wages, we’re far apart.”

The wage for janitors is $15.25 per hour, the union said.

Michael Cornicelli, executive vice president of BOMA, said he was “cautiously optimistic” a deal can be reached before the strike deadline.

\http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2012/04/04/UPI-NewsTrack-Business/UPI-38971333574178/#ixzz1rC5lZMP3

April 03, 2012

Armed with a strike-authorization vote, the head of the union that represents janitors at most downtown office buildings says his members are quite prepared to walk out if they don’t get an acceptable new contract.

In a phone interview, Tom Balanoff, regional chief of the Service Employees International Union, said wages and health insurance are the key issues in talks between his members and a trade group that represents building management.

“We’re making some progress, but there’s a wide divide,” Mr. Balanoff said. “We certainly hope we’re able to reach an agreement, but we know our membership is ready to strike, believe me.”

Mike Cornicelli, executive director of the Building Owners and Managers Association, said his group is “confident that we will reach a mutually acceptable agreement.”

Traditionally the two sides have reached deals without a strike, though the SEIU did stage a one-day walkout several years ago.

At issue is a contract covering about 14,000 janitors in downtown and suburban offices, and at institutions such as Chicago Public Schools. The current contract is good only through next Sunday, April 8.

The union’s membership authorized a strike over the weekend. The union says the average janitor makes about $30,000 a year. Mr. Cornicelli says pay begins at $15.30 an hour, plus benefits.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120403/BLOGS02/120409967/loop-janitors-ready-to-strike-union-chief-says#ixzz1rC4g0fLz

Posted to SunTimes.com at 4/3/12 8:58 PM

By: FRANCINE KNOWLES Business Reporter/fknowles@suntimes.com

A contract covering more than 13,000 janitors who clean downtown Chicago
office buildings and other sites is set to expire Sunday, and workers
have authorized their union leaders to call a strike if an agreement
isn’t reached.

Service Employees International Union Local 1 is negotiating with
Building Owners and Managers Association Chicago, which is representing
roughly 230 building owners predominantly in downtown Chicago. The union
also is holding separate talks with a group of suburban contractors.

The union represents about 4,000 janitors at downtown commercial
buildings, 3,000 in suburban office buildings, 2,000 in public schools
and city of Chicago facilities and about 3,500 in malls, universities
and other buildings.

“The big issues are funding (health) insurance enough and wages,” said
Tom Balanoff, SEIU Local 1 President. “BOMA has made progress. We have
made progress towards insurance, but we’re not there yet. On wages,
we’re far apart.”

The union has made much less progress in talks with suburban
contractors, he said.

Michael Cornicelli, executive vice president of BOMA Chicago, declined
to discuss issues in the negotiations, but said he is “cautiously
optimistic” an agreement will be reached before the contract expires.

Union workers presently make $15.25 an hour, Balanoff said. He would not
specify what wage increase the union is seeking, but said, “What our
members are facing are what most working people are facing, from .
janitors to police to whatever. Between what has happened with the
economy, if they had homes they have no value left in them. If they’re
renting, that’s skyrocketing. We know what’s happening to grocery
prices, and we all buy gas. So we’re really at a point that we need to
get a decent wage increase to be able to start turning our lives
around.”

Without such an increase, he contended workers will be pushed into
poverty. The union says the annual income of the janitors is $20,000
below the cost of living for a family in Chicago.

Negotiations began March 7, and more talks are scheduled for Friday.

“We certainly would like to have things settled but if we don’t, we had
a very resounding vote of support from our members to strike if
necessary,” Balanoff said.

The union has typically reached agreement without striking. But in 2000,
workers staged a strike that lasted for two weeks in the suburbs and
one-day in downtown Chicago.

SEIU Local 1 members voted Saturday to grant strike authorization to
union leaders.