CLEVELAND Janitors clean up with new pact and support from city officials

The downtown workers got a 15 percent pay raise and health care benefits.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Their noisemakers were toilet plungers, brooms, mops, buckets and plastic spray bottles filled with pebbles.
A planned demonstration by downtown janitors to voice contract demands was instead a boisterous celebration Thursday. They have an agreement that provides for a 15 percent pay raise and health care.
The deal reached Monday amounts to recognition for a group of workers who often feel ignored, said Steve Cagan, an activist for Jobs with Justice, a national workers rights group.
"They usually work at night, when most people are not in their offices and don't see them. Sometimes people walk right by them and act like they don't know they are there," he said.
The janitors' three-year contract expired May 1, but talks with four contractors -- American Building Maintenance, Lakeside Building Maintenance, One Source and AmeriServe -- were extended in hopes of setting a pattern agreement.
About 540 janitors in 34 buildings are covered by the agreement. Officials of Service Employees International Union Local 47 expect to complete similar deals soon for another 160 downtown janitors working for nine smaller cleaning companies.
A first
Mike Murphy, SEIU Local 47 president, said a new three-year deal, if members approve it, will raise base pay from $8 to $9.20 an hour and provide for fully paid individual health care insurance for the first time.
Across the country, janitors have been seeking such improvements through the union's Justice for Janitors campaign, which seeks city by city to enlist community support to provide janitors with better wages and health care. A nationwide demonstration is planned for Sunday.
There have been recent contracts improving health care and pay for commercial building janitors in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Boston and New York apartments, said Steve Lerner, SEIU building service director. He said janitor contract talks are underway or expected soon in Denver, Seattle, Detroit, Milwaukee, San Francisco and other cities.
In Cleveland, Mayor Jane Campbell backed their cause and City Council passed a supportive resolution.
Murphy said the union also won a statewide agreement in which the four contractors will not interfere with any attempt to organize janitors. He said the local is turning its attention now to unorganized janitors in Columbus who work for Chicago-based Lakeside Building Maintenance.
Cal Meyer, Lakeside senior vice president in Columbus, had no comment on the organizing effort.