Hundreds of Philly janitors march to demand a fair contract with Cherelle Parker’s support

Office cleaners, maintenance staff, mechanics, and other building workers marched through Center City on Tuesday to demand a strong new contract to replace the one set to expire on Oct. 15.

Hundreds of local Philly workers, clad in purple union shirts, gathered ahead of the rally at 18th Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard with signs that read “I was raised to treat the janitor with the same respect as the CEO” and “I can’t afford to lose my hours.” They were later joined by union members from other states as well as people from Tunisia and South Korea who were in Philly for the UNI Global Union’s annual conference.

The Philly workers, represented by Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), are fighting against what they describe as a reduction in hours proposed by building owners due to the rhythm of hybrid work. They are also demanding better hourly rates to keep up with inflation and are looking to protect workers’ pensions, health-care benefits, and paid time off.

“Everything’s gone up but our paycheck,” said Audra Traynham, who works as a cleaner in a medical facility in Philadelphia and is a member of the bargaining committee. “We’re just asking for very little, so that we can maintain our dignity and respect.”

Traynham, who has been a union member for 25 years, made $6 an hour as a janitor before she joined the union. The majority of commercial cleaners with the union in Philly make a starting wage of $20.14 an hour. She brought her granddaughter to the march. “I wanted to show her how I stand up for a fair paycheck,” she said.

Wages, set during the last contract negotiated in 2019, have not kept pace with rising costs, she said.

Office building owners say they are in a tough position, too, with vacancy rates high across the region and return-to-work rates stagnant.

“Rising interest rates, the loss of buildings’ values, unprecedented office vacancies, and tenants’ employees working remotely or on hybrid work schedules make this a very different economic environment compared to 2019,” Daniel Brighter, president of the Building Operators Labor Relations (BOLR), said in an email.

32BJ represents janitorial workers across the country, including in Washington, D.C., and New York City, where conditions in the commercial real estate sector are similar.

As a result of 32BJ’s sprawling size, the contract doesn’t just have repercussions in Philadelphia, it sets an example for other cities as it is one of the first to expire among the 12 districts that SEIU 32BJ represents. And some building owners in Philadelphia also own buildings in other cities, so whatever agreement can be reached influences the potential for the next contracts.

The bargaining period began on Aug. 22, and the union is in discussions with BOLR, which represents hundreds of contracting companies and building owners who employ the janitors.

The current four-year contract, which ends this fall, represents employees who work at over 350 Philadelphia office buildings in the metro area. It covers 93% of the city’s commercial office space. The majority of commercial cleaners in the Philadelphia chapter of 32BJ SEIU are Black workers, according to the union.

At Tuesday’s event, 32BJ scored a coup by having Democratic mayoral candidate Cherelle Parker speak to the massed unionists as they gathered on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. She gave an impassioned speech referring to her grandmother’s career as a domestic worker and promised the workers support from the city’s elected officials.

“I’m here in the spirit of the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington,” said Parker to rapturous cheers from the crowd, as she recalled the 1963 march that advocated for civil and economic rights for Black people. “Don’t you forget who you are, don’t you forget on whose shoulders you stand, don’t forget why you are here.”

Afterward, in an interview with The Inquirer, she struck a conciliatory note and said she is in communication with both building owners and the union.

“It’s not us vs. them,” Parker said. “We have to make sure that everyone comes together to come up with a solution that will address the underlying causes of why these buildings, many of them, are empty.”

Center City’s janitorial workers have been unionized for 100 years, and the jobs are the rare service-sector positions that come with reliable wage increases, pensions, cheap health care, and job protections. They are often noted as being among the jobs downtown that don’t require a college degree and an example of how Center City’s fortunes don’t just benefit office workers or high-end apartment residents.

An initial proposal from building owners includes hourly wage cuts that would cause financial losses and create less job security for 2,000 workers, according to the union.

“We are not seeking any reductions in wages or benefits, despite the very difficult business conditions confronting commercial office buildings,” Brighter said. “What we are seeking is flexibility, primarily with respect to scheduling, that will permit our members to meet the radically different staffing requirements that vacancies and tenants’ remote working have created.”

While Comcast is bringing back workers to the office four days a week this fall, vacancy in the heart of Center City’s office district around West Market Street is 17.6%. In many suburbs and in smaller cities like Wilmington, Del., the numbers are even worse.

Still, in many of the premiere office buildings in Center City, leases are being signed, and tenants are slowly coming back to the office, said Gabe Morgan, an executive vice president of 32BJ SEIU. The cost of service workers is small in comparison to what building owners owe to lenders as their loans come due, he said.

“Asking janitors to try and square billionaire’s books for their bank doesn’t make any economic sense,” he said.

Many politicians attended the rally, including Joanna McClinton, the new house speaker in Harrisburg, and Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson who is seeking to become City Council president. Parker spoke about how state and local government officials need to come together to do something to encourage people to come back into the office to fill towers again.

“It means a lot to have a woman who’s about to become the most powerful person in Philadelphia to stand with us,” said union president Manny Pastreich.

Parker and SEIU 32BJ have a long history. In 2019, she passed a “just cause” law at the union’s prompting that gave parking garage workers protection from firing unless there was an economic or extreme disciplinary rationale for it. In 2021, she allied with commercial real estate owners and 32BJ in an attempt to cut taxes on parking garages in exchange for wage increases (the bill was largely panned and eventually failed). Parker then received the coveted union endorsement in March amid the electoral race.

She also tied the struggle on Tuesday to the larger crime issues in the city.

“You want violence reduced in Philadelphia, put people on a path to self sufficiency,” she said. “Give them the tools to take care of themselves. And we will get it done.”