Janitors Union Prepares for Contract Fight

Mayor Cavalier Johnson speaks at rally for Downtown janitors’ union. Photo taken June 11, 2024 by Graham Kilmer.

The union representing janitors in downtown office buildings rallied Tuesday, stirring workers for an upcoming contract battle and flexing its political muscle.

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Wisconsin will soon begin bargaining a new three-year contract with a number of janitorial services companies with contracts in downtown Milwaukee. A major priority heading into negotiations is maintaining the pay raises janitorial workers received during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Obviously, when Covid hit, they were all essential and they were getting paid $18-19 an hour, and now that Covid’s gone the wages are going down and they want to start paying people $13-14 an hour again,” said Clarissa Acevedo, a lead organizer for SEIU. “So what happened to them being essential?”

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and a handful of local elected officials joined the union rally. Johnson told the crowd gathered in Zeidler Union Square that his father was a janitor for Milwaukee Public Schools for 30 years and pledged his support for the workers in their upcoming negotiations.

“The fight is not yours alone,” he said. “You’ve got a number of people who are working beside you each and every single day to work, to make sure that janitors get a fair wage in Milwaukee.”

Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, also pledged her organization’s support for the union, including phone banking, “and, if need be, civil disobedience actions.”

One of the workers, Leticia Espinosa, said the pandemic proved janitors were essential workers, and that their wages should reflect that. In a speech, translated into English, Espinosa also mentioned that janitorial workers deserve retirement contributions that allow them to retire with dignity.

Jeryllyn Jeanes has been a janitor in downtown Milwaukee for decades and was among the original organizers of the union. When the workers first organized approximately two decades ago, they were only paid $6, Jeanes said. “We knew that to see real change, we had to fight for it ourselves,” she said.

Now, with inflation pushing everyday expenses higher for working people the union is calling for wages to keep up.

“Janitors deserve to be able to raise our families without having to work multiple jobs,” she said.

Pat Raes, president of SEIU Wisconsin, and Rocio Sáenz, secretary-treasurer of SEIU international, both attended and spoke at the rally. Beginning in fall last year, SEIU locals representing more than 200,000 janitors across the U.S. have been bargaining new contracts.

“I’m here on behalf of our two million SEIU members to say that we have your back, that we’re ready to fight with you, that we’re here in solidarity with you,” Sáenz said.

The union, which has many immigrant and Latino members, marched from the downtown park to the Milwaukee Tool‘s office at 551 N. 5th St, chanting “Si Se Puede,” the classic chant of organized Latino labor and activism — made famous by the United Farm Workers in the 1970s.

“They have a non-union cleaning contractor at Milwaukee Tool, and we cannot allow that to happen,” Acevedo said. “If it happens at one building it will happen at all buildings.”

Update: The workers are represented by SEIU Wisconsin, not SEIU Local 1. Pat Raes is the president of SEIU Wisconsin.