Update: The janitorial bargaining team for SEIU Local 1 has reached a tentative agreement with contractors. Janitors will vote on whether to accept the tentative agreement in the coming days. We will report their decision once they make one.
Three days after 17 janitors and allies were arrested in a downtown protest, the SEIU Local 1 union representing 2,100 janitors in the St. Louis area voted “overwhelmingly” to strike if they are not able to win a $15/hour wage through negotiation. The union has been in negotiations with the janitorial company Clean-Tech since October. Thursday, January 30 was the last official day of negotiations.
In a press conference outside the Old Courthouse, a group of about two dozen janitors, faith leaders, and allies declared their intention to escalate beyond their ongoing rallies and direct actions and go on strike if Clean-Tech does not meet their demands.
Michelle McNeal, who works as a Clean-Tech janitor at 1010 Market St., said that her $10/hour wage is not enough to feed her family. Just as recently as last week, McNeal, her children, and her six-year-old grandchild had been homeless. “We are worth $15 an hour,” she said. “Stand in our shoes and work $10 an hour. It’s not enough.”
McNeal said that she is “10 toes down” in the effort for a $15 wage and is willing to do whatever is necessary to get it, even if that means striking and losing the only income source her family has.
But she and the other janitors who may strike are not without support. John Stiffler, executive secretary-treasurer of the St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council, pledged his union’s alliance with SEIU Local 1.
“I am here representing 20,000 members to lend the janitors support for their fight,” Stiffler said.
He recalled how the anti-union Right to Work amendment was overwhelmingly defeated in Missouri through solidarity between multiple groups of workers.
“We won that fight with the help of all workers,” Stiffler said. “We can win this one too.”
Many St. Louis faith leaders are also throwing their support behind the janitors. Reverend Darryl Gray expressed his willingness to provide financial support to any striking janitors and urged other clergy to do the same.
“Obviously, as a faith community, we have to be in prayer, but prayer without works means absolutely nothing,” Gray said. “If we’re talking about 2,100 people affected by this, then that’s 2,100 families — most of those are black families, and members of our congregations. So we’ve got to be prepared to give something back. If there’s a strike fund, we need to make sure we’re raising money for the strike fund. We need to stand with these janitors, as they’ve been standing in our congregations for years.”
Aside from contributing to a strike fund, Gray also suggested that he and other faith leaders may put together a delegation to meet with business leaders and use their moral weight to push the janitors’ cause.
Rabbi Susan Talve of Central Reform Congregation would be part of that delegation, She delivered the opening address at the press conference. “Just wait and see what happens when they stop cleaning!” Talve said.
SEIU Local 1 spokesperson Nick Desideri said that the strike could begin “in the coming days,” depending on the outcome of negotiations, though it is not likely that all 2,100 SEIU Local 1 janitors will walk off the job at once.
“Logistically, that is difficult, but janitors have a lot of room to build momentum,” Desideri said.
The janitors have garnered significant attention from politicians and media over the past week, including a statement in support of their cause from presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
This announcement comes at a time when various groups in both St. Louis city and county are exerting pressure for higher wages—and, in some cases, getting those wages. On January 17, Mayor Lyda Krewson ordered a $15 minimum wage for all city employees. On the same day the janitors vowed to strike, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page announced that the minimum wage for county employees would be raised to $13 this year and to $15 by 2022.
For non-governmental employees in both the city and county, however, minimum wage remains at $9.45 an hour—which, SEIU Local 1 members said, is both inadequate to raise a family on and helps to perpetuate income inequalities along racial lines.
Nearly all of the SEIU Local 1 members at the press conference were African-American. According to Gray, that is reflective of the racial composition of the union as a whole.
“The vast majority of the 2,100 people that we’re talking about are African-American,” Gray said. “That’s not a coincidence. We need people to look at black poverty the same way they look at white poverty and make it a priority.”
One of those 2,100 janitors is Keosha Gowan, who works for Clean-Tech at Express Scripts in North County. With a $15 wage, she said, she would be able to start saving up for her four-year-old daughter’s college education.
“I don’t want her to be struggling just like I am right now,” Gowan said. “I’m doing this for her.”
