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First Contracts Within Reach for Tri-Cities Janitors

The fight has been long and hard, but the efforts to bring a decent way of life to the janitors working in the tri-cities took a huge step forward.

In Cincinnati, over 500 janitors recently won union recognition and will join another 1,000 in bargaining their first union contract this fall.  Janitors are now fighting Blue Chip (one of the last non-union cleaning companies in the city) and recently held a large protest at the Atrium One building downtown. 

Columbus janitors can also claim victory as their main target, Professional Maintenance, agreed to recognize the union.  Their agreement gives Columbus enough union density to trigger bargaining and will bring 1,000 new members to Local 3 this year. 

Recently, janitors in Indianapolis were joined by community members at a rally targeting Corporate Cleaning Systems (CCS).  CCS cleans the wealthiest office parks in Indy’s northern suburbs but the janitors barely get by earning between $6.00 and $7.00 per hour without any benefits.  Indianapolis was also the site where mall workers from across the U.S. met to discuss bringing Justice for Janitors who clean malls.