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NEWS ARCHIVE: Tri-cities

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.

  Read about progress in Cincinnati, Columbus and Indianapolis.

Huge Wins for Tri-Cities Janitors

Jancoa, one of the largest cleaning contractors in Cincinnati, has agreed to a fair process for the company’s janitors to form a union.  This brings the janitors a big step closer to winning a union and bargaining for living wages and health care.  The victory came after 200 janitors and community supporters braved frigid December weather and marched on the Jancoa cleaned Enquirer Building.  Eleven people entered the building with a banner that read “Jancoa: We Shall Not Be Moved” and were arrested.  The Cincinnati janitors are now organizing Professional Maintenance, which is the largest non-union cleaning contractor in Columbus.  Nicknamed “Poverty Maintenance,” the contractor punishes workers by docking their pay $.50/hour for the week if they miss a day, even for emergencies.  The victory against Jancoa comes on the heels of a victory in Indianapolis against non-union contractor GSF.  Janitors in Indy have since targeted Redlee, a non-union contractor who has been cited as paying janitors as little as $335 for a 72 hour work week. 

Janitors in Cincinnati continue to escalate their campaign for a union.

Throughout the summer, janitors have taken their fight for living wages and respect to the streets. 18 janitors recently went on strike at the Cincinnati Financial Center building to protest a scheme from Jancoa (the largest contractor in Cincinnati) to turn workers into independent contractors and avoid unionization. Jancoa is now illegally locking out those janitors.

Jancoa has also recently been hit with three unfair labor practice complaints from the National Labor Relations Board for threatening and intimidating janitors who are organizing. In spite of Jancoa's fear campaign, janitors fight on and remain committed to work with their community coalition and create good jobs for Cincinnati.

Major Step Forward In Columbus

Aetna Building Maintenance has finally heeded the calls for justice by the Columbus community and the janitors.

Janitors in Columbus are celebrating a major step forward in their campaign to change their jobs into jobs that support families and provide health care.  Responding to a determined campaign for justice by janitors and large segments of the Columbus community, Aetna Building Maintenance has agreed to a fair process to allow their workers to form a Union.  Three of the four largest contractors Aetna, ABM/Lakeside and Sciota Industrial Services have now agreed to the same process. The janitors are now turning their attention to Professional Maintenance, the fourth largest contractor. The agreements with Aetna, ABM/Lakeside and Sciota bring the janitors a giant step closer to the day when all the Columbus janitors have a seat at the table to bargain for decent wages and health care.

Justice for Janitors Day
Rocks Indianapolis and Cincinnati

Janitors and their supporters took Cincinnati and Indianapolis by storm on Justice for Janitors Day - June 15th.  In both cities the marches made good on the picket sign slogans - "Invisible No More" by attracting the attention of the media and anyone who was downtown that afternoon.  In both cities, janitors staged one day strikes to call public attention to the numerous unfair labor practices of cleaning contractors in their cities.  In Cincinnati, Jancoa was the focus of the day's demonstrations.  In Indianapolis it was Group Services France (GSF) a French owned multi national contractor.  SEIU Janitors who work for GSF in Montreal held a noisy press conference in support of Indy Janitors.  The Indy Janitors were locked out after their one day strike (see story below).

June 15th is the annual commemoration of a successful janitors' strike in Los Angeles that brought thousands of janitors into the Union and changed their jobs into ones that could support families.  This year's theme was international cooperation so it highlighted janitors across the world supporting their fellow janitors in London, Miami and Indianapolis.

See more photos of the action in Cincinnati and Indianapolis.