Randy Leonard leads tenant revolt against non-union janitorial firms

Supporters of “Justice for Janitors” rallied in downtown Portland June 15 as part of an annual event organized by Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Formerly known as “Justice for Janitors Day,” the mobilization is now called “Global Justice Day” by organizers. Similar marches took place in most major cities on the West Coast and in New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C.

SEIU Local 49 has been putting pressure on downtown Portland commercial buildings to switch to union cleaning companies, which offer benefits and better wages than non-union firms.

The current target is a trio of buildings managed by developer Melvin Mark: Robert Duncan Plaza, Crown Plaza, and Columbia Square. To clean the buildings, Melvin Mark employs a non-union franchise, ServiceMaster Swan Island. [Some ServiceMaster franchises are unionized, including one in Portland.]

Organizer Wesley Jones said most ServiceMaster Swan Island workers are limited to three-and-a-half hours of work a night, meaning they earn less than $30 a day at their $7.50 hourly wage. ServiceMaster Swan Island owner Barbara Neyland referred calls to attorney Rick VanCleave of Barran Liebman, who confirmed the union account. However, VanCleave said, those conditions are standard in the industry.

Not the union standard, Jones rebutted. Most union janitors earn $10.10 an hour, Jones said, and are given full-time work with employer-paid health coverage and other benefits.

Local 49 picked the June 15 rally to make its announcement that two tenants in one of the Melvin Mark buildings have said “enough is enough” and are asking permission to find their own cleaning company.

The tenants are City of Portland departments that rent space in Columbia Square — the Bureau of Licenses and the Office of Neighborhood Involvement. In a letter to Pete and James Mark of Melvin Mark Companies, City Commissioner Randy Leonard wrote that the departments intend to explore options under their lease agreement to hire their own janitorial firm. “As you know, the City has standards regarding contracted work, wages and working conditions,” Leonard wrote. “It is my belief that the current contractor may be violating these standards.”

If the departments dump ServiceMaster Swan Island, the janitors who currently clean those offices would continue on under the new contractor.

Leonard spoke words of encouragement to rallygoers, and in a statement issued to the press, said he hopes the city’s action encourages other tenants to follow suit.

As many as 200 people took part in the Portland rally, and their noise could be heard a block away: Drums, whistles and chants, like “Arriba la unión, abajo la explotación” (Up with the union, down with exploitation.)

Union solidarity manifested in a profusion of colored T-shirts: orange for the Carpenters, green for AFSCME, and overwhelmingly, purple for SEIU, the union that represents about 2,000 Portland-area janitors. Most of the purple shirts weren’t janitors themselves, but union members there in support of the janitors.

“We face the same issues,” said Clif Puckett, organizer with Carpenters Local 1388, “no health care, low wages, irresponsible contractors.”

Half an hour into the rally, a police escort cleared the streets ahead of them, and participants marched, accompanied by a stiltwalker and a sympathetic drum corps. They passed by Columbia Square handing out fliers to bystanders.

© Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc.