August 12, 2002—The General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board on April 1, 2002 issued a complaint charging Rockville, Maryland-based Potomac Minute Maids with violating the basic rights of its janitor employees to free speech and to form a union.
The NLRB ruled that PMM violated the law when they illegally threatened workers, watched workers, tried to prohibit workers from forming a union, and violated workers’ free speech rights by firing an employee after he came to work in a union T-shirt.
PMM is one of five cleaning contractors that have ignored efforts of Montgomery County janitors to unite to earn higher wages and benefits. PMM has contracts to clean offices of the Montgomery County Public Schools, FDA, and Ericsson.
In July 2002, janitors who clean commercial office buildings in the suburbs of Washington, DC reached a tentative agreement with 16 cleaning contractors. The contract will provide janitors with higher wages and benefits, including holiday pay, sick leave, and employer-paid health care for full-time cleaners. Janitors will vote whether to ratify in August.
The contract will provide workers with guaranteed raises in 2003. Wages will reach $9.00 by 2007 for part-time cleaners. Full-time janitors and day porters, who typically work full time during regular business hours, will receive health insurance and $9.50 and $10.50, respectively, by the end of the contract.
Service Employees International Union says that Montgomery County janitors are some of the latest workers to secure a better life for themselves and their families after joining a nationwide movement called Justice For Janitors in the suburbs of Boston, Philadelphia and in urban markets like Columbus, Ohio and in San Jose, California. Most recently 300 janitors in Essex County, New Jersey won higher wages. They are the first suburban New Jersey region to win industry standard wages and benefits.
Based on a report from Service Employees International Union
