A mass of union members in purple shirts closed down streets Tuesday afternoon as they marched through Center City’s office district, chanting slogans and holding up signs.
The demonstration was a preview of what could happen if Service Employees International Union 32BJ’s contract with Philadelphia property owners expires Oct. 15 without a new agreement in place.
About 2,000 people, including janitors, maintenance workers and building mechanics, are members of 32BJ.
The union called for the rally after an initial meeting with Building Operators Labor Relations, which bargains on behalf of owners and managers, last week. 32BJ officials said BOLR proposed “dramatic cuts” to employee hours.
“They are not going to balance their books on our backs,” 32BJ President Manny Pastreich said to a crowd of workers gathered on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Many of the union’s members are commercial cleaners who earn a starting pay of $20.14 an hour, according to 32BJ. They are looking to improve those wages and protect their benefits, particularly healthcare, labor leaders said.
BOLR President Daniel Brighter, in a statement Tuesday, said that office vacancies, remote work, rising interest rates and decreasing building values “make this a very different economic environment” than four years ago, when the current contract was adopted.
“We are not seeking any reductions in wage rates or benefits, despite the business conditions confronting BOLR members,” he continued. “What we are seeking is flexibility, primarily with respect to scheduling, which will permit our members to meet the radically different staffing requirements that vacancies and tenants’ remote working have created.”
Vacancy rates are lower in the luxury office developments, where many union cleaners work, 32BJ said in a news release. Office rents, the union added, have increased in Philadelphia since 2018, generating more than $1 billion in the past year.
Whatever happens is expected to set a tone for negotiations in other cities, as the Philadelphia contract is among the first of a number of 32BJ agreement expiring in the coming months.
32BJ members from along the East Coast joined the local workers Tuesday, as did elected officials and participants in the UNI Global Union conference, which is being held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
A drum line and a truck with a speaker system accompanied the marchers, as they joined with the other groups before descending on Cret Park, near 16th and Cherry streets, for the rally.
Angel Castro, a street cleaner for the Center City District, said that, during earlier stages of the coronavirus pandemic, he immediately changed his clothes after his shift, in an attempt to avoid passing the virus to his wife.
“Everybody’s trying to take things from us,” he told Metro. “When it was COVID out here, we worked every day. We never got a day off.”
COVID-19, and the dangers workers faced as a result, was a common theme at the rally.
“They called us heroes, essential workers,” said Audra Traynham, a union cleaner and member of 32BJ’s bargaining committee. “They applauded us as we went to work, risking our lives so that we could keep downtown buildings and offices open and sanitized.”
Democratic mayoral nominee Cherelle Parker, who spoke at the event, mentioned the “essential worker” T-shirts and the ways companies celebrated employees before quoting writer James Baldwin.
“I can’t believe what you say because I see what you do,” Parker told the crowd.
Support for organized labor was a major component of Parker’s primary campaign, and she is heavily favored to overcome Republican David Oh in November.
