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Photo by Gregory J. Scott
Union members raise fists in victory at today's press conference
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Si se puede!
UPDATED March 1, 2010, 1:46pm
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By Gregory J. Scott
// Hours before a scheduled strike, Downtown janitors celebrate a new employment contract //
After nearly two months of heated negotiations and threats to walk off the job, Downtown janitors may have a new employment contract as early as this Saturday.
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 26 — which represents over 4,000 Downtown janitors, as well as security officers and window cleaners — announced this morning that a tentative contract agreement with the Minneapolis–Saint Paul Contract Cleaners Association had been reached early Sunday. The announcement came just days after janitors had made concrete plans for a strike, which was to begin at 4 p.m. today.
The union will vote to ratify the contract on Sat., Mar. 6. Once ratified, the contract will take effect immediately, continuing through Dec. 31, 2012. Congressman Keith Ellison and several leaders from the local chapter of the Sierra Club joined janitors this morning for a celebratory press conference in the Minneapolis City Hall Rotunda.
According to SEIU Local 26 president Javier Morillo, the final negotiations began on 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon and continued around the clock until 8 a.m. Sunday morning. “In the space of those hours, we settled all outstanding issues,” he said.
The new agreement institutes many of the proposals the janitors had aggressively lobbied for, including support for green cleaning initiatives, vastly improved health care coverage and a first-of-its-kind guarantee of job security in the event that buildings change cleaning companies. The agreement also includes a guarantee of an 8-hour day for all full-time janitors by 2012 — currently a 6-hour day is considered full-time — as well as the creation of a specific process for when building owners choose to transition to day-shift cleaning.
All janitors will receive a $0.25 raise upon ratification. The raise, combined with the transition to 8-hour shifts, will translate to an income increase of up to 38 percent for full-time janitors by Jan. 1, 2012, Morillo said. About 55 percent of janitors currently work full-time.
Morillo especially heralded the new health care plan, which he called a “significant breakthrough.” The new contract will put all janitors on one quality plan, he said, which will have an out-of-pocket maximum of $5,000. In addition, the companies’ contribution to that plan will jump by $144 per month over the next 21 months.
“If I had this last year, I wouldn’t be so strapped with medical bills,” said Blanca Pineda, a janitor who works in Roseville. Pineda also praised the contract's commitment to use more environmentally friendly cleaning products. The harsh products at her current job, she said, have caused her to lose her sense of smell.
According to Margaret Levin, executive director of Sierra Club’s North Star chapter, the new contract’s green provisions are “a unique victory for us. It really illustrates the breadth of the so-called green job industries,” she said. “It’s not just energy and manufacturing. The service industry, and really all sectors of the economy, can implement environmental innovations while still supporting family jobs.”
The janitors’ campaign, led by Morillo, was an aggressive one, often applying pressure through dramatic public demonstrations. The janitors organized several skyway marches, and in February loudly disrupted a meeting of the state’s top bankers in St. Paul.
Of the union’s aggressive approach, Morillo said, “not only do we get heard, but we get results. I think a lot of people identified with our fundamental question: how long will we allow a bad economy to be used as an excuse for why we have to settle for less and less?”
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Carmichael Lynch drops Harley account
UPDATED August 30, 2010, 2:29pm
By Gregory J. Scott
When it comes to selling muscle bikes, three decades is enough. Downtown advertising agency Carmichael Lynch announced August 23 that it was resigning from its Harley-Davidson account, ending a relationship of 31 years with the iconic motorcycle brand. In a prepared statement, Doug Spong, president of Carmichael Lynch, said, "Our agency leadership came to the consensus that we've taken the Harley-Davidson brand as far as we can. It's in our best interest to part ways." Mark-Hans Richer, Harley’s CMO, said, "Our strategies have been moving away from a singular consumer target and a one-size-fits-all agency solution. Rather than accept this new reality, Carmichael Lynch chose a different path and we respect that." The
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Community notebook :: Florence Court apartments
By Gregory J. Scott
1 Comment
At Florence Court, new apartments up, courtyard staysThe mid-August groundbreaking came and went quietly for the FloCo Fusion Apartments, a chic rebranding of a ramshackle cluster of student housing near the University of Minnesota’s East Bank campus. Despite years of resistance from current residents, the new building is officially going up, fanfare or no. Florence Court, as the community used to be called, is one of the oldest apartment buildings in the Midwest, dating back to 1886. The L-shaped structure sits at the intersection of 10th Avenue SE and University Avenue, but is tucked back from the street, hidden until recently behind a BP gas station. The 33-unit complex surrounds a leafy courtyard, which its residents — a colorful
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Watching out for the homeless
By Sarah McKenzie
// Volunteer outreach worker Jerry Fleischaker honored with prestigious McKnight award //After Jerry Fleischaker’s wife died of Alzheimer’s disease, he came across a newspaper article about St. Stephen’s Human Services’ work reaching out to homeless people with mental health issues. The story inspired him to start volunteering for St. Stephen’s. Now the 79-year-old retired pharmaceutical sales representative volunteers full time for the Downtown-based organization. “My wife died of Alzheimer’s in 2002. I saw the care she needed,” Fleischaker told Monica Nilsson, director of street outreach and community education for St. Stephen’s. “I was haunted by the thought that people might be
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Downtown visioning session looks to 2025
By jake weyer
// Whether to add a park north of Central Library will be part of the discussion, meant to produce a 15-year plan for Downtown //It’s been nearly 15 years since Downtown business leaders got together with city staff and elected officials to hash out a long-term plan for the area. Back in 1996, those stakeholders came up with Downtown 2010, a vision that included such grandiose plans as a new ballpark for the Minnesota Twins, a light rail line along Hiawatha Avenue, a new Central Library, completion of the Target Center and the development of the Downtown Improvement District — all realities today. “We’re standing now, planless,” said Sam Grabarski, president of the Downtown Council. “And a lot of good
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A mountain out of a bronze molehill?
By Gregory J. Scott
// The Sid Hartman statue stirs debate about public memorials Downtown //
OK, no one disputes that the guy deserves a statue. Sid Hartman, the nonagenarian sportswriter who has spent the last 65 years reporting for the Star Tribune and WCCO, is probably getting bronzed. The Department of Public Works is ironing out technical details for installing a metallic Sid replica, complete with TV reporter microphone and newspaper tucked under the arm, right outside of Target Center and a block from the Twins stadium, at the corner of 6th Street and 1st Avenue. The Public Works assessment is the final stage in a roughly six-week approval process to get the statue out into the public. No one’s upset about that. As Nick Legeros, the artist who designed
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Biz buzz :: Construction costing Elliot Park businesses
By Gregory J. Scott
1 Comment
For Elliot Park businesses, street improvements come with a price
True to its motto, Band Box Diner can turn “grease into a feast.” But the Elliot Park gem can’t make much out of the road construction that’s transformed its streetscape into a scarred industrial zone.
The throw-back diner is one of the businesses standing to benefit from a sweeping, 15-block reconstruction of Chicago Avenue South — if only it can survive through to the project’s completion.
“It’s kind of like, if you have a half hour for lunch, and then you get lost for 45 minutes, what are you gonna do?” says Brad Ptacek, who has operated the diner for the last 13 years.
Ptacek’s breakfast
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