The Houston Chronicle, December 21, 2006, Thursday

Copyright 2006 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
All Rights Reserved
The Houston Chronicle

December 21, 2006 Thursday
2 STAR EDITION

SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 1

HEADLINE: Janitors union shops for a mall worker contract

BYLINE: L.M. SIXEL, Staff

BODY:
AFTER weeks of loud protests and traffic tie-ups, many Houstonians are familiar with the SEIU's Justice for Janitors campaign.
But the Committee for Justice for Mall Workers?
It turns out that the same union that recently led a monthlong strike on behalf of the 5,300 janitors who clean office buildings in Houston has been quietly leading a campaign against the nation's biggest shopping malls.
The Service Employees International Union's initial targets have been the Simon Property Group, the Galleria's owner, and Westfield Group. Together, the two own 373 malls in the U.S.
The union's efforts appear to be paying off, as the SEIU said it has already signed a nationwide deal with the two companies. According to the union, the mall owners have agreed to absorb the cost of higher wages and health insurance incurred by cleaning and maintenance contractors.
"Westfield has a long-standing dialogue and relationship with SEIU and the company is supportive of SEIU's efforts on behalf of its membership," said Katy Dickey, executive vice president of corporate communications in Los Angeles. The company owns no malls in Texas.
Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group did not have a comment Wednesday.
The national agreement, according to union officials, means the malls, which are cleaned and maintained by 5,000 workers, won't stand in the way of organizing efforts.
And that's a big coup, according to Stephen Lerner, head of the SEIU's Justice for Janitors campaign.
That's because it's the mall owners who ultimately foot the bill. Contractors just pass along their costs.
The SEIU focused on that same owner-contractor relationship during the Justice for Janitors strike in Houston. Officially, the union went on strike against the five large building contractors. But union leaders really targeted the building owners.
A key turning point for the union was when Hines Interests, one of the city's largest building owners, said before the strike began that janitors deserved health benefits and should earn more than minimum wage. That drew praise from Mayor Bill White, who called Hines the "MVP" for leading the way among building owners.
Likewise, the two biggest mall owners have agreed to pay more, Lerner said. That allows the contractors to agree to higher wages and benefits. It also acts as a bulwark against lower-wage contractors stealing business from them, he said.
The union intends to focus its negotiating on a couple of cleaning companies that specialize in malls, including the Millard Group, which cleans the Houston Galleria.
The 35 or so janitors who clean the Galleria earn $5.15 an hour and receive no health insurance, according to SEIU spokeswoman Lynda Tran.
The vice president of human resources for Millard confirmed the company has labor agreements with the SEIU in Chicago but wasn't familiar with the wages paid in Houston.
Lerner said the next step will be to ask the mall janitors to sign cards saying they want the union to represent them.
The gain their support, the union will point to the new three-year contract it negotiated for the 5,300 janitors who currently earn $5.30 an hour and receive no benefits.
In two years, the janitors will be up to $7.75 an hour and will receive individual health insurance.
If a majority of mall cleaners sign up, Lerner said he anticipates bargaining to begin both on a national and regional scale.
Growth expected
Though the union may be celebrating, some labor experts said the deal isn't guaranteed to bring in new members.
The SEIU will still have to deal with the contractors, said Richard Hurd, a labor studies professor at Cornell University.
He doesn't expect immediate results, but he said the effort will surely lead to some union growth.
How does he think the workers will react? They almost always go along because it means higher pay and benefits, Hurd said.
But just because the mall owners are willing to pay higher wages, don't expect the cleaning contractors to necessarily go along, said Mark Jodon, an employment lawyer who represents companies with Littler Mendelson in Houston.
"If I'm an employer, I'm not so sure I'm ready to sign on the dotted line," said Jodon, referring to a neutrality agreement.
Like other labor experts, Jodon was surprised to hear about the SEIU's mall campaign.
"Going after the malls is a pretty good strategy," he said, adding that it's another big but sometimes overlooked segment of the commercial cleaning business.

NOTES: lm.sixel@chron.com