For the second time in as many weeks, much of the news has revolved around the threat of work stoppages. But this time, luxury tax proposals and revenue sharing among millionaires and billionaires aren’t the issues. Instead, some of Boston’s most important and relied upon workers are threatening to strike because of truly unfair labor practices.
Boston’s janitors will be missed if they strike this week. For meager wages and, in many cases, with little job security, the city’s janitors clean the toilets, sweep the floors and polish the windows of some of the city’s most expensive office buildings. Many of them have been allowed to work only part time, preventing them from receiving full-time wages and benefits.
As of Tuesday night, a strike was imminent after negotiations between labor and management reached a dead end. While both sides should work hard over the next few days to find common ground, pressure should fall most squarely on management to make key concessions and settle the dispute.
The city’s janitorial employers have a responsibility to change their practices and work to avert the potential strike. Their practices over the past decades are unconscionable. After serving highly paid executives and managers in the city’s downtown offices for as little as $39 a day, many janitors return to near-poverty lifestyles in the city’s poorest districts. They have families to support and children to feed.
The city’s employers should also think about the implications of a strike. Their labor practices reflect poorly on the city of Boston and its treatment of blue-collar workers. And, with Boston public schools’ academic year starting tomorrow, janitors are needed now more than any other time of the year. They are crucial to ensuring that students get a clean and safe education.
The demands of Service Employees International Union Local 254 are not unreasonable — they are simply asking for a living wage and adequate benefits for one of the hardest, least-appreciated jobs in the economy. Boston’s Teamsters have also added validity to the janitors’ cause by saying they will not cross the picket lines.
Boston’s janitors quite literally do the city’s dirty work. It is time for the city’s employers to recognize their legitimate demands and correct their unfair employment policies.
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