TIME CHANGED TO HONOR JERSEY CITY MEMORIAL SERVICE

As Expiration Date Looms, Commercial Cleaners Will Vote to Authorize Strike if Negotiations Fail

WHAT: Rally and Strike Authorization Vote for New Jersey Office Cleaners
WHEN: Tuesday, December 17, 4:30pm
WHERE: Newark Symphony Hall, 1020 Broad St, Newark, NJ 07102
WHO: Thousands of office building cleaners who are members of 32BJ SEIU will be joined by other 32BJ members, 32BJ officers, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Newark City Council President Mildred Crump, Newark City Councilman Anibal Ramos, Jersey City Council President Rolando Lavarro, Assemblywoman Britnee Timberlake, Hamilton Mayor-Elect Jeff Martin, Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz, Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp, Parsippany Mayor Michael Soriano, Fanwood Mayor Colleen Mahr, Make the Road NJ, Working Families Alliance of NJ
VISUALS: Signs, banners, thousands of marching workers

NEWARK, N.J. – With their contract deadline fast approaching, thousands of commercial cleaners who are members of 32BJ SEIU will rally with other 32BJ members and supporters on December 17 to demand a fair deal at the bargaining table.

The cleaners will also take a vote on whether to strike if no agreement is reached by December 31, when the current contract expires.

A committee of 32BJ members representing more than 7,000 New Jersey office cleaners has been bargaining with a group representing commercial building owners and cleaning contractors.

As the state’s commercial real estate market is thriving, cleaners are asking to share in the prosperity their work helps create and demand a new four-year contract that increases wages, protects their vital health and retirement benefits and increases job protections. Employers are trying to make workers’ quality family health insurance unaffordable, while housing and other costs are increasing, endangering working families’ ability to remain part of the middle class.

Should the cleaners and employers fail to come to an agreement by December 31, the cleaners could go on strike. This would affect more than 500 buildings in New Jersey including transportation hubs such and major shopping centers such as Newark’s Prudential Center, the PATH stations, Allergan, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Merck and Bristol Meyers-Squibb. Affected Landmark buildings include the Goldman Sachs Tower and Novartis’s 1 Health Plaza.

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With 175,000 members in eleven states and Washington, D.C., including 13,000 in New Jersey, 32BJ SEIU is the largest property service workers union in the country