Janitors union rally for higher wages in downtown Cleveland – Signal Cleveland

Terrie Eddy, a Cleveland resident and downtown janitor, feels left out of all the grand plans for downtown development.

She said she has heard about plans for luxury housing and other fancy buildings. She’s heard about the businesses and attractions that would cater to the higher-income people who would  live or work in them. Eddy hears little about how working-class people such as herself would benefit from downtown development.

Eddy and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1, to which she belongs, are determined to ensure that the benefits of downtown development don’t bypass working-class people. The union is scheduled to deliver a letter today to Downtown Cleveland, Inc., the nonprofit organization “dedicated to building a more dynamic downtown Cleveland.” The union also will hold a noon rally asking that the downtown group support increasing the pay of janitors and other service workers.

“We need better pay because things are going up and housing is getting expensive,” said Eddy, who lives in the West Boulevard neighborhood.

About 75% of Local 1 janitors working downtown are Cleveland residents, said Camilo Villa, northern Ohio coordinator for the union. He said the union is lobbying Downtown Cleveland because the nonprofit’s members include owners of many downtown buildings in which Local 1 janitors work.

The nearly 700 janitors the union represents often work for cleaning companies that contract their services to the owners of downtown buildings. The janitors’ contract expires in April. Negotiations begin in late March. The union has been focused on lower-wage downtown workers. This includes an ongoing effort to organize security guards at Playhouse Square.

Cleveland janitors want to be valued

“We’re calling on Downtown Cleveland, Inc. and its institutional members to support higher wages when we go to the table with contractors that they hire,” Villa said.

“We were told over the years that the transformation of downtown, with millions and millions of dollars invested in public and private money, was going to lift up the city as a whole,” Villa said. “Our members’ wages are still suppressed. It’s due to high inflation. But in a large part, it is because the jobs that our members do are not valued as much as they should be.”

Signal Cleveland is contacting Downtown Cleveland regarding the union’s request. We will update this story with the nonprofit’s response.

Villa declined to offer details of what the union will ask for in contract negotiations.

Eddy said instead of the $16 an hour many of her colleagues are now paid, they should be making $21. She supports lobbying downtown building owners. Eddy said many janitors, such as herself, have experienced steep rent increases in recent years. She said renting a two-bedroom apartment for her has gone from less than $650 a month to about $900 in a matter of a few years. 

“Rent is high, and it keeps getting higher,” she said.

Brian Yarbrough, another downtown janitor, also supports the union lobbying downtown building owners.

“We need better wages, better healthcare, and a better pension,” he said. “A better living for us means that we can better take care of our families. “It will change when everybody comes together as one with a big strong voice.”

Villa said the contract negotiations are part of the union’s One Cleveland campaign. It is seeking to “establish a public narrative” about the plight of janitors as well as the other lower-wage workers who live in many of the city’s neighborhoods. The union is planning to hold a public forum on One Cleveland in March.  

“What we’re trying to do is have a conversation in public about what all this development downtown, in Midtown and University Circle really means for working people,” he said. “It’s billed as job creation. Those jobs are only good jobs when they pay a living wage.”