2,000 Philly building workers get raises as SEIU 32BJ ratifies ‘historic’ contract with building owners

The union that represents 2,000 workers who clean and maintain most of Philadelphia’s commercial buildings ratified a new contract Friday improving pay and benefits, despite significant economic challenges facing the building owners who employ them.

Workers gathered for a vote on Friday afternoon at the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia on Chestnut Street. Following the vote, they rallied outside the church, clad in purple SEIU shirts, chanting a call and response of ”32!″ and “BJ!”

The new agreement includes wage increases of 18.6% over the life of the four-year contract, as well as a bonus for union members. It came without cuts to workers’ hours, which union members worried would be on the table given the building owners’ push for flexibility as they contend with record-high building vacancies and low occupancy due to a shift toward remote and hybrid work schedules.

The union also got an additional paid holiday for Juneteenth, improved retirement benefits, and expanded dental benefits while existing health-care benefits were maintained. The contract also strengthened protections for pregnant workers, the union said.

Their current contract was set to expire on Oct. 15.

Keisha Hayes, who has been with the union for 29 years and was on the bargaining committee, said the contract “means the world” to her.

It’s “the best contract that we’ve ever had,” she said.

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 32BJ, which represents workers employed at 93% of downtown Philadelphia commercial buildings, has been bargaining with the building owners since Aug. 22. Workers represented in the contract include janitors, maintenance workers, building engineers, street sweepers, SEPTA janitors, among others.

Their employers — including hundreds of building owners, owner representatives, and building managers — were represented by the Building Operators Labor Relations (BOLR).

At the outset of negotiations, building owners said they were in a difficult situation, with a slow return to in-person work and high vacancy rates across buildings, and they hoped to achieve some flexibility for employers in the new contract.

“We believe that both sides were able, in substantial part, to accommodate the priorities of the other and will continue working together to meet the operational needs of the buildings and their tenants,” said BOLR president Daniel Brighter. He said BOLR members were committed to avoiding a work stoppage or disruption of services.

“We look forward to continuing to work cooperatively and constructively with Local 32BJ and promoting Center City’s resurgence,” Brighter said.

He said that no positions would be cut “as a direct result of anything new in the collective bargaining agreement” and that all of the BOLR members who were bound by the last agreement have also signed onto the new one.

Office building occupancy has edged up a bit even in the six weeks since 32BJ and BOLR started negotiating, as more employers are pushing for regular in-office attendance. In mid-September, occupancy levels reached their highest point since early 2020, according to card-swipe data from Kastle Systems. Comcast, one of the city’s largest employers and a tone-setter for other businesses, also asked its Center City workers to start coming in four days a week, instead of three, beginning last month.

The recovery rate for nonresident workers who commute to Center City is at about 65% of pre-pandemic levels, according to a new report from the Center City District, using data from Placer.ai. In the same report, Center City District, a business advocacy group, estimated that nearly half of all jobs in Philadelphia can be done from home, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Still, average occupancy in Philadelphia office buildings is less than 50% most days, according to Kastle, and the city’s office vacancy rate surpassed 18% in the third quarter, according to analysis from real estate services company Jones Lang Lasalle.

Some Center City office buildings are undergoing changes to become residences, and many new residential buildings are employing nonunion cleaners who make poverty-level wages, said Gabe Morgan, executive vice president of SEIU 32BJ. The road ahead for the local will include organizing in these residential buildings, he said.

“That is where our union will go next,” he said.

Hundreds of Philly building workers marched through the city in late August as bargaining began. Joined by union members from other cities, and local politicians, they demanded a fair contract that would increase wages to keep up with inflation and preserve the benefits they already had.

The Philadelphia contract is one of the first to expire among the 12 districts that SEIU Local 32BJ represents, and this agreement will set an example for bargaining with other cities.

“It sets an incredible precedent for these sorts of contracts all over, from here to Boston,” said Morgan.

Last week the union settled a similar contract in Pittsburgh as well, he said.

Cherelle Parker, the Democratic nominee for Philadelphia mayor, joined the union Friday after their vote.

“What you have done is historic,” Parker told the workers. She said the agreement put “a generation of Philadelphians on the path to self sufficiency.”

Parker received the union’s endorsement in March and spoke at the march in August. She has a long history with 32BJ: In 2019, she passed a “just-cause” law protecting parking garage workers, represented by 32BJ, from getting fired without a reasonable cause. And then in 2021, she tried to cut parking taxes in order to increase wages for garage workers. The bill ultimately failed.