MD Delegate Gutierrez Joins MontCo Office Cleaners At Silver Spring Rally

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)For the third time in a week, area office cleaners rallied Thursday night to ask for their chance at sharing in the American Dream. “Montgomery County’s office market is growing and can afford to provide hard-working cleaners a raise,” said Maryland Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez at the 4:30p rally in Silver Spring. “We need to create good jobs that will help rebuild the middle class, restore our economy, and reclaim the American Dream for working families.” The workers, who earn as little as $10.90 an hour, called upon Montgomery County’s commercial real estate industry to share the wealth created with the workers’ help which would in turn benefit local communities. Negotiations began last week for a new union contract covering nearly 12,000 metro-area cleaners. SEIU 32BJ commercial cleaners in the wider D.C. region earn wages ranging from $9 per hour ($9,360 annually) for part-time cleaners to $12.60 ($26,208 annually) for full-time cleaners. The federal poverty line for a family of four in the United States is $22,350 annually. More than 60,000 commercial cleaners from Hartford, Conn. to Virginia are united in a campaign to secure new contracts that raise wage and benefit standards. With more than 120,000 members in nine states, including 16,000 in the metro area, SEIU 32BJ is the largest property service workers union in the country. photo by Rick Reinhard