A clergy group that’s trying to help Indianapolis janitors join a union plans to protest outside Market Tower downtown at noon after a similar protest May 17 failed to persuade building owner HDG Mansur to soften its stance.
The group, Indianapolis Clergy Committee, said HDG Mansur is key to helping it reach its goal of having 60 percent of square footage of Indianapolis office buildings being cleaned by janitorial companies that don’t hinder workers from organizing.
In addition to Market Tower, HDG Mansur owns the 1 million-square-foot Precedent Business Park at 96th Street and Keystone Avenue.
Indianapolis Clergy Committee is affiliated with Interfaith Worker Justice, a Chicago group that advocates for higher wages, benefits and improved working conditions for workers in low-wage jobs.
An organizer of the Market Tower protest, the Rev. C.J. Hawking, said today’s protest was sparked by the recent firings of two pro-union janitors. The janitors worked for Executive Management Services, a large Indianapolis-headquartered janitorial contractor that cleans Market Tower.
“This is not a big surprise, but it is still very appalling that the employer would not give them the freedom, the right to organize,” Hawking said. “They’re symbolic of what’s been going on city-wide.”
The group charges that janitors generally are under paid
Dave Swider, an attorney representing the janitorial company, said the allegation of the workers being fired for wanting to join the Service International Employees Union is “absurd.”
“Any termination EMS has had is for good cause, unrelated to any union activity,” Swider said. “We have been very careful that all employees have their rights completely protected.”
Swider accused the clergy of “serving as misguided proxy for the union,” and said Service International Employees Union records show the union contributed $150,000 last year to Interfaith Worker Justice.
The union recently landed a contract in Cincinnati.
That five-year pact sweeps 80 percent of janitors into full-time work, escalates wages from $7.05 to $9.80 an hour, and offers what the clergy said is affordable health care benefits, paid vacation and holidays.
Hawking called on HDG Mansur to join local companies, including Eli Lilly and Co. and WellPoint Inc., to allow their janitors to organize without interference.
|