It took long nights, tough negotiations, and a lot of coffee, but the SEIU Local 87 union locked in a new contract on Friday, ending the threat of a major strike of janitors and custodians that would’ve left San Francisco buildings in a mess.
Local 87 represents some 5,000 workers who are tasked with maintaining and cleaning the facilities of some of the biggest companies across the city, including Salesforce and eBay’s Downtown offices.
In July, the union unleashed a series of picket protests, criticizing the San Francisco Maintenance Contractors Association — which represents janitor employers — for lowballing the union on a wage increase and rejecting demands for expanded health benefits and protections from layoffs. Union members described poor conditions on the job, too, including buildings turning off central air after white collar working hours, leaving janitors in hot, unventilated conditions.
Over the last few weeks, workers crowded Downtown streets and chanted outside key locations, including Salesforce Tower and City Hall. Union leadership also threatened a potential strike if the July 31 deadline for a new contract was not met. That deadline came and went without a strike; Abdo Hadwan, vice president of SEIU Local 87, commended federal mediators and the office of Mayor London Breed for helping usher the deal through on the night of August 2.
All parties jumped into a frantic 48 hours of work at City Hall following the missed deadline, Hadwan said.
“We started at 9 in the morning and finished the following day at 11:30 a.m.,” he added with a laugh. “I had to sleep in my car for a night. It was a long night.”
The key to Local 87’s new deal with the San Francisco Maintenance Contractors Association is a substantial boost in wages, at least compared to previous years.
Under the previous contract, which expired on July 31, the wage increased bit by bit between 2020 and this year, adding up to a total raise of $3 per hour. With this new contract, that raise will nearly double: By 2028, the hourly wage will have increased by just under $6, Hadwan said. It starts with a $1 bump for workers this month, then jumps to $1.50 in August 2025, and grows progressively until the contract expires in 2028, he noted.
Along with the wage hike, the union asked for increased workplace protections, including limits on indoor temperatures (as mandated by a recent state ordinance.) But the negotiations really bogged down around the issue of reforming hiring and layoff language in the contract, according to Hadwan.
“We focused on layoffs because there’s been a lot of [them] amid building vacancy,” he said. “Before, we never had any specific language in the contract about layoffs and what is required from the companies, contractors and building owners to give to the union when it happens. We put in a lot of conditions, so that we can now verify how things are happening.”
This round of negotiations was a less fraught fight than those for the last contract, which were initiated in July 2020 but dragged on into the following spring. More than 700 janitorial workers went on a three-day strike in March 2021; more strikes were avoided when the contract was finally ratified in May 2021.
This was Hadwan’s first time negotiating as part of union leadership, and he says it gave him some lessons and left an impression. “I never expected the negotiations would go that hard and that long,” he told Gazetteer.
Those lessons will come in handy in the near future: Local 87 is readying to embark on negotiations for workers at Chase Center and the University of San Francisco, as their contract ends later this year.
