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       Unionized office cleaners ratified a new contract with commercial cleaning companies late last week, securing hourly wage increases and averting a strike of more than 9,000 workers throughout the D.C. region.

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       The building workers, members of Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union who help maintain about 1,500 office buildings, agreed on a four-year contract. It includes yearly raises that will ultimately increase wages by $3.75 in Loudoun and Prince George’s counties and $3.55 in Baltimore, Arlington, Fairfax and Montgomery counties and the District.

       This will result in hourly wages ranging from $16.25 to $22.15, amounting to a 19 to 30 percent increase, according to Julie Karant, an SEIU spokeswoman.

       These raises will help workers — an overwhelming majority of whom are immigrants from Central and South America and most of whom are women — be able to more easily afford basics such as rent and groceries, Karant said.

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       Peter Chatilovicz, chief negotiator for the Washington Service Contractors Association, said agreeing on these raises was a way to show employees that they are appreciated while letting employers stay competitive with other industries, such as retail and fast food.

       “We value our employees. We value what they did during covid. We want to limit turnover. And so there was a great benefit to us to be able to provide the higher wages,” Chatilovicz said. “In the long run, we hope it allows us to be able to go out and recruit workers.”

       They clean D.C.’s buildings, but they struggle to make ends meet

       For Tomasa Amaya, 37, of Annandale, Va., the new contract means more time with her three daughters and granddaughter.

       Amaya works as a day porter at a medical center in Falls Church, Va. But as a single mom and the sole provider for her family, she had to pick up extra shifts, working up to 16-hour days to earn enough money on her $15.80 hourly wage. Now that her hourly pay will eventually be close to $20, she said, she can stick to one eight-hour shift.

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       Amaya, who was on the bargaining committee, said she wanted a better contract that reflected the hard work she did during the height of the pandemic. There were times when she slept in her car, she said, fearful that she was exposed to the coronavirus at work and would infect her children.

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       “It is what made me fight for a better contract because we were told we were indispensable,” said Amaya, who is from El Salvador. “It was time to fight for this contract that reflects that we do an important job.”

       The building workers began bargaining with the Washington Service Contractors Association, which represents the area’s major commercial cleaning companies, on June 22. They reached a tentative agreement days before the existing contract lapsed, and the final ratification votes were held Saturday, Karant said.

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       Ahead of the agreement, hundreds of workers marched through downtown D.C. streets during the evening rush earlier this month to threaten a strike if they did not receive higher wages. They argued that these increases were needed to keep up with record levels of inflation and to reflect the sacrifices they made to work throughout the height of the pandemic.

       The new contract includes an additional paid Juneteenth holiday for cleaners in D.C., Northern Virginia, Baltimore and Montgomery County. Those in Loudoun and Prince George’s counties will receive paid holidays for Fourth of July, Labor Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

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