TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - May 05, 2016) - The bargaining committee representing over 2,000 cleaners who work in nearly 200 Toronto locations, including large commercial office properties, retail malls and other sites, have reached a tentative agreement with their employers and for the moment have averted a massive strike. The cleaners were poised to start walking off the job on Monday.
"We work hard and we just want to lift our families out of poverty," said Andrea Sosa, a member of the bargaining committee who has been working in the cleaning industry for three years. "We were not asking for the world -- but we needed some real improvements."
"We believe the tentative agreement we reached accomplishes that and we look forward to presenting the deal to our co-workers as soon as possible," said Sosa.
A fair raise, paid sick days and improved health benefits are some of the basic demands that janitors tabled at negotiations with their employers. However details of the tentative deal will not be made public until after they are presented to members of the Service Employees International Union Local 2.
The date, time and location of the ratification vote will be announced shortly.
The workers have been in negotiations with Alpine Building Maintenance, Bee Clean Building Maintenance, C&W Services, Commercial Cleaning Services, Compass Canada, Hallmark Housekeeping Services, and Magic Maintenance since early March.
Contact Information:
Diego Mendez
416-476-7762