Massachusetts Custodians Gain Wages and Expanded Health Care in Two-Year Contract

Custodians who are members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 32BJ in Boston—the largest property service workers union in the country—signed a two-year contract extension with Maintenance Contractors of New England (MCNE) to stabilize the 12,000 custodial workforce with pay raises and expanded health care benefits, The Bay State Banner reports.

The joint contract is an extension of SEIU 32BJ’s current contract, which was set to expire on September 30. The contract will now expire in the fall of 2023 and covers 12,000 custodians who work at commercial office buildings and public spaces throughout metropolitan Boston, Central Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

The contract includes wage increases in 2022 and 2023, expanded health care benefits for individuals and families, and steps to help laid-off custodians return to work.

“Thousands of these workers were [laid off], and we’ve been glad to work with MCNE to get the majority of them back to work again,” said Roxana Rivera, vice president of 32BJ SEIU, said in a news release. “We need to make sure any economic recovery includes good, union jobs and stability for the most impacted communities. This contract does just that for the brave men and women who were on the frontlines of the pandemic.”

Rivera told The Bay State Banner that it was vital for custodians to receive expanded health care benefits because they “were exposing themselves [to COVID-19], not knowing what the consequences would be.”

Michael White, president and chairman of MCNE, said the contract extension will help the building service contractor recoup after the challenges of the pandemic. “This agreement will allow us to provide stability and family-sustaining wages and benefits to our dedicated employees while enabling our industry to recover following this unprecedented crisis,” he said.

Margarita Restrepo, a cleaner at CHA Everett Hospital in Everett, Massachusetts, and an executive board member at SEIU 32BJ, told The Bay State Banner she would like to see the union push for an increase in both wages and health care coverage for custodial workers. “We have good salaries, but we still have a lot of people who live paycheck to paycheck.”

This is the second contract extension both parties have agreed to sign during the pandemic. The 2016-2020 contract agreement was extended in May 2020.