‘AN ACTUAL TRADE’Īt a time when many other workers are fighting defensive battles-as hotels, for instance, are cutting their workforces-SEIU Local 26 window cleaners in the Twin Cities are striking to advance their standards and get their due.

They want pay increases, a reduction in health care costs, and a state-recognized, fully funded apprenticeship program to improve training and safety.

He is among 40 window cleaners who walked out on an open-ended unfair labor practice strike this morning. “A company as large as mine, I think they could have supported us in that way.” “I had other friends who worked in grocery stores and other essential businesses that were getting an extra $2 an hour,” Haynes said. Four SEIU Local 26 members died from Covid-19, and more than 1,000 had to take unpaid time off after exposure to the virus at work, according to the union, which also represents janitors, security officers, and airport workers.ĭespite the new risks, his stingy employer Final Touch Commercial Cleaning didn’t even offer hazard pay. Like so many other workers nationwide, he ended up getting the virus. The experience was “nerve-racking,” Haynes said, but he “sucked it up” for fear of losing his job. They fanned out, disinfecting every surface to eradicate the pathogen. Haynes and his co-workers were deployed inside office buildings that had been shut down after office workers caught Covid. Last year, that cleaning mission presented graver dangers than ever before. But outfitted with a harness and clad in a jumpsuit, sitting on a little chair suspended from ropes, Haynes rappels 600 feet down the sides of glistening Minneapolis skyscrapers-on a mission to clean. High-rise window cleaner Josh Haynes is no Tom Cruise on a mission to avert global disaster. “I hope our strike, and our strong new contract, show other essential workers that when you band together and stay the course, you can get results,' said Eric Crone, a window cleaner and steward with SEIU Local 26. Workers will earn over $30 an hour by the end of the four-year contract-wages second only to window cleaners in New York City. UPDATE, August 26: After 10 days on strike, high-rise window cleaners in the Twin Cities secured a new contract that creates an employer-funded, state-recognized apprenticeship program, bolsters sick days and disability pay, and includes 12 percent wage increases.

Josh the window cleaner