Clean Start - Fair Deal for Cleaners
Clean Start wins a clean slate!
SFWU 0800 UNION 1 (0800 864 661)
After almost a year of negotiations, thousands of commercial cleaners have received their largest pay increase in a decade winning an hourly increase of 55 cents.
Late night bargaining in March saw the cleaning contractors finally agree to lift the hourly rate from its previous low of $12.55 to $13.10 an hour, and in a move that should deliver further increases, agreed to a ground breaking clause in the agreement that gives cleaners the right to put pressure on building owners for even more money.
Coming in at 4.4% the increase was twice that of the recent hospital settlement and nearly three times the increase for IHC/IDEA workers, but at $13.10 the rate falls well below the goal of closing the gap with directly employed school cleaners paid $14.62 or with hospital cleaners now paid more than $15 an hour.
Importantly the increase also starts to restore the margin between cleaners’ pay and the minimum wage. In 2009 cleaners were paid just 5 cents above the minimum wage of $12.55. A year on, with the minimum wage now $12.75, the margin has risen to 35 cents.
Clean Start lead organiser Fala Haulangi says raising the margin was important, but the real work will be in using the new collective to pressure building clients and owners to support fair hours and fair pay, job security, reasonable workloads, increased training and respect at work for cleaners.
“Cleaning forms a very small part of the cost of operating a business but it’s one of the jobs that people really notice when it stops getting done. If the toilets are not clean and the rubbish bins are overflowing then only then does the public understand the work our members carry out,” says Fala.
Even before the ink was dry on the new collective, delegates were working to identify which building owners would be targeted. With contractors operating in schools and with schools funded to be able to afford the $14.62, large secondary schools are already being targeted.
At the same time, the Clean Start team has identified key building owners such as the Westfield Malls and downtown high rises where workers will be fronting the owners and pushing for a better deal.
“While we didn’t reach the $14.62 this year, we now have the right, supported by the collective, to put the pressure on, building by building, owner by owner. That’s real power,” says Fala.
If you are a cleaner who wants more information please contact your delegate, organiser or SFWU Member Support on 0800 UNION 1 (0800 864 661).
Clean Start bargaining team at Eden Park, May 2009
Parliamentary cleaners get an Easter surprise
It's not every day that you get ambushed at work by someone bearing Easter eggs. But that's what happened to the cleaners at Parliament and the Police college in Porirua just before Easter.
The Labour Party's Te Tai Tonga Poneke Branch have decided to start a series called "Random Acts of Labour-ness", where they take a Labour Party value or belief and put it into action. So they took Labour's belief in fighting for fair wages - and its belief in supporting workers, and decided to bring some Easter cheer to the people they thought were most deserving.
Chair of the TTT Poneke Branch, Deborah Mahuta-Coyle said "We know that the women and men who clean some of Wellingtons biggest buildings are some of the hardest workers we have in our community and we thought it was about time someone did something a little special to say thanks."
With the help of Union organiser Mea'ole Keil, the TTT Poneke branch members were able to meet some great people and hopefully brighten their days with baskets full of chocolate for them and their families.
View a video clip of the "Random act of Labour-ness" here
Cleaners take to the streets outside Parliament to highlight low wages
Low paid workers took to the streets outside Parliament on Wednesday 1 April to remind politicians that at a time when there are tax cuts for some people, low wages still exist for many thousands of New Zealanders.
"With cleaners typically paid on or just above the minimum wage, the rally was a timely reminder that while many people fear a recession coming, many low paid workers are effectively living in a recession already, earning poverty wages." said SFWU National Secretary, John Ryall.
Cleaners in public hospitals already earn a minimum of $14.62 an hour, and directly-employed school cleaners will be paid the same rate from 1 July this year. In comparison cleaners working in central city buildings and Government departments are paid just $12.55 an hour - a mere 5 cents above the new statutory minimum wage.
Click here to view photos from the latest Clean Start rally in Wellington, New Zealand
Historical information about the Clean Start campaign
See video from Clean Start New Zealand Actions and Rallies up to 2007- click here
The Clean Start: Fair Deal for Cleaners campaign aims to provide a voice to the low-waged largely immigrant female workforce, in cities across Australia and New Zealand, who are calling on big property owners to support decency in their workplaces.
Read more about the Clean Start campaign goals here
Cleaners make history at the Beehive
Now let's get the honey... and the money!
Just about every day there's some sort of formal function at the Beehive in Parliament. But it's not everyday that the function is about the people who clean the Beehive and thousands of other buildings across New Zealand.
On March 28th cleaners made history. At a special ceremony hosted by the Minister of Labour, Trevor Mallard, representatives from the major cleaning companies, the property owners and union leaders and delegates came together to sign off and celebrate a written agreement that aims to deliver respect, quality jobs and better pay and conditions to thousands of worker.
The Principles for a Sustainable Service Industry agreement, known as the "Principles Document" brings the cleaning bosses, the building owners, the government and the SFWU together with an agreed vision for "a better cleaning industry ... with good jobs... fair pay, reasonable hours and safe conditions."
Clean Start campaign leader Fala Haulangi said the signing followed two years of hard work getting the bosses and the building owners to sit down at the same table.
"We needed to change the way cleaners pay and conditions are determined. This is a really big step in reaching out to the whole industry and pushing for respect for ever cleaner," said Fala.
Getting the Principles signed was just the first step. Papers get signed every day in Parliament but getting things done is the critical step. This will mean the owners and bosses stepping up!
The good news it's off to a great start. Within days of the signing Labour Minister Mallard had written to government departments making it clear that only contractors who supported the agreement should receive government work.
"The government has done the right thing. Now we want other property owners to also take action to make sure the Principles Agreement is put into every tenancy agreement so that respect for cleaners and their union is recognised throughout the property services sector", said SFWU National Secretary John Ryall.
Union delegates have also been busy. Activists and delegates have begun a series of visits aimed at talking to and signing up every cleaner in the main business districts and shopping malls in Auckland and Wellington.
If the goal is to get the building owners to fund better pay and conditions and address workload and hours of work issues the first step is to reach out to the thousands of cleaners who are not union members.
"We are setting out to change the industry but the first step is to share the vision and win support," said Fala.
Click here for a PDF copy of Principles for a Sustainable Service Industry
Read our new 20-page community booklet
Cleaners and community: United for Justice
CLEANERS AND COMMUNITY GET TOGETHER AROUND NEW ZEALAND
Click here for more information
Social Report highlights inequalities for Pacific Island peoples
The New Zealand union backing the Clean Start: Fair Deal for Cleaners campaign has called on the government to look closely at the inequalities suffered by Pacific Island and Maori workers employed as cleaners in Auckland and Wellington CBD office blocks.
"The Ministry of Social Development's recently released Social Report highlights disastrous inequalities for Pacific Island Workers in Aotearoa," John Ryall, National Secretary of the Service and Food Workers Union, Nga Ringa Tota, told New Zealand radio.
Low hourly rates for Pacific workers
The report shows that in June 2005, Pacific Island workers faced a median hourly rate of $13.79 per hour.
While this rate is low, it disguises the much lower average for Pacific Island women as a group. This compared poorly with Pakeha New Zealanders who have the highest median hourly rate of $17 an hour.
Dangerous jobs for Pacific and Maori workers
Pacific Island and Maori workers were significantly over-represented in low paid jobs.
These jobs were clearly more dangerous, with accident rates Pacific Island and Maori workers much higher than for workers of other ethnicities.
Income disparities increase
Since 1998, the top 20% of income earners have had an increase of 30% in their income. In the same time period, those on the lowest incomes have barely experienced an increase at all.
Pacific Island families scraping by on low incomes
There has been no change in the number of Pacific Island families living on insufficient resources - in fact the Social Report notes that being a Pacific Island family was the feature most likely to determine a lack of resources.
Long lasting low family incomes have an extremely negative impact on children, resulting in poor health and low educational achievement.
The proportion of children living in low-income families is higher than it was in 1998 with 54% of families with a Pacific Island member having low living standards.
Overcrowding - Pacific Island families are living in overcrowded settings
41% of Pacific Island families living in homes needing 2 or more additional bedrooms. There was a clear correlation between income levels and levels of overcrowding.
Pacific Island workers face severe hardship and are campaigning for change
"Pacific Island workers want to have real choices about their lives, their education and their housing, but low wages keep them locked in the poverty cycle."
"That's why cleaners are campaigning for better jobs, respect for the work they do, and better lives for their families through our union's Clean Start: Fair Deal for Cleaners campaign," John Ryall said.
You can hear an interview with Auckland cleaner Sue Lafaele on Radio New Zealand here
Auckland cleaner Sue Lafaele said "we are campaigning for a Clean Start: Fair Deal for Cleaners in the cleaning industry and telling property owners and contract cleaning firms to take responsibility for the poverty wages that are destroying our lives."
No bank will give us a loan to buy a house for our family
"What we would really like is to have a house for our family, but how can we afford a house on these wages? No bank will ever give me a loan when I earn $10.95 and how can I save money on my wages?" said Ms Lafaele.
We feel like second-class citizens
"We came to New Zealand to work so our kids could get a better education and a better life, but the reality is that life in New Zealand working as a cleaner is really hard. We feel like second class citizens." said Ms Lafaele.
Why can't I buy new socks like everyone else?
"My socks have holes in them. That's because I have to buy my socks from the second hand shop. I can't even afford the two-dollar socks from K-Mart," said Ms Lafaele.
"Cleaners need respect for our work and to be paid a living wage - why shouldn't I be able to buy new socks like everyone else?" Sue asked.
Get more Clean Start: Fair Deal for Cleaners campaign news
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Read our research paper on the key issues for A Clean Start in the Property Services industry |
Global campaign to win decent pay rates and conditions
Cleaners all around the world are in a precarious position with low paid and casual work the result of employers competing against each other on the price of labour.
We are sick of seeing cleaners live on poverty wages and we realise that a global problem calls for a global solution.
Increasingly cleaners in disparate cities find they are employed by the same global contract cleaning firms, who tender for work from a handful of global giants - often big financial institutions - who make big profits from the huge commercial office blocks that we clean, in cities around the world.
That's why cleaners are joining their voices together to campaign to win decent pay rates and conditions worldwide.
Join SFWU Nga Ringa Tota, the cleaners union
In particular we are working closely with our sister union in Australia, the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMU) with the cleaners union in Great Britain, the T&G and with the SEIU in the United States.
Cleaners in Poland, the Netherlands and Germany are all mobilising and have pledged their support for the Australian and New Zealand effort.
We want the chance to bargain for good jobs capable of providing us and our famlies with a decent standard of living. We are asking the people in our various communities, migrant networks, religious communities, human rights and interest groups, women's organisations to work in partnership with cleaners and their unions on this campaign.
This is a significant campaign and one that aims to have a real impact on the lives of low paid, predominantly women, workers and the lives of their families. We need your help and your feedback, and the support of the community as a whole to ensure our campaign is a success.
Clean Start - Fair Deal for Cleaners is the New Zealand and Australia part of a worldwide campaign. We have launch meetings happening in cities all over New Zealand and Australia, and support events happening elsewhere on April 20th - so come along to the meeting closest to you and be a part of it.
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