Save Union Jobs at the Portland Brewery Blocks
Nearly a hundred Portland-area janitors and their allies demonstrated today outside M Financial Plaza and the Whole Foods Building, two office buildings in the Pearl District’s Brewery Blocks. The workers were protesting that the buildings’ owner, JPMorgan Chase – the largest bank in the U.S. – is using a non-union janitorial company with a history of violating workers’ rights.
“Keeping union jobs at this building is important. It gives people a like me a chance at a better life. I hope that Brewery Blocks will reconsider and change their decision! ”
The union janitors first sounded the alarm about this decision in the fall when local property manager Arke Management decided to dump the union janitors who had long cleaned the buildings. After weeks of outreach by SEIU Local 49 and the community to Arke Management and the buildings’ tenants, a representative from owner JPMorgan Chase doubled down on the decision to go non-union.
“I'm forever thankful for the property manager and the Brewery Blocks tenants for using a union janitorial company all these years. My union job was a blessing. I had healthcare, great benefits, and a pension that allowed me to retire last month!” Jerry Brown said, a retired janitor who used to clean the Brewery Block buildings.
“I am sad to hear that Brewery Blocks is eliminating these good union jobs and moving to a non union janitorial company. My former coworkers are like family to me. Now, they could lose everything. Keeping union jobs at this building is important. It gives people a like me a chance at a better life. I hope that Brewery Blocks will reconsider and change their decision!” said Jerry Brown.
This week, in a survey emailed to people who work in Brewery Blocks 1 and 4, 50% of respondents said that the quality of janitorial services had gotten worse since Arke Management switched from a union to a non-union janitorial service provider. In fact, 100%of respondents said that before the switch was made, they were “very satisfied” with the original janitorial company with the unionized workforce.
