Janitors gather in Cambridge, seeking support as contract is set to expire in November

Maria Rodriguez has worked eight years as a janitor for a cleaning company that services Novartis, a global pharmaceutical company headquartered in Cambridge.

The Ayer resident was one of more than a hundred janitors across Massachusetts rallied in the city she works on Saturday, calling on area biotech corporations to urge janitorial service contractors to treat their employees better.

Before the pandemic, Rodriguez was responsible for cleaning one floor of the Novartis building, but now, she said her job has grown to covering the basement and other areas as she tries to get by with fewer colleagues.

A top priority from Rodriguez and other janitors is for their companies to shift their schedule from part-time to full-time, so they can start receiving better pay and benefits, such as increased health insurance.

The 20 hours she works now is not enough to meet her increased work demands, Rodriguez told the Herald.

“We need justice, more respect for us,” she said. “Maybe the company needs to be more conscientious because we are humans.”

Rally organizer 32BJ SEIU held Saturday’s event to start getting attention from biotech organizations, like Novartis, Pfizer and Biogen, before janitors begin negotiating for a new contract later this summer. Their current contract expires in November.

The gathering honored Justice for Janitors day, when baton-wielding Los Angeles police assaulted janitors during a peaceful rally to improve working conditions and wages, according to 32BJ SEIU. The reaction to the brutality of June 15, 1990 turned the tide in the janitors’ struggle to unionize.

The union will bargain directly with the janitorial service companies, making it essential for biotech companies to stand by the side of those who clean their buildings and labs, said Roxana Rivera, assistant to the union’s president.