Twin Cities janitors reach tentative deal to avoid strike

(FOX 9) - After months of negotiations, thousands of commercial janitors with SEIU Local 26 reached a Tentative Agreement with their employers, avoiding a strike that was set to begin Monday.

According to the union, an agreement was made after a 22-hour bargaining session that ended Saturday morning. Though the full details of the Tentative Agreement are still being worked out, some of the changes include wage increases of $2.20 over the course of the contract for full time workers, with some part time workers going from $11.12 to $16 over the life of the contract

The agreement also included moving all full-time workers to six paid sick days by the second year of the contract

According to a release, the agreement comes a week after the janitors went on a 24-hour ULP strike that included a huge rally in Minneapolis with environmental allies before picketing and rallying at the MSP Airport.

The janitorial workers are employed by over a dozen different subcontractors like ABM & Marsden to clean the MSP Airport along with corporate office buildings like IDS, Capella Tower, EcoLab, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, United Health Group, Ameriprise and many more across the Twin Cities.