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Safeway Janitors to Decide on Strike Saturday

OAKLAND, Calif. — More than 450 janitors who clean Safeway supermarkets across Northern California will decide Saturday whether to authorize their bargaining committee to call a strike against Safeway’s janitorial service contractors, said the SEIU United Service Workers West, Local 1877 here, which represents the janitors.

OAKLAND, Calif. — More than 450 janitors who clean Safeway supermarkets across Northern California will decide Saturday whether to authorize their bargaining committee to call a strike against Safeway’s janitorial service contractors, said the SEIU United Service Workers West, Local 1877 here, which represents the janitors.

"We work hard to keep the supermarkets clean and safe for our communities, and we won’t stand for Safeway’s contractors intimidating us and cutting our pensions and health care coverage," said Neri Macuixtle, a janitor and member of the bargaining committee. “If we have to go on strike to win quality jobs, we will."

ABM Janitorial Services, New York, one of the four contractors involved in the negotiations, said in a statement recently that its behavior has been “respectful and proper” and reiterated an earlier statement that its proposed wages and benefits for the Safeway janitors are “equivalent to those overwhelmingly approved just last year by the same union’s other local janitors.”

The other three contractors are Premier Floor Care, Crystal Cleaning Service and Alliance Maintenance Solutions (AMS).

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