Union Continues Sweep, Organizes New Jersey Building Cleaners.

Byline: Hugh R. Morley

Apr. 27--Reyna Hernandez knows the power of persuasion.

A year ago, the 43-year-old Mexican immigrant said, most of the 12 cleaners at the upmarket Woodcliff Lake office building where she dusts, scrubs, and sweeps were uninterested in pushing for union representation.

But on Wednesday, she said, nine workers signed a petition asking their employer -- Skyscraper Building Maintenance Services of Hackensack -- to agree to a union contract. The deal would raise the wages of Hernandez -- who is paid $5.25 an hour -- and her colleagues to $9.75 an hour after three years and give full-time workers health benefits and paid vacation.

"We talked to them about what we can get if they support us," Hernandez said of how she and others persuaded those workers who were reluctant to be unionized. "In two years that I have worked there, we have never received an increase."

Soon, she may get one. On Wednesday, officials of Local 32BJ of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) will meet with Mack-Cali CEO Mitchell Hersh to discuss whether he will back union representation of the independent contractors that clean his buildings. And there are signs that Hersh is ready to make a deal.

The meeting comes near the end of a sustained, three-year effort by the union to organize low-paid cleaning workers, many of whom are immigrants. So far, union officials say, the campaign has organized 5,000 cleaners in a dozen north and central counties, among them Passaic, Morris, and Hudson. The union represents 6,000 New Jersey cleaners.