OHSU’s Latest Investment in Sustainabilty: Training Frontline Workers as Green Janitors
Fourteen ABM janitors who clean Oregon Health Sciences University’s medical education buildings graduated in February at a ceremony including the graduates, leaders from SEIU Local 49, City of Portland Councilors Angelita Morillo and Steve Novick, ABM executives, and the U.S. Green Building Council. The ceremony was held at the LEED Platinum-certified Robertson Life Sciences Building in Portland’s South Waterfront. The Green Janitor Health Certification Program provides comprehensive training to janitorial staff about practices that meet the latest energy, water, and green initiative standards. It covers topics like energy efficiency, recycling, waste management, water conservation, and more. Through this program, janitors are encouraged to take part in the building’s goals of…
Protests continue at M Financial Plaza, a JP Morgan Chase-owned building that dumped its union janitors
With drums and chanting, janitors and their allies protested at M Financial Plaza again twice in recent weeks, challenging the building’s switch to using a non-union janitorial company. At issue is the decision by property manager Arke Management to not renew its service contract with ABM at M Financial Plaza in Portland’s Pearl District. ABM employees are members of SEIU Local 49, and are guaranteed fair wages, quality health insurance for themselves and their children, retirement contributions, and enforceable policies to foster respect on the job. To replace them, Arke Management brought in Millennium Building Services, a company with a history of troubling labor conditions, in late 2023. Since…
Portland Janitors Stand Up to JPMorgan for Fair Pay and Good Benefits at Brewery Blocks in Downtown Portland!
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 Asset Management – a subsidiary of JPMorgan which includes the largest bank in the U.S. – is using a non-union janitorial company with a history of violating workers’ rights. 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…
Six ABM Janitors Celebrate Graduating the Green Janitor Education Program
We have been collaborating with Unico Properties LLC to bring the Green Janitor Education Program to downtown Portland. Recently we celebrated six janitors of ABM Janitorial at the Moda Tower completing the program! The Green Janitor Education Program provides education in green building practices to meet the latest energy, water, and green initiative standards. It covers topics like: Energy efficiency Recycling Waste management Water conservation …and other sustainable and green cleaning practices “Our janitorial staff are the eyes and ears of the building, and they are absolutely essential to the successful, sustainable operations of our properties.” –Keren Eichen, Unico Properties Director, Real Estate Services The Green Janitor…
- ABM, Millennium Building Services, News, SBM, Shorenstein Realty Services, Standard Insurance Center, Unico
The good, the bad, and the ugly: how CRE decisionmakers are standing up to COVID-19 – or not
Shorenstein Realty Services, Unico Properties, Nike, and Intel are stepping up to ensure that the essential workers who clean their properties—janitors—are able to support their families during this crisis and are helping to mitigate the health risks and financial impacts of COVID-19 by investing in responsible union janitorial contractors.
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