Denver-area janitors voted Monday to ratify a new, four-year contract with janitorial firms.
The contract provides wage increases of 4 percent a year — roughly 25 cents an hour — and higher contributions from employers for health-care premiums.
Janitors that work full time are now eligible for health insurance after 90 days of employment. Previously, some full-time workers had to wait a year before qualifying for coverage.
Representatives of Service Employees International Union Local 105 and 23 janitorial firms bargained for portions of five weeks. A tentative deal was reached early Saturday morning, the day on which the old contract expired.
The union workers in June had authorized a strike if negotiations failed to produce a new deal. Local 105 represents about 2,300 workers who clean 95 percent of downtown Denver offices, as well as buildings in the Denver Tech Center and other parts of metro Denver.
Michael Severns, chief executive of the Mountain States Employers Council, which bargained on behalf of janitorial firms, said the new contract “is really fair to all the parties — the contractors, the customers and the employees.”
