Source: Brandon Campbell, Progress Illinois, June 27, 2012

As 50 Chicago union janitors prepare to lose their jobs on June 29, a group of SEIU* Local 1 members showed up at City Hall to decry the layoffs and push city council members to sponsor a new labor contract ordinance….The group said news of the layoffs came just days after the city awarded a new janitorial service contract in early June to Dayspring, Inc., a South Holland-based janitorial services company. Balanoff said Dayspring “manipulated standards” by not rehiring the union janitors after the city awarded the company the new contract….He also said that Dayspring’s employees would be paid about $3 less an hour than they were previously paid and that their health benefits would be slashed. If rehired, the janitors would see their annual earnings plummet from $30,000 to $22,000, bringing them below the federal poverty level for a family of four. Additionally, the janitors are set to suffer a loss of health care benefits at a most inopportune time as the nation awaits the Supreme Court’s decision on the Affordable Health Care Act.