It’s not glamorous work, but Khin Kyi describes her Vancouver janitorial post as a godsend after having spent most of her life struggling just to keep her family safe.

The mother of four fled her home in Myanmar’s northwestern Chin state in 2006 where she said she was forced to be a labourer by the military Tatmadaw. She then spent about five years in New Delhi as a refugee before getting a Canadian government sponsorship that allowed her and her youngest son, now 16, to settle in Vancouver.

So when she learned the company she works for had lost the contract to clean real estate giant Cadillac Fairview’s downtown Vancouver buildings — a change that put her job at risk — Kyi was ready to take a stand to defend what she had worked for.

“The tenants of that building, we get along really well and they don’t want to see me go,” she told the Star through a translator. “I don’t have my own family here but the way they treat me is like family.”

In the face of losing their jobs, Kyi and her colleagues reached out to an unlikely ally: Ontario teachers, whose pension fund owned the properties being cleaned by a largely newcomer workforce on the other side of the country.

It worked.

Following a labour complaint from the Service Employees International Union Local 2 and a small grassroots movement from teachers living thousands of kilometres away, the workers are getting their jobs — and their union — back.

“I feel God is with me too because whatever I say is having a positive effect. I feel I’ve helped,” said Kyi, whose story was posted on a website as part of the workers’ campaign to win the teachers’ support. “I know it’s hard work but if you apply good skills and techniques, it’s good, and I like that kind of work. I’m really grateful for that.”

“For me, it was such a basic issue of solidarity and in some ways a moral duty,” said James Campbell, a Toronto-based secondary school teacher. “We should be acting not just in the best interest of ourselves but of other workers as well.”

The dispute flared up this summer when Cadillac Fairview, one of the continent’s largest real estate companies and a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP), changed its cleaning service provider at its downtown Vancouver buildings. It awarded the contract to Cushman & Wakefield, another property management heavyweight that is partially owned by the OTPP.

As a result, 150 cleaners at the properties confronted the prospect of losing their jobs and reapplying for them when the new contractor took over in October.

It’s a practice known as contract-flipping and it refers to when companies subcontract out services and then change providers every few years. With each new contract, workers are often forced to reapply for their old jobs, losing their seniority, pay grade, benefit entitlement and sometimes their union.

Before the contract flip, the Vancouver cleaners had just won a wage increase and improved benefits through collective bargaining. The bump meant increases of 20 cents to $1.20 on top of starting hourly wages, which range from $12.85 to $13.85, depending whether cleaners did light or heavy duty. Minimum wage in British Columbia is $12.65 an hour.

According to an unfair labour practice complaint filed last week by SEIU, “Cushman & Wakefield indicated to SEIU that their intention is to keep the work union-free.” The company already employs unionized cleaners with SEIU in Toronto and in the United States.

The complaint said workers employed at the buildings were prevented from meeting with the union and were also advised that “involvement with SEIU will preclude offers of employment.”

The settlement agreed to this week means the labour complaint has been dropped, and that Cushman & Wakefield’s cleaning service — C&W Services — will recognize SEIU as the workers’ union and offer cleaners their jobs back before hiring new employees. Cleaners will keep their pay, benefits and seniority.

Now widowed, Kyi’s number one goal is to reunite with her children in Canada, which would require saving up enough money to bring two of her adult sons over from New Delhi. Making $13.15 an hour, she’s a ways off from that goal, but she still takes pride in providing small joys to her teenage son, like the bluetooth earphones she recently bought him.

“C&W Services is pleased that we have reached an overall agreement with the Service Employees International Union in Vancouver, said Earl Bannister, the company’s Vice President of Operations, Canada Region. “We look forward to working with the SEIU in providing excellent services in support of our client.”

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In B.C., there are no laws against contract flipping and SEIU warns the practice is about to claim 50 more cleaning jobs at another Vancouver location, according to the union’s lead organizer in the city, Christine Bro.

Last year, Ontario introduced measures through Bill 148 to insulate workers in the building services sector from contract flipping. In September, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce called on the new provincial government to repeal the bill.

Consultations for a review of the B.C. labour code took place from February to April this year, and contract flipping was one of the key issues raised by the B.C. Federation of Labour. In the case of SEIU’s unfair labour practice complaint, the federation’s president Irene Lanzinger said she welcomed the involvement of Ontario’s teachers.

“I’m a teacher, I have money in the pension plan here in B.C. and I want my money invested in companies that are ethical,” she said. “These are workers who are already working for poverty wages, so they’re likely working two jobs to make ends meet and they will have to do more of that if wages are driven down.”

The appeal to Ontario teachers resulted in a petition to pension plan executives signed by 173 teachers and forms part of the broader Justice for Janitors campaign, which is organized by SEIU across North America to advocate for better working conditions.

“I got more energy when I learned that they were supporting me,” Kyi said of the campaign, “Workwise, now I have no fear. I’m going to continue to work very hard.”

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is worth $189.5 billion and has a fiduciary duty to invest responsibly on behalf of its 323,000 members. According to its website, the plan considers “a broad range of factors when we invest, such as the risks associated with environmental, social and governance issues.”

“The plan interprets (fiduciary duty) in a bottom line, dollars and pennies kind of sense,” Campbell said. “Teaching is care work. We’re in teaching because we care about our students and the world that we’re making together. And for us, fiduciary duty is something larger than just a bottom line.”

The pension plan did not respond to the Star’s questions about its investment guidelines, stating that Cushman & Wakefield was best placed to speak about negotiations with Vancouver cleaners. Cadillac Fairview also did not reply to questions from the Star.

Campbell said he’d like to think Ontario teachers’ grassroots support made a difference, but says the real credit is due elsewhere.

“I have a feeling this victory is primarily due to those courageous workers themselves.”

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