Will companies have to supply biodegradable, non-toxic cleaning products to their cleaning staff?

If the Service Employees International Union has anything to do with the employers in question, they might have to do more than that.

To celebrate Earth Day, the SEIU announced that in addition to negotiating for wages, benefits, and hours they will include workplace environmental issues in contract negotiations.

The SEIU has launched a “Negotiate Green” initiative. It will use its 1.9 million member bargaining power to put what they are calling “green contract provisions” on the table. Those may include:

Public transportation benefits to decrease automobile use.

Replacement of toxic cleaning supplies to protect workers, land, and water.

Encouragement of daytime cleaning to reduce nighttime energy use in buildings.

Establishment of labor-management environmental committees for ongoing monitoring of environmental issues in the workplace.

The SEIU says that the global environmental crisis affects everyone’s health and well being, especially working people.

Working people already suffer disproportionately from the effects of pollution - from high asthma rates among our children; to contaminated air, land and water in our neighborhoods; to the increasingly high prices we pay to heat our homes and fuel our cars.

The SEIU pledges to do everything that it can to protect working people from environmental hazards.

- Heidi Pickman