Ignacio Figuerroa, a janitor organized under SEIU 32BJ, waits outside the conference room at Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport in Warwick Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, while airport officials met in executive session to discuss entering contract negotiations with a new janitorial services company. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
Ten mostly Spanish-speaking unionized janitors waited for a half hour outside a conference room at Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport Wednesday morning as airport officials met in closed session to discuss a new contract for janitorial services.
The workers, organized under SEIU 32BJ, hoped to stop the Rhode Island Airport Corporation’s (RIAC) board of directors from reducing the number of hours they work per month in the proposal under consideration.
But after the board returned to open session and the workers tasked with keeping T.F. Green clean were ushered back into the room, there was no opportunity for public comment. Instead, all five board members present voted to authorize CEO Iftikhar Ahmad to begin contract negotiations with the lowest bidder among seven janitorial service companies that responded to a 163-page Notice of Intent.
The name of the vendor was not given during the vote.
A minute after the public session resumed, the meeting adjourned.
“So what just happened is that they gave permission for the CEO to sign the contract — but they haven’t yet,” Roxana Martinez-Gracias, a communications specialist for the union, interpreted in Spanish to the workers. “We are doing everything we can to make sure that the contract has the sufficient number of hours and workers.”
One of the workers shrugged. “We have no choice,” he said in English.
Janitorial services have been handled for the past 15 years by Denmark-based ISS Facilities, but airport spokesperson Bill Fischer said the company chose not to bid on a new five-year contract after its current one expires at the end of October.
Airport officials seemed to appreciate the opportunity to move on from ISS Facilities with a new vendor.
“RIAC has been dissatisfied with their performance and has received multiple complaints from airline partners regarding the cleanliness of certain areas of the airport,” Fischer said in an emailed statement.
A spokesperson for ISS Facilities acknowledged a request for comment but did not provide one as of late Wednesday afternoon.
Fischer declined to name the vendor selected by the board. The Warwick Beacon reported Aug. 21 that California-based SBM Corporation was set to receive a contract worth $6.5 million from the airport.
A receptionist who answered the phone at SBM said she would pass on a request for comment from Rhode Island Current.
Despite the concerns of airport officials, the cleanliness of T.F. Green helped the Warwick airport reach the distinction of being the best in the world, according to Travel + Leisure magazine.
The airport’s board of directors delayed an Aug. 14 vote on entering contract negotiations after the union raised concerns that bid language suggested a dozen of the 26 full time janitors would be off the job.
That staffing cut was based on a cost proposal sheet that noted janitors would work a collective 2,700 hours per month over the five-year contract terms. Under prior contracts, janitors worked between 4,300 hours and 5,000 per month, Kevin Brown, executive vice president for the union, said in a phone interview ahead of the meeting.
“The last place you want to slash staffing is in an airport with high usage,” Brown said. “I just don’t know what they’re thinking.”
Brown said janitors earn on average about $17.70 an hour and receive benefits including paid time off and health insurance.
Five of the seven members of the Rhode Island Airport Corporation board of directors are shown at a special meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, before they met for 30 minutes in executive session. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
Fischer said airport officials determined the max cap of 2,700 hours “thorough evaluation of current service levels” and that any critique of the hours required is “misplaced.”
“The focus should instead be on comparing these hours to the actual hours worked by the current provider, which are only one-third of what’s being requested,” he said.
Fischer said airport officials believe the new hour requirements will actually increase cleaning service time by 37%. But that’s not how one janitor sees it.
“The airport has grown, they’re remodeling, and the bathrooms are huge,” Maria Cole, who worked as an airport janitor for nearly 22 years, told Rhode Island Current in Spanish after the meeting. “To have less people will cause more problems.”
But that’s assuming Cole will still even be among those working should RIAC execute a new contract. At 75, she acknowledged she should probably retire soon. But Cole said she still enjoys working at the airport.
“I still have plenty of energy to do this job,” she said.
Absent from Wednesday’s board meeting were Vice Chairman Michael Traficante and Deborah Thomas.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX