D.C.- Area Office Cleaners Get Tentative Contract

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Office cleaners in the Washington area have agreed to tentative four-year contract, averting a possible strike.

About 12,000 office cleaners in the region had threatened to strike when their contract expired at midnight Sunday. But a union bargaining committee came to a last-minute tentative agreement that would result in an average yearly pay increase of 4 percent over the next four years.

The contract covers 5,000 commercial cleaners in Washington, nearly 4,000 cleaners in northern Virginia, more than 1,500 in Montgomery County and approximately 700 in Baltimore.

Union members must still ratify the agreement.

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