Lulu Hernández said when she first started working as a cleaner in Vancouver, she just accepted the long hours and low wages that were the industry standard.
But two women she met on the job helped her realize her workday could be different, Hernández said.
“We were just dreaming about having a company where we are all women and fairly paid and a community,” she said. “We had all these ideas, but we didn't know what we were creating until we put the name on it.”
Hernández is one of the three founders of the Cleaning Co-op. Since incorporating in May 2023, the co-operative has grown to employ about 20 women and gender-diverse employees, including cleaners and administration staff. It offers residential, commercial and hospitality cleaning services across Metro Vancouver.
The founders say the model means the cleaners get to keep a larger share of their business’s revenue, earn a living wage and improve their working conditions.
Meanwhile, industry experts say the cleaners are part of a growing number of workers taking ownership of their services to meet a rising cost of living.
For Hernández, the Cleaning Co-op was a way to leave what she calls an exploitative contract.
She arrived in Vancouver on a temporary foreign worker permit in 2019 from Mexico, employed by a local cleaning company. Hernández said she understood the company would support her as she tried to become a permanent resident.
She travelled across Metro Vancouver seven days a week, mostly cleaning vacation and short-term rental units.
She earned $20 per hour and took home $18. She said she was not paid for the time she spent in transit between rental units — often hour-long commutes, she said — meaning she would often be compensated for only four hours after a full day of work.
“It's not like they said verbally, ‘You need to work for us 24-7,’ but it felt that way because they were helping me with my paperwork,” she said. “I felt like I owed something to them.”
Hernández wouldn’t share the name of her former employer. But the conditions she worked under are typical in Vancouver.
According to the federal jobs bank, as of December the median pay for light-duty cleaners — a federal category for workers who clean hospitals, hotel rooms, residences and more — in B.C. is $20 per hour.
While cleaning a short-term rental in Vancouver, she met Hayley Postlethwaite. At the time, Postlethwaite was managing the rental unit for her landlord.
As they chatted in passing, the two women realized that while Postlethwaite was paying up to $140 for the cleaning service, Hernández was making only $30 for the job.
Postlethwaite saw a chance for change.
“I was like, ‘You know, you can do this yourself, right? You can clean and keep your own profits.’”
Postlethwaite, Hernández and their friend Paulina Cruz formed their own cleaning business in 2022.
Postlethwaite said she handled administration at first, while Hernández and Cruz did most of the cleaning. As their client list grew, the three women kept 60 per cent of their revenue and put the rest into cleaning supplies, transportation and other business expenses.
That year, the three women reached out to Surrey-based co-op developer Solid State Community Industries for help with their business and financial support.
Solid State helped the cleaners secure grant funding and a secure line of credit with a credit union, and offered a $20,000 no-interest loan.
It was while working with the developer that Postlethwaite said the cleaners realized they wanted to form a co-operative.
Worker co-operatives are owned by employees and are democratically controlled by workers instead of investors or private owners. Some include all employees as voting members and some just recognize a core group.
The Cleaning Co-op has no boss, and the three owners vote on business decisions. Postlethwaite said the model helped the group retain more of their revenue, meant they were treated fairly and changed their work culture.
“If someone has cramps or someone's sick or someone needs to stay home with a sick kid, there's never going to be a culture where you feel anxiety about not being able to perform,” she said. “Your worth isn't going to be attached to your productivity.”
Madelyn Read, education and communications manager with the BC Co-op Association, said the cleaners are among a growing number of organizations experimenting with the co-op model in the province.
“People are really struggling financially,” Read said. “The cost of living is so high and people are really looking for a way to find secure, stable, good, well-paying employment, and I think people are looking for solutions in the co-op model.”
The association’s membership includes the Greater Vancouver Community Credit Union, Kootenay Bakery Café and Vancouver Co-operative Radio.
In co-ops, workers are the ones in charge, Read said. “Rather than collectively bargain against a management team, you eliminate that process. You are working together as members of the co-operative to make those decisions together.”
Read estimates there are about 700 co-ops in the province, including housing co-ops, non-profits and businesses.
Kendra Strauss, a labour studies researcher at Simon Fraser University, said co-operatives offer workers a way to organize outside of a union or as small businesses.
“It both concentrates and realizes worker control,” she said.
Strauss said the model is increasingly popular with sectors affected by gig work, like cleaners, delivery and ride-hailing, where unionizing has proven difficult.
“We're seeing them spring up across industries where exploitation is rife,” she said.
Still, co-operatives face unique challenges. Strauss said workers take on more risk with ownership, and without a direct hierarchy, some worker co-operatives face challenges making democratic decisions when they increase in membership.
The Cleaning Co-op has grown to employ about 20 people, including international students and foreign workers.
Its clients include short-term rentals, residences, offices and car-sharing platform Modo Co-operative’s fleet of more than 1,000 vehicles.
“Members started reporting much cleaner cars,” Jane Hope, Modo’s director of marketing and communications, said.
“We want to help other co-operatives, and source from other co-operatives whenever possible.”
When the Cleaning Co-op incorporated in 2023, it set the cleaners’ wage at $24.08 — the living wage that year.
Postlethwaite said she plans to raise workers’ hourly wage to $27.05 this year, after the living wage in Vancouver jumped again.
The business is still finding its feet. The co-op offers employees counselling services and plans to offer a full benefits package this year.
While at present only the three founders are owners, Postlethwaite said this year the company will open a pathway for employees to get ownership stakes too.
Read more: Labour + Industry
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