Janitors who were walking picket lines last week might want to take a lesson from the workers at Pueblo Nuevo Enterprises, a cooperative whose employees own their company.

This small group of mostly Spanish-speaking men and women make their own business decisions, earn between $6.50 and $8.50 an hour and have up to three weeks of paid vacation each year. They sympathize with the striking janitors who currently make $6.80 to $7.90 an hour and are asking for a $3 an hour incremental raise over three years.

But Pueblo Nuevo’s janitors don’t need to strike. If they’re unhappy with their wages or working conditions, it’s up to them to change the course of their business.

Of the 41 janitors working at Pueblo Nuevo, about half have contributed $500 to become full-fledged members of the cooperative. They attend monthly business meetings and play an integral part in shaping the company, which last year grossed $800,000. Once the company starts making a profit, they will share in that, too.

“I want the company to get bigger,” said Miguel Gongora, 23, who has been with the janitorial cooperative for nearly two years. “I look more to the future than with my old job where I delivered carpeting.”

Humble origins

Pueblo Nuevo was started in 1994 by Episcopal priest Philip Lance, 40, who was searching for a way to employ the members of his modest congregation who used to gather in MacArthur Park every Sunday afternoon. The church-goers attended prayer services and then had a picnic lunch, often shared with the homeless.

But as winter neared, they thought it would be nice to have a formal place to meet. “We had no money so we had to figure out how to create some income for the church, get a place to meet and find jobs for the people,” recalled Lance, sitting inside Pueblo Nuevo’s modest offices on West Seventh Street, blocks from MacArthur Park.

Lance and his congregation received a $5,000 donation from the Episcopal diocese to start a thrift store in the area. Much of the inventory was donated from surrounding Episcopal churches. Lance’s congregation volunteered their time, and soon the store was grossing $15,000 a month.

With funds growing from the thrift store, Lance and his congregation were ready to move on to the next step: starting their own business. But no one had any business experience. So Lance and two other people took a business planning workshop at USC to learn about becoming entrepreneurs.

Months later, in 1994, the janitorial service Pueblo Nuevo Enterprises was born. There were lots of employees 20 but only a handful of contracts. The first year, they grossed $190,000.

Juana Esther Martinez, who has been with Pueblo Nuevo from the very beginning, remembers when they had very little equipment to work with, no health benefits or paid vacation. They didn’t even have uniforms.

“We began with small contracts, and we were earning only $100 a month. Over the years, I have seen things grow,” she said.

Pueblo Nuevo’s first clients were nonprofit housing developers. Their next big break was getting a contract with Public Storage Inc. to scrub the floors at the company’s 180 sites.

Now their clients are mostly affordable-housing apartment buildings, charter and private schools, Public Storage Inc. and Good Samaritan Hospital. “I like the business model they have,” said Abby Sher, who employs two Pueblo Nuevo janitors at her Edgemar retail and office center in Santa Monica. “It’s the idea that the people are involved in setting their own policy, the terms of their employment, and the structure of their work.”

Workers take ownership

The janitorial service has a lower turnover rate because employees are more loyal, more motivated, and take a proprietary interest in the company. And the janitors who work at Pueblo Nuevo like the idea that their jobs give them a living wage, stability and paid vacation.

“I have been treated well during the four years I’ve been here,” said Joaquin Aguilar, in between vacuuming the lobby of the Crescent Arms Apartments, an affordable housing building a few blocks from Pueblo Nuevo’s office. “I like to do my job well and please the boss.”

Aguilar, 59, an immigrant from El Salvador, used to make his living picking up odd jobs as a painter or gardener. But he couldn’t rely on them for full-time employment.

Now Aguilar earns $7 an hour, works nearly 40 hours a week, has half his health benefits covered, and receives 18 days of paid vacation, plus holidays. If he works overtime, he is paid 1.5 times his normal wage. If he works holidays, he receives 2.5 times.

“I think these janitors are better off because they are the owners,” said John Haskell, a business planning expert who has worked with Pueblo Nuevo. “There are 21 people there who sit around the table every month and work things out. If you’ve worked there six months and have paid your $500, you have the same equity standing as anyone else.”