Greater Cincinnati janitors ratified a contract over the weekend that will boost pay and provide access to health care benefits over the next five years. We regard the agreement as significant -- and as good news.

The contract was negotiated over the past five months between the region's eight largest cleaning companies and the Service Employees International Union. Officials with the union, which in 2005 broke away from the AFL-CIO, said the contract covers janitorial workers in about two-thirds of all office buildings in Greater Cincinnati.

The contract is significant in several respects:

* It marks the first time that janitorial employees of independent cleaning companies in Greater Cincinnati have been represented by a union. (Some employers hire building maintenance and cleaning workers directly, and some of them are represented by unions.)

* It marks an expansion into the heartland of an organizing effort that has been under way for more than two decades. The SEIU's "Justice for Janitors'' campaign initially focused on larger cities, many on the East and West coasts or larger inland cities such as Chicago. Cincinnati is now the 27th urban area whose janitors have been organized by the SEIU; negotiations are under way in Columbus and Indianapolis.

* The contract was negotiated in a fairly amicable way. Talks began in March. On July 14 workers authorized the union to call a strike if a tentative contract couldn't be reached. The final agreement came together after three days of intense negotiations last week.

We regard the contract as good news largely because it will improve the quality of life for people who deserve it.

The agreement calls for wages to rise to a minimum of $7.05 by Oct. 1 and to $9.80 an hour by Jan. 1, 2012. That still isn't a lot of money (by way of comparison, the federal minimum wage, now $5.85 an hour, will rise to $7.25 in mid-2009), but it represents progress for workers who today are sometimes earning as little as $6.85 an hour.

Within three years, the pact will also give workers the opportunity to work at least seven hours per shift. Now, many companies limit janitors to four or five hours per shift, typically starting in early evening. (Hence, many janitors now work at two or more part-time jobs.) This contract will give janitors six paid holidays a year and the ability to accrue paid vacation time. For some, this will mark their first time ever to get paid time off from work.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the contract gives janitors access to employer-subsidized group health insurance starting Jan. 1, 2010. The cost will start at $20 a month for those in a single plan and rise to as much as $198 a month for the most expensive family plan.

In a more perfect world, workers would not have to join a labor union to secure access to affordable health care. But until Congress finds enough backbone to step up and address the issue in a meaningful way, it's hard to fault the approach taken by janitors here and across the country.

Beyond health care, we think the new contract is important for what it says about the value of work.

The American ideal has historically been to reward an honest day's work with fair compensation -- enough, certainly, to support a decent standard of living. That ideal was implicit in the most recent round of welfare reform legislation nationally and in the states. But for many, taking a job and going off welfare resulted in an economic loss because health care, housing and other benefits were cut off.

The people who clean our buildings do work that is often hard, frequently unpleasant and always necessary -- and at hours when most other workers are home with their families. If nothing else, the new janitors' contract in Cincinnati places a higher value on such work. That, we believe, is fair.