Being a janitor is hard work, but for Joan Blaney, who has worked for five years at Gateway Four, it has become harder since the sale of her workplace was announced.

Blaney, of Homewood, was one of about 30 people who spoke at a City Council hearing yesterday on a proposed ordinance drafted to create greater job security for janitors and other service workers in large office buildings.

The bill, "The Protection of Displaced Contract Workers Ordinance," would require that if a building owner changes cleaning contractors, the newly hired company must offer six months' employment to workers for the departing company.

The uncertainty workers feel about whether or not they will keep their jobs is stressful, Blaney said. "People are walking around like they're in a trap. They're scared."

Like Blaney, more than two-thirds of the speakers -- union leaders, community activists and janitors themselves -- supported the bill, drawing cheers and applause from the crowded meeting room.

The speakers representing building owners and managers in opposing the bill drew boos.

Attorney John Cerilli, counsel for the Building Owners and Managers Association, questioned the legality of the ordinance, contending that it constitutes government interference in private business.

Larry Walsh, vice president of Rugby Realty, warned that if the law passed, "workers will form a perception of tenure" and the quality of their work would suffer "The only way for you to respect these people's jobs," he said, "is to get out of the way of the market."

Others speaking in opposition said the bill would reinforce Pittsburgh's reputation as "a difficult place to do business," and would result in lower tax revenues over time as commercial properties lose value.

But some supporters suggested that the bill was really about health care and their ability to retain coverage when new owners come in.

Others simply expressed the desire to remain employed, citing Centre City Tower, the Downtown building where nine unionized janitors suddenly lost their jobs at the end of last year when the building's management replaced the unionized cleaning company with a non-union competitor.

The change came after the Service Employees International Union Local 3, which represents janitors, struck an agreement with most local building owners providing the janitors with new health-care benefits that extended coverage to families.

Jack Shea, president of the Allegheny County Labor Council, pointed out that before the agreement, only 43 of 950 janitors in the city had family health care.