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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 10, 2000)
Los Angeles janitor strike extends to New York City ■ Janitors across the country are demonstrating, asking for more money and greater job security By Gary Gentile The Associated Press LOS ANGELES — Hoisting brooms and mops, thousands of low-income workers are walking picket lines and gearing up for demonstrations across the coun try to demand higher wages, bet ter job security and “justice for janitors.” The pressure started building last week when hundreds of jani tors went on strike in Los Ange les, leaving the companies that clean 70 percent of the county's commercial office space scram bling to find replacements. And the janitors’ union says that was just the beginning. On Sunday, a small group of janitors staged a noisy demon stration in San Diego, shouting “Mucho trabajo, poco dinero” — “Lots of work, little money.” This week, the campaign spreads to New York City, where doormen, porters and mainte nance workers plan to march up Park Avenue to promote their de mands for contract talks with owners of 3,000 residential buildings. Their strike deadline is April 20. “It’s been the combined disre spect at the workplace and the bargaining table that led us to do this,” said Mary Grillo, executive director of Service Employees In ternational Union Local 2028 in San Diego. Throughout the next few months, maintenance workers, maids and other SEIU members plan demonstrations in Chicago, Cleveland, Seattle and other ma jor cities where contracts expire this year. In Chicago, 125 janitors planned to begin a hunger strike Monday to protest their lack of health benefits. The contract for janitors in Chicago suburbs ex pired Sunday; the contract for janitors in the city will expire on Saturday. The timing is no coincidence. The SEIU set out five years ago to negotiate contracts around the country that would expire with in months of each other to com bine the clout of more than 100,000 workers. That kind of thinking, com bined with some of the most ag gressive bargaining and recruit ing tactics in organized labor, has made the 1.3 million-member union one of the fastest-growing and powerful in the country. In 1985, the then-struggling union started a program called “Justice for Janitors” under the leadership of John Sweeney, who later became president of the AFL-CIO. Organizing efforts were aimed at the hinges of the work force. It spent more money than most unions on organizing, absorbed independent unions, and staged demonstrations to draw public attention and rally union loyalists. “Their organizing tends to be among marginalized workers,” said Gary Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark Uni versity in Worcester, Mass. “They also tend to emphasize justice, dignity and respect. In stead of saying, 'We’re going to get you tremendous wage in creases,’ they say, ’We’re going to get you bargaining agreements that will give you your fair share of economic prosperity.’” That message has attracted thousands of workers. In the cities where it has lo cals, the union says it represents up to 90 percent of all service workers. In Washington, D.C., union membership went from 40 percent to 77 percent over the past five years. Over an 18 month period in 1988, the union targeted the Denver suburbs and went from no presence to repre senting more than 75 percent of the area’s service workers, ac cording to union figures. Workers in Washington blocked the Roosevelt Bridge over the Potomac River in 1996 to call for higher wages for custo dial workers. In Los Angeles, the union be came a major force in 1990, when its attempt to organize jan itors in the Century City district turned into a bloody confronta tion with police. About two dozen demonstrators were in jured and 40 were arrested. Soon after, the union won the right to represent workers. June 15 is now celebrated as “Justice for Janitors Day.” The city has about 8,500 jani tors who work for 18 cleaning contractors handling most of the commercial properties in Los Angeles. The union wants $l-an hour raises for the next three years — the average hourly wage is now $6.90. 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