May, 2000

Janitors fight to close wealth gap

Editor's note: As we go to press, Los Angeles janitors accepted a new offer and ended their three-week strike.

Los Angeles--On April 16, janitorial contract firms abruptly ended three days of negotiations as the 8,500 janitors of SEIU Local 1877 entered the third week of their strike. According to a union spokesman, the contractors offered only five cents more than their two-tier wage offer of $1.30 and 80 cents per hour over three years and health benefits takeaways, which janitors had overwhelmingly rejected two weeks before when they voted to strike.

The janitors, mostly immigrant Latinos and half of them women, are fighting for a livable wage with no takeaways. They are earning less today than they did in 1985 considering inflation. Los Angeles janitors receive lower wages than those in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Pittsburgh, even though two of the contract firms are national companies.

The janitors have daily marched, picketed and demonstrated at selected high-rise office buildings as well as in many outlying areas. Hundreds of janitors have daily worn their red "Justice for Janitors" and "On Strike" T-shirts, shouted in Spanish "Up with the Union, down with exploitation." In one of the demonstrations, the janitors marched through Beverly Hills. "We're showing the contrast in wealth. One of our themes is closing the gap between rich and poor," said a union spokeswoman.

As the janitors become visible and their struggle becomes known, more and more workers have come to support them, as all workers' situations deteriorate in today's capitalist drive for global domination over any human, social or environmental liberation movement.

In one demonstration, 50 construction workers on a high rise stopped working to support the janitors as one made a drumbeat with his hammer tapping a metal scaffolding. Support also comes from onlookers, students and trade unionists, both blue and white collar. The mayor, city councilmen and other politicians and religious leaders have supported the strike. Striking janitors receive $100 and a bag of groceries each week from the donated strike fund.

On a twelve-mile march by 3,000 janitors, police on bicycles and motorcycles contained the marchers, who were met in Century City by 40 police on horseback, riot police with tear gas and shotguns, and helicopters. Demonstrators shouted, "Are you afraid of the police?" and answered in a loud chorus, "NO!" In 1991, janitors marching to Century City had been brutalized by the police. Many who were injured there won a class action lawsuit against the police.

There are nightly vigils, some all night encampments, to keep scabs from crossing the picket line. As the strike continues, janitors in more and more outlying areas are demonstrating.

-Basho