SAN JOSE, Calif., May 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Janitors who clean
Silicon Valley's high-tech and bio-tech corporate campuses including Apple,
HP, Intel, Cisco Systems, Oracle, Applied Materials, Yahoo, Google and
other facilities voted today on whether or not to walk off the job. Today's
overwhelming vote authorizing the janitors' bargaining committee to call a
strike, if necessary, means that janitors representing more than 6,000 Bay
Area / Silicon Valley janitors could call for a strike at any time.
"I want to be able to imagine a better life for my children, but right
now it's hard to think about the future when I'm struggling to pay rent and
put food on the table," said Roselia Mora, a janitor who cleans
Hewlett-Packard in the Silicon Valley. Roselia has worked as a janitor for
12 years and still brings home less than $350 a week, after taxes.
The strike would be the first major one among California janitors since
2000 when Los Angeles janitors united in SEIU Local 1877 staged a
three-week work stoppage and galvanized immigrant workers across the
nation, widely considered a watershed moment for labor on the West Coast.
News of the Bay Area / Silicon Valley janitors' strike comes as Los
Angeles and Orange County janitors won a new contract with wage gains as
high as more than $1,000 a year every year of the four-year pact, expanded
pension and family healthcare coverage.
"Silicon Valley's wealthy corporations could do the right thing, like
other major corporate leaders in Southern California have done, but are so
far choosing to leave hardworking families struggling to make ends meet,"
said Mike Garcia, president of the janitors' union SEIU Local 1877.
LOW WAGES, HIGH COST OF HOUSING
It would take more than 77% of a Bay Area janitor's wages to pay rent
on a one-bedroom apartment in San Jose, according to the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development fair market rates FY2008.
Bay Area janitors currently earn wages so low that they do not even
account for half of what the Economic Policy Institute says it takes to
meet basic needs for a family of four, or $54,000 annually. A janitor would
need to work 112 hours a week to support their family on the current wages.
Silicon Valley now leads the nation in average median income, but the
janitors' wages fall far below their counterparts in other U.S. cities (New
York janitors earn $20.25; San Francisco janitors earn $17.05; Chicago
janitors earn $14.20; Silicon Valley janitors earn $11.04).
HEALTH CARE CRISIS
Janitors service some of the most profitable industries and office
properties in the country but earn poverty wages and have to choose between
paying rent or taking a sick child to the doctor. Bay Area janitors must
work more than two and a half years before they become eligible for family
healthcare. Los Angeles and Orange County janitors, by comparison, must
work only 6 months to become eligible.
COMMUNITY SUPPORT
"Janitors make an important and significant contribution to the success
of the Bay Area and Silicon Valley economy," said California State Assembly
Speaker Pro Tempore, Sally Lieber (D-22). "The cleaning contractors and
their corporate clients are creating a crisis for our communities by
condoning the current conditions for these hard-working, low-wage janitors.
Silicon Valley leaders like Google, Apple and others need to take
responsibility and ensure good jobs for the janitors now."
In April, California state legislators called on the state's top
corporations who benefit from the janitor's work to take responsibility for
good jobs for the sake of entire communities as they released a report,
"The High Cost of Low Wage Service Jobs: How Communities Pay the Price for
Poverty Conditions Among Janitors."
Janitors On Strike
Strong coalitions of religious leaders, elected officials including
former Vice President Al Gore, and Senator John Edwards, and community
supporters concerned about the shrinking middle class and the rising income
gap have joined with janitors who have staged high profile strikes. Janitor
strikes in Houston, Miami and Boston paved the way for thousands of workers
to join the middle class. If janitors choose to walk off the job in the
Silicon Valley, it will be the first such strike in the area in nearly a
decade.
In 1990 Los Angeles police cut short a march by 400 pro-union
demonstrators in Century City, clubbing men and women repeatedly to force
them to turn back. Widespread television footage of the police action
created substantial sympathy for the janitors, according to the Los Angeles
Times. In 2000, janitors staged a three-week strike in Los Angeles that
galvanized immigrant workers nationwide and is widely considered a
watershed moment for West Coast labor.
In 2006, SEIU janitors in Houston went on strike for more than a month.
Hundreds of janitors from around the country poured into Houston to back up
the janitors there, and engaged in repeated acts of non-violent civil
disobedience. Also in 2006, Miami janitors at the University of Miami
staged a nine-week, high profile strike that included civil disobedience,
marches, rallies, a tent-city, building occupations, and hunger strike by
workers and students.
Historic Opportunity To Raise Standards, Improve Entire Communities
California's corporate real estate giants such as The Blackstone Group
and others as well as high-tech and bio-tech corporate giants such as
Apple, HP, Intel, Cisco Systems, Applied Materials, Oracle, Yahoo, Google
and others who benefit from the janitor's work, have an historic
opportunity now during contract negotiations to agree to decent wages and
family healthcare.
IRRESPONSIBLE CLEANING CONTRACTORS
Irresponsible cleaning contractors have illegally tried to silence
janitors who are standing up for justice, according to charges that the
janitors' union is preparing to file with the federal labor board against
Able, ABM, One Source, DMS, Service by Medallion and others for
intimidating, interrogating, harassing, threatening and retaliating against
workers.
"We're standing up for good jobs so our children will have a better
future," said Roselia Mora. "We're willing to do whatever it takes so these
companies stop breaking the law."
For more information about SEIU Local 1877 Justice for Janitors visit:
http://www.seiu-usww.org.
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1877 is part of SEIU
United Service Workers West, representing more than 40,000 janitors,
security officers, airport service workers, and other property service
workers across California. SEIU is the nation's largest and fastest growing
union in North America with more than 1.9 million members.
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