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:
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.
SOURCE Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1877
Gina Bowers, +1-213-926-6993 bowersg@seiulocal1877.org, or Lynda Tran,
+1-202-907-1172 cell
