Above Photo: Raise America is SEIU’s nationwide campaign to raise the standards for union janitors during contract negotiations. (WNV / Shane Burley)
… Of Janitorial Organizing
Workers packed into the crowded Logan International Airport in Boston on Wednesday, June 15, where SEIU Local 32BJ brought together a large swathe of minimum-wage employees who often go unseen to hurried travelers. Baggage handlers, cabin cleaning staff and others who go through contracting companies were rallying together under an organizing banner with a history of struggle dating back 30 years.
While the Fight for $15 raises headlines and wages across the United States, June 15 saw a national day of action in cities around the country for the annual anniversary of the Justice for Janitors campaign. For SEIU Local 32BJ, which handles 155,000 property service workers along the East Coast from New Hampshire to Florida, this was a chance to reclaim the history of a campaign that did the unthinkable in the early 1990s.
“It has become a symbol for how labor unions and workers, working together and exercising their power, can establish standards in all sorts of industries,” said Eugenio Villasante, regional communications manager for SEIU Local 32BJ.
The rally brought together traditionally employed janitors with other airport workers who have been fighting for years to organize a union in their own workplace. Just as with other low-wage positions that were thought to be beyond the scope of unionization, the Justice for Janitors campaign is a reminder of what is possible through strong public campaigns that organize the community as a show of solidarity. With SEIU’s Raise America campaign, which looks to raise the standards for union janitors across the country, the Justice for Janitors legacy holds critical lessons for how public campaigns win concessions.
¡Sí se puede!
Although the earliest planning for the campaign can be traced back as far as 1986, Justice for Janitors came to life in Los Angeles in 1990. Grounds-care, cleaning and some maintenance workers were brought under the larger “janitorial” umbrella, as the average janitorial wage in Los Angeles had shrunk to an average of $4.50 per hour in 1986 through a combination of subcontracting and non-union competition. They went on strike in 1990, drawing on huge community and labor support, a staple SEIU tactic, and won a base raise of 22 percent over the next 36 months.
This led to a wave of janitorial organizing, with SEIU winning massive victories over the coming years, culminating in the nationwide campaign of 100,000 janitorial staff in 2000. At the same time, student organizers with the University Students Against Sweatshops project used the Justice for Janitors banner for their own Campus Worker Solidarity campaign to support janitorial staff organizing against their replacement by non-union contractors. Despite this momentum, the janitors soon entered an incredibly challenging organizing terrain — specifically the 2005 organizing drive in Houston, where they took on the five biggest Texas custodial contracting companies inside of the anti-union political climate of the South. At this point, the janitors were making an average of $5.25 per hour, about a quarter of what the same positions made in New York City. After they fielded dozens of arrests, a large 5,300-worker unit of primarily Latino female staff won massive victories like health insurance and an almost $2.50 raise from the contractors.
The legacy of the campaign has continued as a cultural signifier for the ongoing need to organize janitorial positions, which are often socially maligned and associated with Latino and undocumented work. In recent years, the campaign has drawn heavily on the Fight for $15, focusing on fast food workers in New York City. SEIU now represents more than 225,000 janitors in the United States — with California remaining a leader, given its more than 20,000 represented workers.
On the ground in the Pacific Northwest
SEIU Local 49 handles 1,800 janitors in Oregon and southwest Washington who use the annual Justice for Janitors Day to continue to raise the visibility of janitors as a dynamic part of the larger labor movement. SEIU’s Raise America campaign is helping keep the focus on janitorial staff, which has seen locals in 33 cities — representing 130,000 janitorial workers — fighting for contracts that reflect a living wage and adequate benefits. Raise America began two years ago, as a push to update many of the janitorial contracts that were soon expiring for SEIU locals. Since community support and solidarity between cities was expected to be key in pressuring major contracting companies to further reform pay and working conditions for janitors, the campaign has focused primarily on workers who are already unionized with SEIU and bargaining for significant increases in wages and safety standards. Organizers have also been using community action and public labor advocacy to further put pressure on massive contracting companies coming to the bargaining table.
For janitors leading the fight in the Pacific Northwest, this annual event coincides with vigorous negotiations over key issues like safe workloads and bringing workers up to $15 per hour. The public rally brought together hundreds of workers from janitorial contractors around Oregon and Washington, as well as community supporters from a variety of other labor unions and community coalitions. The Portland State University Student Union has continued a long-term effort to support janitorial staff from SEIU, going as far as having an event the afternoon before Justice for Janitors Day, where janitors spoke at PSU about their experiences.
