Strike! by Brecher Jeremy; Kelly Kim; Nelson Sara

Author:Brecher, Jeremy; Kelly, Kim; Nelson, Sara
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PM Press
Published: 2020-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Justice for Janitors

In 1984, the Service Employees International Union launched a national campaign to organize janitors and other building service employees. Most janitors were black and immigrant workers who worked for large building service corporations that were hired as subcontractors by building managers, who in turn were hired by building owners. Clearly new organizing techniques were needed to address such “networked production.”

The Justice for Janitors campaign in Los Angeles began in 1987 with a focus on Century City, a high-class business district with a predominantly Latino and Latina cleaning staff. First, SEIU Local 399 began to rebuild the union in already unionized buildings by electing and training new stewards and other leaders. Next, union workers began making house calls and promoting the union in places where janitors socialized. Then the campaign organized “functional unions”—committees that acted like unions even though they lacked recognition—in non-union workplaces.

The campaign next decided to focus on International Service Systems, the world’s largest cleaning contractor, a global corporation with its international headquarters in Denmark. Rather than use the NLRB election process, Justice for Janitors exerted direct pressure on ISS to recognize the union. Janitors organized daily meetings in their workplaces. They wore bandannas on their heads as signs of their support for the union; pulled short work stoppages, then more extended ones, in six different buildings, finally shutting down each building for a two-week period; and began marching through Century City’s lobbies and outdoor walkways and disrupting happy hour at the district’s swank saloons. A wide range of community supporters formed Solidarity with Justice for Janitors, raised money to support strikers, and encouraged political leaders to put pressure on building owners and managers.

When strikers and 300 supporters marched peacefully into Century City, they were attacked by more than 100 police officers:

For two hours the Los Angeles Police Department sealed off Century City so that they could beat and arrest scores of striking janitors and their supporters. While horrified office workers and residents looked on, the police repeatedly flailed the front line of the Justice for Janitors march with riot batons, before launching a flanking attack that swept an entire section of the crowd into an underground parking structure. Those trapped inside were mercilessly pummeled: when they tried to flee, they were arrested for “failure to disperse.”84

Ninety demonstrators were injured, nineteen seriously, including broken bones and a fractured skull. One pregnant woman suffered a miscarriage. The police riot was widely shown on television. Nine days later, ISS agreed to a contract with the union. Initially, the contract provided no wage increases, but when unionized ISS workers in New York City threatened a solidarity strike, ISS agreed to a wage increase as well.85

The Los Angeles victory inspired additional Justice for Janitors efforts around the country, including a dramatic blocking of bridges in Washington, DC. But a bitter struggle soon broke out within Los Angeles SEIU Local 399. A rank-and-file caucus called the Multiracial Alliance charged:

[F]or years, behind this facade of activism, bitter contradictions flourished between the union’s administration and the membership.

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