An important battle is taking place in Houston, pitting 5,300 janitors—who make $20 a day—against the five largest cleaning companies and their multi-billion-dollar commercial tenants. It is part of the nationwide “Justice for Janitors” campaign organized by the Service Employees International Union that has won union recognition for 225,000 janitors in 29 cities.
After wining union recognition in November 2005 and negotiating with the five cleaning corporations—ABM, OneSource,
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In Houston, janitors work four hours a night and make $5.30 per hour on average. They receive no medical benefits, paid vacations, sick time or holiday breaks. The janitorial services companies for whom they work employ tens of thousands of workers across the nation. One of the corporations, ABM, had sales in excess of $2.5 billion last year and employs 73,000 workers.
The five corporations are under investigation by the National Labor Relations Board for 22 charges of violating worker’s rights, including forcing workers to sign no-strike pledges, firing pro-union workers, interrogating workers about union activities, and threatening discipline, including suspension and termination, if workers talk to union organizers or read union materials.
The average monthly salary of a Houston janitor is $424. According to research by the union, a livable wage in Houston is $2,691. That amount, although still low, is the absolute minimum wage required for a family of two parents and two children to be able to pay for housing, food, child care, transportation and other necessities. The figure does not include the cost of medical care, which would push the livable wage well over $3,000.
Big corporate tenants are not the direct employers of the janitors, but the workers clean their facilities. They are silent partners with the janitorial services companies and have the ability to weigh in on this struggle. One of the corporate tenants is ChevronTexaco. According to the union website, www.houstonjanitors.org, Chevron is the largest tenant in downtown Houston with over 2.9 million square feet of office space. It recently posted quarterly profits of $4.4 billion.
The union is pressuring Chevron to lean on the janitorial companies that employ workers to clean its offices.
While pressuring the big corporate interests in Houston, the union has launched a multi-pronged strategy, including picket lines, a 600-person-strong community solidarity march on Oct. 28, outreach and solidarity campaigns, and civil disobedience actions. On Nov. 3, 12 strikers blocked traffic and were arrested at the busy downtown Houston intersection of Westheimer and Post Oak.
In addition to local activities, janitors and unionists around the country are weighing in on this fight with one-day pickets. Pickets were scheduled for Chicago on Oct. 31 Chicago, Los Angeles on Nov. 1, and Washington, D.C. on Nov 2, along with additional supportive actions.
The strikers are entering their third week on picket lines. They are receiving strike benefits from the union. In addition, a food bank has been set up where canned food, cereal, rice, beans, jalapenos, and other basic food items will be packed and distributed by community volunteers.
The struggle of these low-paid, highly exploited workers in Houston—historically, a city with few organized workers—is an important step in the fight against the capitalist, anti-labor offensive.
