After a strike of more than 1,000 janitors that impacted Silicon Valley’s high-tech giants and spread to other parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, janitors won higher wages, improved access to family health care and other benefits in a four-year contract covering 6,000 janitors. The total increase in benefits and wages is estimated at $99 million over the life of the contract.
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Janitors overwhelmingly approved the four-year pact, which will boost wages by up to $1,250 a year. The new agreement will extend family healthcare coverage to nearly 75 percent of Bay Area janitors by 2012, when the contract expires. Waiting periods for family healthcare eligibility will be reduced from 30 months to 18 months by the end of the contract.
“Before the strike the companies offered wage increases of 11 percent, but now we’ve won twice as much, up to 22 percent or $2.40 more per hour by the end of the contract. This will help us begin to provide for our families in the way that we want to, so we can do better than just survive,” said Maria Granada, a janitor at Applied Materials.
Under the old contract, janitors were paid about $11 an hour, or an average of $347 a week.
On May 23, this reporter joined a spirited picket and rally at Cisco Systems in San José, one of the actions the union, SEIU Local 1877, organized during the strike.
Dedicated union members on bullhorns, some with voices cracking, led rousing chants for over two hours at the march and rally: “¡San José, escucha, Estamos en la lucha!” (“Listen up San José: We’re on strike!”), “¡Arriba la unión! ¡Abajo la explotación!” (“Up with the union! Down with exploitation!”), and “Sí se puede! Sí se puede!”
One hand-lettered union sign summed up many workers’ situations: “Health, Rent, Food … Which Would You Choose?”
The strike was aimed at several companies that contract with Silicon Valley corporations, including Able, ABM, Acme/GCA, OneSource, Somers and Service By Medallion.
Although marches and rallies occurred in front of some of the best-known high-tech corporations in the Valley, care was taken on the picket line to name only the janitorial services companies as targets of the strike. To have directly identified the corporations as strike targets would have exposed the union to the charge of engaging in a secondary boycott, which could result in heavy fines.
The high-tech companies denied any responsibility for the janitors’ wages or working conditions. However, they were being disingenuous when saying their companies were above the conflict and that the contracting janitorial services companies alone controlled janitor wages and working conditions.
These high-tech corporations contract with the lowest bidder and determine the types of cleaning to be done and the areas to be cleaned. Consequently, there is strong pressure on the services companies to hire as few janitors as possible to do the most work possible for the least pay. As one union official stated: “The primary cost item is labor.” The janitorial companies have little or no overhead other than the workers’ wages.
The San José AFL-CIO Labor Council called on other unions and the community to support the May 23 action. Representatives from several unions, such as the Carpenters’ Union and Plumbers and Pipefitters, came out in support of the janitors. After the janitors themselves, the largest union contingent was from Unite Here, which represents area hotel workers. Also participating were activists from the South Bay progressive community, including members of the San José Peace and Justice Center, South Bay Mobilization, San José Labor Party Organizing Committee, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Local authorities clearly viewed the action as a serious threat. Driveways, other entrances to corporate property and several blocks in the surrounding area were guarded by a private security company alongside city police and county sheriffs. With an estimated turnout of 400 people, the action was a significant display of determination and solidarity by the janitors and their allies in the labor movement and the progressive community.
With the Silicon Valley and Bay Area janitors’ contract settled, Local 1877 will now focus on winning a new contract for 2,000 janitors in Sacramento. The contract there expires May 31.
