Last year, more than 5,000 janitors in Houston decided to form a union, giving organized labor one of its biggest victories ever in the South. þþBut now the janitors are locked in a new struggle. They have gone on strike because five Houston cleaning companies have rejected their proposal for a salary increase to $8.50 an hour, up from the current average of $5.25 an hour.þþThe companies say the proposal for a 62 percent increase, along with health insurance, is unrealistic. þþThe janitors, who generally work four hours a day, say they are merely asking for enough to support their families.þþThe tensions, and the theatrics, intensified sharply yesterday as the union’s supporters blocked a main thoroughfare in front of the Galleria mall, staging a sit-in that led to the arrest of 12 people. For nearly two hours, the group blocked Post Oak Boulevard, just outside a Neiman Marcus store, with the police seeming confused about how to handle the situation.þþThe union’s pressure tactics have gone much further. The union, the Service Employees International Union, has sent strikers to picket office buildings in Chicago, Jersey City, Los Angeles and Sacramento, enlisting janitors in those cities to honor the picket lines and disrupting cleaning operations there.þþThe union has also pressured one of the largest real estate companies in Houston, Hines, distributing leaflets at its buildings in Berlin, London, Mexico City and Moscow. þþTo push one of the largest office tenants in the city, Chevron, to urge its cleaning companies to be more generous, the service employees union yesterday blocked cars from entering a Chevron gasoline station in London and distributed leaflets at Chevron headquarters in San Ramon, Calif.þþThe union is increasing pressure in different places and ways in the hope of reaching a quick settlement. þþBut the two sides are dug in, and there are fears of a protracted strike. The walkout began 11 days ago, and no negotiations have been held for two and a half weeks.þþ“The janitors’ union is obviously a foothold for labor in the South,” said Julius G. Getman, a professor of labor law at the University of Texas, “and this dispute is important as a precedent in the South. If the issue is only money, this should be settled quickly. But if the cleaning companies want to break the union in Houston, it’s going to be a hell of a fight.”þþOutside the Galleria mall, a striker, Veronica Taboada, said yesterday that the support the union was receiving was magnificent.þþAmong those arrested were students, union staff members and activists. þþ“We think the cleaning companies have plenty of money to give us a raise,” said Ms. Taboada, who earns $5.15 an hour after six years as a janitor. “It’s just not fair, $5.15 an hour. We have to mop, take out the trash, clean the computers.”þþThe union said that 1,700 janitors were on strike and that a majority of janitors had walked out at the 58 buildings where the union has called for walkouts.þþRobert Stewart, a spokesman for the five cleaning companies, ABM, GCA, OneSource, Pritchard and Sanitors, said the companies continued to serve their customers and clean their buildings despite the strike. The cleaning is being done by managers and workers who have crossed the picket lines.þþ“As we’ve said all along,” Mr. Stewart said, “we would welcome a resolution to this matter, but only one that serves the best interests of our customers, as well as our employees.”þþThe director of the union’s Justice for Janitors campaign, Stephen Lerner, said: “We’re getting tremendous public support because people are shocked to hear about how little these people make — just $20 a day.þþ“The real issue is, Are the building owners and Chevron, which earned billions of dollars last year, going to put up the money to pay the janitors decently? They’re the ones that have the power to settle this.”þþA vice president for Hines, George C. Lancaster, said the company hoped that the dispute would end soon and “was supportive of health insurance and higher pay for janitorial workers.” þþ“The S.E.I.U.,” Mr. Lancaster added, “truly believes that we can assert our influence and cause a settlement. In fact, we manage less than 7 percent of the commercial space in Houston. However, senior executives at Hines are urging our cleaning contractors to work diligently to reach an agreement as soon as possible.”þþChevron issued a statement saying it was not a party to the negotiations and was encouraging the two sides to reach a settlement.þþ
Source: NY Times
