Modest Demands, Bold Actions
Inside the Houston Janitors Strike
Echoing the story of David vs. Goliath, janitors in Houston are on
strike and taking on such corporate giants as JPMorgan, Chase and Exxon
Mobile in an effort to pressure the janitorial companies they employ to
agree to the workers’ modest demands. It is these big business
behemoths that are the real powers behind cleaning contractors such as
ABM, GCA, ISS etc. By striking against these contractors, and publicly
targeting these contractors’ employers, the janitors are using their
collective power in a showdown that has great significance for not only
the Labor Movement but all workers.
The janitors are members of Service Employees International Union
(SEIU) Local 1, which has a membership of 3,200 in Houston. Currently,
these workers’ wages top out at $8.35 per hour. On average, they make
under $9,000 a year. The government defines the poverty line as an
income of $22,314 for a family of four and $11,139 for an individual.
The janitors are asking for a $10.00 per hour starting wage. In
response, the contractors offered a combined 50 cents an hour raise over
the course of a five-year contract. With the growing cost of living
over this time, these workers would sink even further into poverty if
they accepted this. The contractors’ proposal was nothing more than an
insult.
Not content with merely insulting their employees, the contractors
began to back up their position with injury. The janitors were subject
to captive audience meetings where their jobs were threatened if they
participated in union activity. Management warned that they would call
for an immigration audit if the employees didn’t quiet down. In
addition, they also withheld paychecks of some union supporters. In all,
13 Unfair Labor Practices have been filed with the National Labor
Relations Board.
The Union contract expired on May 31st. The janitors held a series of
rallies and one-day work stoppages in order to convince management that
they meant business. However, because these actions did not seriously
impact the contractors’ profits, they did not feel compelled to move.
Consequently, the membership of SEIU Local 1 had no choice but vote to
go on strike.
There are two features of this strike that make it exceptional.
One is how it highlights the growing inequality that exists in this
nation and the need to fight it. Houston leads the nation in the growth
of the number of millionaires. The companies targeted by the strike in
its public campaign are some of the main players in the big business
elite. On the other hand, not even the most rabid right-wing
pro-corporate media can effectively portray the janitors as greedy
unionists. This strike has the potential to tap into a growing
discontent in the U.S. over inequality that helped launch Occupy as well
as the Madison, Wisconsin Capital occupation in 2011.
The other exceptional feature of this struggle is the use of work
stoppages and rallies nationally in solidarity with the Houston
janitors. Solidarity strikes was one of the tactics employed by the CIO
in the 1930s that propelled its rapid growth. Because of this tactic’s
effectiveness, it was outlawed in 1947 with the bi-partisan passage of
the Taft-Hartley Act.
To get around the rigged rules of this slave labor law, many SEIU
janitorial contracts have a “conscience clause.” This clause enables
janitors to refuse to cross a picket line at their work place without
fear of penalty. As a result, picket lines have been set up in several
cities at work sites that employ SEIU janitors, elevating the economic
impact on the contractors, who are in Houston, to a national scale.
These contractors and their corporate employers are organized to
pursue profits across the U.S. These profits are the only thing they
care about. While they can more easily handle a strike isolated in one
city, the nationwide solidarity work stoppage tactic employed by SEIU is
much more difficult for them to deal with. If the bosses refuse to
budge, it will be necessary to escalate this tactic further.
By highlighting the issue of inequality and countering the
contractors with a nationwide response that uses work stoppages, SEIU is
challenging the limits of the corporate political machine. It will be
necessary to break these boundaries for Houston’s janitors, and all
workers, to decisively win.
Currently, some Democratic politicians, such as Vice President Joe
Biden, have voiced support for the strike. Given the massive funding
both parties receive from Wall Street and the resulting pro-corporate
policies they pursue, there should be no surprise that they either
neglect or attack the issues of most importance to workers, so that such
fine speeches like Biden’s have the appearance of cynical
electioneering.
SEIU, and the unions in general, will not find a national voice by
getting a seat at the table with these politicians who ignore or attempt
to bind the membership’s struggles. Instead Labor must devote its
resources towards empowering its own members to fight for their own
needs, without fear of offending the politicians, and create a social
movement that speaks for all workers.
The demands that the Houston SEIU janitors are putting forward are
extremely modest. However, their actions and organizing are growing more
bold. They are already providing an example of greater struggles for
economic justice in the near future.
For more information and to support the strike go to http://www.seiu1.org/.
Mark Vorpahl is an union steward, social justice activist, and writer for Workers’ Action – www.workerscompass.org. He can be reached at Portland@workerscompass.org
