California janitors ready to strike

LOS ANGELES-Labor leaders gathered April 28 to announce their support should California’s unionized janitors decide to go out on strike on May 2.

Thousands of area janitors, represented by Service Employees International Union/United Service Workers West (SEIU-USWW), have indicated they are ready to strike and are expected to rally in the streets of Los Angeles as contract negotiations enter their final hours before an April 30 deadline.

“From the start, this fight back in Century City over 25 years ago when they were brutally beaten, to the strike in 2000 when they fought to close the gap between rich and the poor, now we find ourselves in 2016, again fighting for the dignity and justice they very much deserve,” stated David Huerta, president of SEIU-USWW.

Janitors will protest what they say are the unlawful practices committed during their fight for better working conditions, demand on-the-job protections from sexual assault of immigrant women janitors, and call for wages that allow local families to meet their basic needs.

Last Saturday, over 20,000 janitors statewide authorized their bargaining committee to call for a strike against unfair labor practices by janitorial companies such as ABM, ABLE, DMS, and others who contract with some of the state’s most high-priced real estate owners and businesses in the tech industry.

Among the attendees at the press conference are David Huerta, President, SEIU USWW; Rusty Hicks Executive Secretary-Treasurer, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor; Javier Bonales, Vice President, Teamsters 396; Paul Edwards, UFCW local 770; Xochitl Cobarrubias, United Steelworkers Union 675 and many of the janitors who are ready to strike against unfair labor practices.

Video: Rossana Cambron | People’s World

Photo: “We fight in our contract campaign to build on better wages and working conditions, to support the new minimum wage proposal and call for continued action to protect immigrant workers! We need stop the harassment, sexual assault, and the exploitation of immigrant women janitors! YA BASTA!” SEIU United Service Workers West, Facebook.