Chicago Tribune (Illinois), November 1, 2006, Wednesday

Copyright 2006 Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune (Illinois)

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News

November 1, 2006 Wednesday

SECTION: BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL NEWS

HEADLINE: Janitors' protest hits home: Houston strikers get Chicago-area support

BYLINE: Barbara Rose, Chicago Tribune

BODY:
Nov. 1--A national union campaign in support of striking Houston janitors kicked off in the Chicago area Tuesday night when local janitors refused to cross picket lines at six office buildings.
Service Employees International Union targeted buildings cleaned by ABM Industries Inc.--the area's largest commercial office cleaning contractor--in an effort to pressure the company to settle in Houston, where some janitors walked off their jobs starting Oct. 23 after contract negotiations broke down.
SEIU is seeking $8.50 per hour and health insurance for 5,300 Houston janitors.
"We want the same thing every family wants, to support our families without working two or three jobs," Houston janitor Ascension Blanco, one of the Chicago picketers, said in a conference call Tuesday. She said ABM pays her $5.15 per hour and gives her no more than four hours of work per day.
Calls to ABM's Midwest office in Chicago were not returned.
The union said it plans to picket on successive days in metro areas from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in the first phase of a plan to escalate the Houston campaign nationally.
Cornell University labor expert Richard Hurd said the union is applying a tactic of escalating pressure in an industry that has changed dramatically.
"This is the type of thing that Justice for Janitors has done throughout its history, but they haven't done it before on a national scale," Hurd said. As commercial real estate evolved from local to national ownership, property owners contracted with large national cleaning companies and janitors' employers no longer were local.
Justice for Janitors is a 20-year-old SEIU campaign that has organized about 225,000 janitors in 29 metro areas, including about 35,000 in the Chicago area represented by Local One.
Janitors in downtown Chicago are among the nation's best paid, earning an average $13.80 plus health benefits.
Janitors from Chicago, New York and Los Angeles said during the union's conference call Tuesday they would honor pickets in their cities.
"They do the same [as] I do; they are Hispanic like me; they are in every way my people and they have no future on $20 a day," said Patricia Cabral, who said she works for ABM at 161 N. Clark St.
An association of five large cleaning contractors in Houston, including ABM, has said it can't afford the union's demands there.
SEIU's strategy in other cities has been to apply pressure on the contractors, who in turn pressure building owners so that no owner can turn to a single contractor for cheaper labor.
In the Chicago area, Local One official Ken Munz said Tuesday that members were refusing to cross picket lines in Downers Grove and near O'Hare International Airport.
He identified the buildings as Highland landmarks, complexes at 3010, 3025 and 3075 Highland Pkwy. in Downers Grove and 8501 W. Higgins Rd., 1010 E. Touhy Ave. and 1011 E. Touhy Ave. near O'Hare.
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