4.2: Justice for Janitors Part 1

The Justice for Janitors campaign is a great example of Strategic Leadership. Organizers took a creative approach to organizing a sector of the workforce that has been hard to unionize. Their strategic  innovations have led to real improvement in the lives of janitors all around the country. Their example encouraged other unions and movements to ask deep questions about what strategies might lead to success. This history of Justice for Janitors tells the overall story of Justice for Janitors. 

In 1985, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) began the Justice for Janitors campaign, which took an innovative approach to organizing. Many janitors work for small contracting companies, which have been difficult to unionize.  It is often difficult to unionize small companies. SEIU decided to go after the large well-known company that hire those small contracting firms, and to use campaigns that would capture the public imagination to gain support and put pressure on the large companies to only use union contractors. 

Justice for Janitors organizers drew upon lessons from the civil rights movement to conduct demonstrations that increased public awareness of the economic grievances and racial discrimination that service workers encountered in large urban areas, such as Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Justice for Janitors was founded on June 15, 1990, when Janitors in Los Angeles, CA had a peaceful march to protest low wages of janitors.The percentage of janitors unionized in Los Angeles had significantly increased from 10 percent of workforce in 1987 to 90 percent workforce in 1995 greatly in-part of the movement. The linked connections the movement had with community leaders, such as the Black and Latino organizations, churches, and activists allowed for the strikers to receive the attention needed to be granted their demands throughout the entire city of Los Angeles. 

The Janitors for Justice campaign began with Stephen Lerner, a former United Farm Workers (UFW) organizer and later head of SEIU's janitorial division in D.C. Lerner was placed in Denver for his first janitor's organizing drive. Lerner acknowledges the influence of his work with United Farm Workers, and Justice for Janitors "was enormously influenced by the tactics…of the farmworkers movement." Janitors for Justice employed UFW tactics, such as vivid imagery of the exploitation of workers, demonstrations, street theater, hunger strikes, vigils, blockades, clergy–labor alliance, and community organizing. In Washington D.C., the Justice for Janitors Strike alongside SEIU Local 82 fought against U.S. Service Industries; U.S. Service Industries was a private janitorial company of nonunion workers that was hired for their services at the downtown luxury buildings. In March 1995, the movement conducted several demonstrations, that blocked off street/traffic movement as well as other forms of civil disobedience, to protest their rights and demands, which resulted in over 200 arrests. The protesters were clear and direct with their demands; they wanted to end tax breaks for real estate developers and cutback social programs designated for the poor. Manny Pastreich, spokesperson of the union, even declared, “This isn’t just about 5,000 janitors; it’s about issues that concern all D.C. residents - what’s happening to their schools, their streets, their neighborhoods.” In the end, the strike resulted in being more than just a traditional strike, as expressed earlier, it was now a powerful mass movement looking out for everyone, no matter age, race, status, and everything, no matter building, location, object. Justice for Janitors even adopted the rallying cry of the United Farm Workers: "¡Sí se puede!" 

The Justice for Janitors campaigns often use strong tactics to get their point across. SEIU sends trained organizers to local unions in order to organize campaigns. The campaigns of Justice for Janitors also use master contracts that are market wide. One contract in a certain market will apply to all union janitors across that market. This allows union workers to fight for different rights while applying any accomplishments to all workers in that market.

In Los Angeles, starting in April of 1990, janitors marched and held demonstrations during the daytime for the 3 weeks. To help their cause, many religious leaders, community leaders, and politicians joined the action of the janitors and supported their protests. The archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony, held a special mass for the janitors. Also, mayor Richard Riordan joined the campaign by voicing his support for the janitors and their union. The janitors in Los Angeles stayed on strike until April 22. By this time, they had reached a contract that guaranteed at least a 22% raise over the next three years.

The Los Angeles strike was significant to the future of Justice for Janitors as it spurred a nationwide campaign involving over 100,000 SEIU janitors in 2000. The campaign sought to raise wages for all janitors as well as improve overall working conditions. SEIU's Los Angeles Justice for Janitors campaign was portrayed in the motion picture Bread and Roses.

Activity \(\PageIndex{1}\)

Reading Response Questions: Please reflect on this reading by writing a short response to these questions. Your answer can include personal experience, and the writing does not need to be formal or polished. You are welcome to write as little as a sentence and as much as a paragraph. Think of it like journaling. 

1. What did the Justice for Janitors campaign do to make it easier to unionize janitors?
2. Why do you think making the campaign public helped get the companies to recognize the union?
3. What do you like or not like about the approach taken by Justice for Janitors?