Justice for Janitors
Encyclopedia
Justice for Janitors is a social movement organization
that fights for the rights of janitor
s (caretakers and cleaners) across the US and Canada. It was started in 1985 in response to the low wages and minimal health-care coverage that janitors received. Justice for Janitors includes more than 225,000 janitors in at least 29 cities in the United States
and at least four cities in Canada. Members have fought and continue to fight for better wages, better conditions, improved health-care, and full-time opportunities. The movement utilizes its extensive memberships as well as prominent leaders in the communities to accomplish its goals.
The Justice for Janitors campaigns are organized under a larger union: the Service Employees International Union
(SEIU). SEIU has almost two million members and is a significant part of the labor movement. SEIU is an asset to the Justice for Janitors campaign as it organizes members as well as trains them in necessary workplace skills such as language proficiency. SEIU is also a substantial part of the labor movement in that it retains constructive partnerships with the corporations employing the janitors to ensure that these corporations receive no negative impact due to the campaigns.
In the United Kingdom
a similar movement is called "Justice for Cleaners".
in which they organize workers based on geographical area rather than just their worksite. It is also an innovative model in that it makes typically unnoticed workers visible and groups them together into larger collections in order to better fight the larger corporation
s. SEIU also provides trained organizers that are often sent to local unions in order to skillfully organize efforts. The Justice for Janitors campaigns often use disruptive tactics to get their point across.
The campaigns of Justice for Janitors also use master contract
s 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.
The Janitors for Justice campaign began with Stephen Lerner, a former 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 UFW, and JfJ “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
. JfJ even adopted the rallying cry of the UFW: “¡Sí se puede!”
owners had become victims of competition and lowered wages. The large real estate companies sent out cleaning services to the building service contractors
. These contractors were in high competition with each other and therefore cut wages for their cleaning services. This placed janitors in a situation that they had no power to change: If they attempted to ask the service contractors for higher wages, the contractors would pass the responsibility to the real estate owners. If the janitors inquired the owners about increasing their wages, the owners would say that it was the responsibility of the contractors.
In 1983, an average janitor working in LA had a salary
of over $7.00/hour and full health insurance
for the janitor and his/her family. By 1986, the janitorial wages had been cut to a mere $4.50/hour, and health care
coverage was no longer an option.
By the late 1980s, janitors began to fight against these large owners and contractors. Janitors that were members of the SEIU joined together in the Justice for Janitors campaign using militant and direct action
tactics. They wanted to hold both the owners and the contractors accountable.
The Justice for Janitors campaign came from Denver to LA in 1988. They worked in downtown to represent the union base and organize the non-union companies. The Justice for Janitors organizers focused on “double-breasted” companies, which were “firms with both union and nonunion operations under different names.” The first campaign was directed toward Century Cleaning.
The official strike
of Janitors for Justice in Los Angeles began on April 3, 1990. The janitors marched and held demonstrations during the daytime for the 3 weeks. To help their cause, many religious leaders, community leaders, and politician
s joined the action of the janitors and supported their protest
s. 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
.
are organizing through the Justice for Janitors campaigns. In July 2005, Houston janitors secured a check and neutrality agreement from the five largest cleaning contractors in Houston. In November 2005, four of the five contractors
recognized SEIU as representing a majority of each contractor's workers, and in December, the fifth contractor did as well.
In 2005 in Houston, the average janitor was earning an hourly salary of $5.25, compared to $20 in New York
and $13.30 in Philadelphia and Chicago
. The success of the Houston campaign was surprising due to the South’s history of resistance to unionization and hostility to labor. The success of service employees was decreasing in 2005, as the percentage of private-sector workers dropped to 7.9. Julius Getman, a labor law professor at the University of Texas, says the Justice for Janitors effort is "the largest unionization campaign in the South in years.” The AFL-CIO
attempted a campaign in the 1980s known as the Houston Organizing Project, as the companies fought hard during a suffering economy to defeat the unionization effort.
The Houston campaign succeeded with the help of prominent allies in the community, a common tactic used by the SEIU. They received the support from the mayor of Houston, several congressmen, clergymen, such as Joseph Fiorenza
, the Roman Catholic archbishop. The clergy-labor alliance is a strong tactic first used by the UFW and Cesar Chavez
, and it has been adopted by numerous labor groups because it helps gain support from the community by legitimizing the effort as a spiritual quest for justice. For example, Archbishop Fiorenza said in an interview about the Houston campaign that it is "basic justice and fairness that the wages should be increased." He held a special mass for janitors and spoke at the union’s kick-off rally. The workers in Houston were also aided by pickets in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and elsewhere, where workers for the same employers refused to cross picket lines in solidarity with their fellow janitors in Houston.
On November 20, 2006, a few days after dozens of strikers and their supporters were arrested by Houston police
while engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience, a tentative agreement was reached between striking Houston janitors and employers. The proposed settlement included many concessions from employers, and SEIU was quick to declare victory.
Faculty Senate began passing declarations to the University of Miami president, Donna Shalala
. The declarations suggested that the university comply with the Miami-Dade County Living Wage Ordinance. At this time, there was little response to the resolutions provided.
In February 2005, SEIU janitors began organizing at both Miami Beach
condominiums, employed by Continental Group, as well as janitors working for the University of Miami. SEIU also used the help of the South Florida Interfaith Worker Justice (SFIWJ). By the fall of 2005, they had also enlisted the help of students at the University of Miami. An organization called STAND, Students Toward a New Democracy, had members attend direct action training workshops in San Francisco, paid for by SEIU. STAND had managed to rally over 300 students for an email list and received 800 signatures from undergraduates on a petition
demanding better worker pay.
On February 26, 2006, the janitors issued an unfair labor practice strike that would last nine weeks. Many of the professors at the University of Miami signed a pledge to support the strike. This meant that the professors would be holding classes off-campus in order to avoid crossing the janitors’ picket lines.
On March 16, 2006, Shalala compensated and announced a wage raise of at least 25%. SEIU celebrated this gain, but they contained to prepare for further action at the University of Miami.
On March 28, the tactics finally began to receive significant media attention. Clergy
and students began the blocking of traffic on U.S. Route 1
. Because the activists were blocking this major highway, 17 of the activists were arrested. At the same time as the highway-blocking took place, students were infiltrating the University of Miami admissions office. Here, the students argued with Shalala for four hours until she finally agreed to attend a meeting to discuss the current situation.
The last stage of the campaign consisted of hunger strike
s that led the University of Miami to feel a sense of crisis. Many of the strike's participants were hospitalized as a result of their extensive fasting.
Due to the escalating sense of crisis on the university’s campus, Shalala finally gave in. She proposed an even higher pay increase along with health benefits and a generous holiday break including paid personal days and paid holidays.
janitors, providing English
language programs. SEIU also provides classes for janitors to help improve their computer skills. So far, 27 master contract
s have been made with commercial cleaning contractors across the country. These contracts have helped to increase wages as well as health benefits
for the janitors. The contracts have also created full-time jobs for some previously part-time workers. All of these accomplishments have led to an ensured stability for the labor force
.
s. When local Service Employees International Union officials refused to participate in Justice for Janitor campaigns, their supervisors would remove them from office, and replace them with “trustees to run the locals, then running the trustees for the presidency.” At this time, the SEIU merged many smaller city or local offices, into regional or state wide offices, reaching multiple industries, making it difficult for rank and file
individuals to compete for organizational and office positions with the more formal, staff run organizations. Those concerned over trigger agreements worried that the agreements were too lenient, giving too many concessions to the contractors. Criticism of the trigger agreements was quickly snuffed out after the SEIU successfully won a rolling strike for healthcare benefits in 2000. Furthermore, despite successes elsewhere, Justice for Janitors has struggled to create and maintain campaigns in the American South and in suburban areas where janitorial services have grown at rate beyond the organizing capacity of SEIU. Another criticism of the SEIU is they unfairly use tactics against companies that cost jobs, diverting company resources into expensive legal battles.
Social movement organization
A social movement organization is an organized component of a social movement .SMO usually is only part of a particular social movement; in other words, a specific social movement is usually composed of many social movement organizations - formal organizations that share movement's goals...
that fights for the rights of janitor
Janitor
A janitor or custodian is a professional who takes care of buildings, such as hospitals and schools. Janitors are responsible primarily for cleaning, and often some maintenance and security...
s (caretakers and cleaners) across the US and Canada. It was started in 1985 in response to the low wages and minimal health-care coverage that janitors received. Justice for Janitors includes more than 225,000 janitors in at least 29 cities in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and at least four cities in Canada. Members have fought and continue to fight for better wages, better conditions, improved health-care, and full-time opportunities. The movement utilizes its extensive memberships as well as prominent leaders in the communities to accomplish its goals.
The Justice for Janitors campaigns are organized under a larger union: the Service Employees International Union
Service Employees International Union
Service Employees International Union is a labor union representing about 1.8 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States , and Canada...
(SEIU). SEIU has almost two million members and is a significant part of the labor movement. SEIU is an asset to the Justice for Janitors campaign as it organizes members as well as trains them in necessary workplace skills such as language proficiency. SEIU is also a substantial part of the labor movement in that it retains constructive partnerships with the corporations employing the janitors to ensure that these corporations receive no negative impact due to the campaigns.
In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
a similar movement is called "Justice for Cleaners".
Structure
The structure used by SEIU for its Justice for Janitors campaigns has been widely recognized for its innovativeness and success. As the labor movement was struggling to gain membership to unions, new models of organizing workers had to be developed. The SEIU strived to increase union membership and participation. The Justice for Janitors campaign utilizes a bottom-up modelTop-down and bottom-up design
Top–down and bottom–up are strategies of information processing and knowledge ordering, mostly involving software, but also other humanistic and scientific theories . In practice, they can be seen as a style of thinking and teaching...
in which they organize workers based on geographical area rather than just their worksite. It is also an innovative model in that it makes typically unnoticed workers visible and groups them together into larger collections in order to better fight the larger corporation
Corporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
s. SEIU also provides trained organizers that are often sent to local unions in order to skillfully organize efforts. The Justice for Janitors campaigns often use disruptive tactics to get their point across.
The campaigns of Justice for Janitors also use master contract
Master contract
A master contract is a contract reached between parties, in which the parties agree to most of the terms that will govern future transactions or future agreements...
s that are market-wide. One contract in a certain market will apply to all union janitors across that market
Market
A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...
. This allows union workers to fight for different rights while applying any accomplishments to all workers in that market.
The Janitors for Justice campaign began with Stephen Lerner, a former 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 UFW, and JfJ “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
Vigils
Vigils is a term for night prayer in ancient Christianity. See Vespers, Compline, Nocturns, Matins, and Lauds for more information. A Vigil is a night spent in prayer....
, blockades, clergy-labor alliance, and community organizing
Community organizing
Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest. A core goal of community organizing is to generate durable power for an organization representing the community, allowing it to influence...
. JfJ even adopted the rallying cry of the UFW: “¡Sí se puede!”
Los Angeles campaign
During the 1980s, janitors working for large real estateReal estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
owners had become victims of competition and lowered wages. The large real estate companies sent out cleaning services to the building service contractors
General contractor
A general contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and communication of information to involved parties throughout the course of a building project.-Description:...
. These contractors were in high competition with each other and therefore cut wages for their cleaning services. This placed janitors in a situation that they had no power to change: If they attempted to ask the service contractors for higher wages, the contractors would pass the responsibility to the real estate owners. If the janitors inquired the owners about increasing their wages, the owners would say that it was the responsibility of the contractors.
In 1983, an average janitor working in LA had a salary
Salary
A salary is a form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee, which may be specified in an employment contract. It is contrasted with piece wages, where each job, hour or other unit is paid separately, rather than on a periodic basis....
of over $7.00/hour and full health insurance
Health insurance
Health insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses among individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health care expenses among a targeted group, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to ensure that money is...
for the janitor and his/her family. By 1986, the janitorial wages had been cut to a mere $4.50/hour, and health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
coverage was no longer an option.
By the late 1980s, janitors began to fight against these large owners and contractors. Janitors that were members of the SEIU joined together in the Justice for Janitors campaign using militant and direct action
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
tactics. They wanted to hold both the owners and the contractors accountable.
The Justice for Janitors campaign came from Denver to LA in 1988. They worked in downtown to represent the union base and organize the non-union companies. The Justice for Janitors organizers focused on “double-breasted” companies, which were “firms with both union and nonunion operations under different names.” The first campaign was directed toward Century Cleaning.
The official strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
of Janitors for Justice in Los Angeles began on April 3, 1990. The janitors marched and held demonstrations during the daytime for the 3 weeks. To help their cause, many religious leaders, community leaders, and politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
s joined the action of the janitors and supported their protest
Protest
A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...
s. The archbishop
Archbishop
An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...
of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony, held a special mass for the janitors. Also, mayor Richard Riordan
Richard Riordan
Richard J. Riordan is a Republican politician from California, U.S.A. who served as the California Secretary for Education from 2003–2005 and as the 39th Mayor of Los Angeles, California from 1993–2001...
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
Bread and Roses (film)
Bread and Roses is a 2000 drama film directed by Ken Loach, starring Adrien Brody. The plot deals with the struggle of poorly paid janitorial workers in Los Angeles and their fight for better working conditions and the right to unionize...
.
Houston campaign
Currently, many janitors in Houston, TexasTexas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
are organizing through the Justice for Janitors campaigns. In July 2005, Houston janitors secured a check and neutrality agreement from the five largest cleaning contractors in Houston. In November 2005, four of the five contractors
Independent contractor
An independent contractor is a natural person, business, or corporation that provides goods or services to another entity under terms specified in a contract or within a verbal agreement. Unlike an employee, an independent contractor does not work regularly for an employer but works as and when...
recognized SEIU as representing a majority of each contractor's workers, and in December, the fifth contractor did as well.
In 2005 in Houston, the average janitor was earning an hourly salary of $5.25, compared to $20 in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and $13.30 in Philadelphia and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. The success of the Houston campaign was surprising due to the South’s history of resistance to unionization and hostility to labor. The success of service employees was decreasing in 2005, as the percentage of private-sector workers dropped to 7.9. Julius Getman, a labor law professor at the University of Texas, says the Justice for Janitors effort is "the largest unionization campaign in the South in years.” The AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
attempted a campaign in the 1980s known as the Houston Organizing Project, as the companies fought hard during a suffering economy to defeat the unionization effort.
The Houston campaign succeeded with the help of prominent allies in the community, a common tactic used by the SEIU. They received the support from the mayor of Houston, several congressmen, clergymen, such as Joseph Fiorenza
Joseph Fiorenza
Joseph Anthony Fiorenza is an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He was the seventh Bishop and the first Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, serving from 1985 to 2006...
, the Roman Catholic archbishop. The clergy-labor alliance is a strong tactic first used by the UFW and Cesar Chavez
César Chávez
César Estrada Chávez was an American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers ....
, and it has been adopted by numerous labor groups because it helps gain support from the community by legitimizing the effort as a spiritual quest for justice. For example, Archbishop Fiorenza said in an interview about the Houston campaign that it is "basic justice and fairness that the wages should be increased." He held a special mass for janitors and spoke at the union’s kick-off rally. The workers in Houston were also aided by pickets in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and elsewhere, where workers for the same employers refused to cross picket lines in solidarity with their fellow janitors in Houston.
On November 20, 2006, a few days after dozens of strikers and their supporters were arrested by Houston police
Houston Police Department
The Houston Police Department is the primary law enforcement agency serving the City of Houston, Texas, United States and some surrounding areas. Its headquarters are in 1200 Travis in Downtown Houston....
while engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience, a tentative agreement was reached between striking Houston janitors and employers. The proposed settlement included many concessions from employers, and SEIU was quick to declare victory.
Miami campaign
In October 2001, the University of MiamiUniversity of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
Faculty Senate began passing declarations to the University of Miami president, Donna Shalala
Donna Shalala
Donna Edna Shalala served for eight years as Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton and has been president of the University of Miami, a private university in Coral Gables, Florida, since 2001. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest...
. The declarations suggested that the university comply with the Miami-Dade County Living Wage Ordinance. At this time, there was little response to the resolutions provided.
In February 2005, SEIU janitors began organizing at both Miami Beach
Miami Beach, Florida
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on a barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter which separates the Beach from Miami city proper...
condominiums, employed by Continental Group, as well as janitors working for the University of Miami. SEIU also used the help of the South Florida Interfaith Worker Justice (SFIWJ). By the fall of 2005, they had also enlisted the help of students at the University of Miami. An organization called STAND, Students Toward a New Democracy, had members attend direct action training workshops in San Francisco, paid for by SEIU. STAND had managed to rally over 300 students for an email list and received 800 signatures from undergraduates on a petition
Petition
A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer....
demanding better worker pay.
On February 26, 2006, the janitors issued an unfair labor practice strike that would last nine weeks. Many of the professors at the University of Miami signed a pledge to support the strike. This meant that the professors would be holding classes off-campus in order to avoid crossing the janitors’ picket lines.
On March 16, 2006, Shalala compensated and announced a wage raise of at least 25%. SEIU celebrated this gain, but they contained to prepare for further action at the University of Miami.
On March 28, the tactics finally began to receive significant media attention. Clergy
Clergy
Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....
and students began the blocking of traffic on U.S. Route 1
U.S. Route 1
U.S. Route 1 is a major north–south U.S. Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs 2,377 miles from Fort Kent, Maine at the Canadian border south to Key West, Florida. U.S. 1 generally parallels Interstate 95, though it is significantly farther west between...
. Because the activists were blocking this major highway, 17 of the activists were arrested. At the same time as the highway-blocking took place, students were infiltrating the University of Miami admissions office. Here, the students argued with Shalala for four hours until she finally agreed to attend a meeting to discuss the current situation.
The last stage of the campaign consisted of hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
s that led the University of Miami to feel a sense of crisis. Many of the strike's participants were hospitalized as a result of their extensive fasting.
Due to the escalating sense of crisis on the university’s campus, Shalala finally gave in. She proposed an even higher pay increase along with health benefits and a generous holiday break including paid personal days and paid holidays.
Accomplishments
The multiple Justice for Janitors campaigns have made many developments for janitors across the country. SEIU has worked with immigrantImmigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
janitors, providing English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
language programs. SEIU also provides classes for janitors to help improve their computer skills. So far, 27 master contract
Master contract
A master contract is a contract reached between parties, in which the parties agree to most of the terms that will govern future transactions or future agreements...
s have been made with commercial cleaning contractors across the country. These contracts have helped to increase wages as well as health benefits
Health insurance
Health insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses among individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health care expenses among a targeted group, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to ensure that money is...
for the janitors. The contracts have also created full-time jobs for some previously part-time workers. All of these accomplishments have led to an ensured stability for the labor force
Labor force
In economics, a labor force or labour force is a region's combined civilian workforce, including both the employed and unemployed.Normally, the labor force of a country consists of everyone of working age In economics, a labor force or labour force is a region's combined civilian workforce,...
.
Criticism
Criticism of the Justice for Janitors campaign is typically centered around non-democratic union processes and quick, trigger agreementTrigger agreement
The term trigger agreement refers to a tactic utilized by the Service Employees International Union during their Justice for Janitors campaign. If employers agree not to interfere with the SEIU’s organizing efforts, then the SEIU promises not to commence bargaining efforts until a majority of the...
s. When local Service Employees International Union officials refused to participate in Justice for Janitor campaigns, their supervisors would remove them from office, and replace them with “trustees to run the locals, then running the trustees for the presidency.” At this time, the SEIU merged many smaller city or local offices, into regional or state wide offices, reaching multiple industries, making it difficult for rank and file
Rank and file
In politics and labor unions the rank and file are the individual members of an organization, exclusive of its leadership. The phrase originated in the military, denoting the horizontal "ranks" and vertical "files" of individual foot-soldiers, exclusive of the noncommissioned officers....
individuals to compete for organizational and office positions with the more formal, staff run organizations. Those concerned over trigger agreements worried that the agreements were too lenient, giving too many concessions to the contractors. Criticism of the trigger agreements was quickly snuffed out after the SEIU successfully won a rolling strike for healthcare benefits in 2000. Furthermore, despite successes elsewhere, Justice for Janitors has struggled to create and maintain campaigns in the American South and in suburban areas where janitorial services have grown at rate beyond the organizing capacity of SEIU. Another criticism of the SEIU is they unfairly use tactics against companies that cost jobs, diverting company resources into expensive legal battles.