Among the Justice for Janitors campaign’s first targets in Los Angeles was Bradford Building Services, a cleaning services company with dozens of contracts in skyscrapers downtown. Bradford was one of several new subcontractors providing janitorial services at buildings that had broken long-standing union contracts with SEIU Local 399. Janitors claimed Bradford was taking illegal deductions out of their paychecks, firing union organizers, and refusing to pay overtime. The Justice for Janitors campaign against Bradford was successful, as they won a new contract covering all Bradford buildings downtown in 1990.

Crucial to the success of the downtown campaign was Willie Wilson, a longtime steward for Local 399 who became a leading organizer downtown. Wilson proved as a crucial bridge between the African American janitors who had for many years been the base of the union’s membership and the new immigrant workers being recruited by subcontractors like Bradford.

Pictured here: Wilson directs traffic at a Justice for Janitors march downtown ca. 1989. From the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), United Service Workers West (USWW) records, circa 1935-2008 (LSC.1940), UCLA Library Special Collections.