Power from the Past

Memory Work Research Initiative

USC’s Workers Fight Back

USC’s Workers Fight Back
Members of HERE Local 11 and the Justice for Janitors hold a University Day (graduation) action at USC, May 1996. SEIU-USWW (Justice for Janitors) Collection, IRLE Archives.

Topics:

, ,

Format:

In August 1995, several union janitors working at USC were fired and replaced by non-union subcontractors with Service Master, launching a years-long struggle among service workers at USC. The campaign at USC brought together two unions and the forefront of the local labor movement: the Justice for Janitors (SEIU Local 399) campaign and HERE Local 11, which represented food service workers also treated by USC’s subcontracting practices. Both unions had prioritized organizing immigrant workers in previous years, the years long campaign at USC presenting an opportunity to merge their expanding coalitions of student, faith-based, and immigrant rights organizations.

Pictured here: the two unions gathered for an on-campus march and rally in conjunction with University Day (graduation) at USC in 1996.

Watch: Spanish-language news coverage of the University Day demonstration https://vimeo.com/310866289

Photo from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), United Service Workers West (USWW) records, circa 1935-2008 (LSC.1940), UCLA Library Special Collections.