Tag: Justice for Janitors
Justice for Janitors (JfJ) is a campaign of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). JfJ in Los Angeles was part of SEIU local 399, local 1877, and currently United Service Workers West (USWW).
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On Any Day: A Visit to Four L.A. Neighborhoods
Read more: On Any Day: A Visit to Four L.A. NeighborhoodsDuring the 1994 World Cup, which brought journalists from all over the world to Los Angeles, the Tourism Industry Development Council (TIDC, later known as the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, or LAANE) organized a bus tour, so that visiting journalists could “come with us into our city and meet its people.” They spotlighted four Los Angeles working class neighborhoods, East Los Angeles, Pico Union, Koreatown, and South Central, and coordinated visits with…
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Justice for Janitors 1995 Strike News
Read more: Justice for Janitors 1995 Strike NewsEnglish and Spanish TV news coverage of street actions leading up to the 1995 strike by SEIU Local 399, the Justice for Janitors campaign. The strike came in the wake of the passage of Proposition 187, which imposed severe new restrictions on the rights of undocumented immigrants, and amidst internal turmoil in the union, which eventually resulted in Local 399 being placed under a trusteeship. But despite these obstacles, the janitors mobilized like never before,…
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Justice for Janitors Pasadena Convention
Read more: Justice for Janitors Pasadena ConventionOn Dec. 10, 1994, Local 399 hosted a statewide convention in Pasadena, where they launched their “April One” (“One Industry, One Union, One Contract”) campaign. The campaign took its name from the expiration date of their existing contract and announced the Justice for Janitors campaign’s intention to expand their organizing across L.A. county. Just a few months later, they waged a city-wide strike and won a first of its kind contract covering janitorial workers in…
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Alto Prop 187
Read more: Alto Prop 187On May 28, 1994, Justice for Janitors organized a “March and Rally for the Respect and Dignity of Immigrant Rights” in Boyle Heights. The march coincided with the announcement that an extreme anti-immigrant proposition, Prop 187, would appear on the November ballot. Members gathered to defend immigrants’ “right to live in peace with justice!” The campaign to prevent the passage of Proposition 187 marked an important moment of convergence for the labor movement and the…
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Pueblo, Unete! Vigil, March, and Mass for Immigrant Rights
Read more: Pueblo, Unete! Vigil, March, and Mass for Immigrant RightsIn the fall of 1993, conservative political operatives began circulating plans for an anti-immigrant California ballot proposition, what would become Proposition 187. Advocates of immigrant- and worker-rights raised alarms immediately, and mounted a vigorous opposition campaign. Voters approved Prop. 187 in 1994, but it was struck down by a federal judge. The fight against the anti-immigrant law helped propel a new progressive political coalition in California. This short film documents a vigil, march, and mass…
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Mop Man: La Union Lucha Por Tus Derechos! | Mopman: The Union Fights for Your Rights!
Read more: Mop Man: La Union Lucha Por Tus Derechos! | Mopman: The Union Fights for Your Rights!The Justice for Janitors campaign frequently used street theater to enliven their demonstrations and dramatize their cause. Among their most recognizable characters was a luchador named Mop Man, who (in comics and performances) defended janitors against abuses by the boss. In this comic from the early 1990s, Mop Man narrates a day-in-the-life of a janitor who works five, sometimes six days a week for minimum wages, to explain that the union fights for workers’ rights. Of particular…
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“Janitors Lash Out at Rebuild L.A. in Rally”
Read more: “Janitors Lash Out at Rebuild L.A. in Rally”In the wake of the 1992 Uprising, the Justice for Janitors campaign joined a coalition of community organizations calling for more significant public reinvestment in the communities most impacted by the destruction of their neighborhoods. In December, they held a rally at the offices of ReBuild LA, a nonprofit formed to coordinate the city’s rebuilding efforts. Henry Weinstein, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, described that the rally had been prompted by comments made…
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No Hay Paz Sin Justicia
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Read more: No Hay Paz Sin JusticiaIn April 1992, the four white LAPD officers caught on video assaulting Rodney King were acquitted on all but one of the charges against them, unleashing a wave of anger and unrest known today as the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising (commonly referred to as the L.A. Riots). The destruction and violence that followed caused about $1 billion in property damage that impacted working-class communities most acutely. In the wake of the unrest, local unions, religious…
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Mop Man at Toyota
Read more: Mop Man at ToyotaThe Justice for Janitors campaign frequently used street theater to enliven their demonstrations and dramatize their cause. Among their most recognizable characters was a luchador named Mop Man, who in comics and performances defended janitors against abuses by the boss. Pictured here: Mop Man featured in a street theater performance at the headquarters of the Toyota Corp. in Torrance during Justice for Janitors’ campaign against ABM (American Building Maintenance) in 1992. The campaign against Toyota also had…
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Building sustainable peace in Guatemala, the union perspective
Read more: Building sustainable peace in Guatemala, the union perspectiveFrom the 1970s to the 1990s, the Central American nations of El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala experienced civil war, government-sponsored death squads, and genocide. Many who fled the violence settled in Los Angeles were they joined other immigrant workers in low-wage service sector jobs, and became part of the unionization drives of the 1990s. Immigrants workers then mobilized their unions in support of the peace process by welcoming visiting delegations and lobbying federal officials. This…