Turkey of the Year, 1988



Black and white image of a person wearing a turkey suit (sign hung around their neck reading "turkey") at a protest. Protestors carry picket signs reading "Turkey of the Year - Jonel C. Hill." One older white man wears a suit and tie with a Justice for Janitors pin.

Following the passage of IRCA (Immigration Reform and Control Act), the union representing building service workers (Local 399 SEIU) launched a campaign to unionize janitors at the Gas Company, one of the largest buildings in Los Angeles. While it did not result in a union contract, the campaign served as a “test run” for how to approach and mobilize the growing number of Central American immigrants, many of them female and/or undocumented, who worked as janitors in the glittering skyscrapers downtown. More images from J4J available in the SEIU-USWW records (Collection 1940), UCLA Library Special Collections.