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USC’s Workers Fight Back
Read more: USC’s Workers Fight BackIn 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…
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“Immigrant workers have always agreed with us philosophically”
Read more: “Immigrant workers have always agreed with us philosophically”Now I’m somebody who’s tried to organize immigrant workers in this town for 20 years. We’ve had some success here and there, but the movement’s never been able to prove to immigrant workers that it could deliver. That it could put its money where its mouth was. Immigrant workers have always agreed with us philosophically. They know we’re advocates; they know we’re on their side. But they’ve been reluctant to get on board with us…
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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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On a mission to organize immigrant workers
Read more: On a mission to organize immigrant workersLaunched in 1989, the California Immigrant Workers Association (CIWA) supported a number of break-through union campaigns with immigrant workers. David Sickler, regional director for the AFL-CIO, conceived of CIWA as a way to funnel support for the many organizing drives that developed in the wake of the Immigration Reform and Control Act. CIWA staff provided legal and organizing aid to immigrant workers and connected them with unions, and advised unions on organizing best practices. However,…
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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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“They embraced their cause 24 hours a day”
Read more: “They embraced their cause 24 hours a day”Three main ingredients account for the success of the drywallers strike. First, the determination of the strikers. They were not doing “strike duty”. They embraced their cause 24 hours a day and everything else became secondary to the strike. Additionally, the strikers were aware that they were being oppressed not only as workers but also as Mexicans, which made their bond twice as strong. This came particularly handy when entire families were evicted from their…
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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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