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9 People Arrested for Supporting SEIU 6 Striking Janitors
Community Rally with Santa and the Caroling Elves turns ugly when singing and chanting against Grinch Runner-Up, Allied Building Services, turns into arrest
Janitors at Six Buildings Go On Strike Against Allied
By Paul Nyhan, Seattle P-I, 5/16/03
Janitors went on strike yesterday evening, walking off their jobs at six buildings in the region over charges that managers were interfering with their efforts to unionize.
The walkout is the latest exchange in an escalating battle between Allied Building Services and janitors backed by the Service Employees International Union.
Most of the 40 to 50 janitors assigned to one building in Seattle and five others on the Eastside are expected to join the strike, which should last at least two days, the union said.
The union claims Allied is firing or threatening to fire workers who get involved with organizing activities.
Workers say they need union representation to secure health care coverage and gain other workplace rights.
"I think they are resisting because they don't want to pay," said Sergio Salinas, president of SEIU Local 6.
Most Seattle-area janitors are unionized and already receive employer-provided health care, Salinas said.
Allied countered that it is trying to find common ground with organized labor, seeking solutions that address workers' desire to join a union, while also holding down its costs.
"We aren't opposed to unions or what the unions represent. It is a matter of economics for us and for our customers," said Joe Williams, general counsel for Houston-based Allied.
While the company is willing to consider offering businesses union work forces in future contracts, unionizing current workers would boost the cost of existing contracts by 15 percent to 20 percent, Williams said. Allied had alternative crews ready to work if janitors struck, Williams said.
Background
Allied has refused to provide basic health care for employees and does not live up to other industry standards within the janitorial industry. JwJ pledge card signers remember the major campaign last Spring to support Seattle janitors’ right to have affordable quality healthcare. In July, most other janitorial companies agreed to provide full family health care as part of a union contract. Allied and its parent company, Texas-based Associated Building Services, are currently the defendants in lawsuits from employees charging that they are owed back pay for unpaid overtime, have been forced to work "off-the-clock" and have suffered racial discrimination.
A few downtown commercial properties, such as One Convention Place, continue to use Allied even after politely educating these property managers about how this impacts workers’ lives, entices other companies to cut our healthcare coverage, and is a misuse of our tax-dollars and consumer revenue that fund them.
Our nation is gripped by a health care crisis for working families and we are speaking up. JwJ, community leaders and local workers have been speaking out against Allied Building Services, a cleaning company accused of breaking the law by threatening workers seeking health care. Allied janitors began a strike the night before this action.
We joined with union downtown janitors, who have fought for health coverage, and heard from janitors at Allied. We gathered before janitors went to work to call for health care for all working families and support Allied janitors fighting for the past year to win family health care.
King County Councilman Larry Gossett was among the area leaders who discussed their concern over charges by the Service Employees International Union that Allied is violating janitors' legal right to choose a union. Since November 2002, janitors at the Bellevue subsidiary of Houston's Associated Building Services have organized to seek recognition of a union and the same basic wages and family health care coverage that other area janitors enjoy.
"In May I slipped in one of the bathrooms I cleaned and hurt my arm. I went to the doctor, but couldn't afford to get the results of my X-rays," said Maria Fuentes, a janitor fired by Allied after her work organizing with the union.
Maria is one of hundreds of janitors trying to get a union to win health care coverage. The area's 2,500 union janitors won employer-paid health care in July after a campaign of action that brought them to the brink of a strike. Other janitors across the country have organized with SEIU and mounted demonstrations, workplace actions and even strikes in places like Los Angeles, Boston and Silicon Valley to fight for secure health care and a living wage.
Janitors already held informational pickets outside the buildings where they work. Thursday and Friday their union filed charges of threats and retaliation in violation of their legal right to choose a union at the National Labor Relations Board.
This rally is not the only black eye for Allied, which has been steadily losing customers like Coca-Cola, Phillips Medical, and Pierce Transit to union competitors who provide health care. For more information on Allied/ABS go to www.abswatch.com.
Janitors at Allied have been organizing with Service Employees International Union Local 6 since 2002. On Monday night, Allied was defeated by Darigold for the 2003 title of JwJ Seattle Grinch of the Year – an annual award that’s given to the greediest of the greedy local employers.
The rally was co-sponsored by SEIU and Washington State Jobs With Justice.
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