June 13, 2003
Support Your Local Janitor
In my time out of jail and off my bicycles I've been working with Justice for Janitors, a campaign with SEIU Local 49. It has been fascinating, to say the least, working with a group of mostly immigrant, mostly underpaid, and mostly invisible workers. I've found myself barbecuing for janitors downtown during their 10PM lunch break, playing drums and shaking brooms in the mall, and now making giant puppets and massive banners.
Today is National Justice for Janitors Day, and there will be marches across the country. Sacramento is out on strike, and cities like LA, Boston, and Seattle all have well organized unions. Most Cementhorizon folks probably have an SEIU janitor cleaning their workplace(e.g. UC Berkeley).
If you see them out on the streets, honk your horn, or maybe ask the property manager of your building if the janitors have a union. Actions in California or Washington have their effects in Oregon because the building owners are the same(we even did a solidarity action for janitors in Australia).
I'll post up some picture from our march in a few days...
Posted by DV at June 13, 2003 02:38 AM