In what is almost an epic labor struggle, a largely immigrant janitorial workforce in California has upped the ante against one of the state's biggest building service companies and its largest client, Hewlett-Packard. An eleven day march brought 40 janitors to the company's annual shareholders' meeting to demand the right to organize. PNS associate editor David Bacon, a former labor organizer, reports on immigrant and labor related issues.

Marchers outside the buildings they clean in Sacramento.
Photo © 1998 by David Bacon

SACRAMENTO -- Last week Sacramento janitors took their long-running war against poverty-level wages to the doorstep of the corporation they hold responsible -- Hewlett-Packard Corp.

For eleven days, through some of the heaviest rainstorms in the state's history, some 40 union activists trekked 150 miles beside freeways from the state capitol to Cupertino where the company's annual shareholders meeting was convening. High winds swept through their line, blowing out their red umbrellas, tearing their plastic raincoats to shreds by the time the march was half-completed.

On Tuesday, the marchers arrived at the Cupertino Flint Center, where janitors holding proxy votes forced their way before Hewlett-Packard's annual meeting, demanding the company respect their right to organize.

The Sacramento janitors union, Service Employees Local 1877, has been locked in an almost epic struggle to win a union contract at Somers Building Maintenance, the capitol's largest building service company with 1000 employees. Hewlett-Packard is Somers' largest client, using the firm to clean five of its Sacramento-area buildings.

"Even though I work full time, I only earn $12,500 per year," explained Somers janitor and marcher Marta Villalobos. "I have no health insurance for my four kids, and my husband and I live in fear that any illness could put us on the street."

Somers workers were joined on the march by janitors from around the state. "Low wages and conditions in Sacramento affect us in Los Angeles," said Local 1877 member Alfredo Rodriguez. "If we support our brothers and sisters at Somers, our union will be stronger, and we'll all benefit."

In 1989 Rodriguez was beaten by Los Angeles police, who charged a march of janitors who were trying to organize a union in Century City. "I learned then how important it is for us to stick together," he said.

Somers workers began signing Local 1877 union cards in the spring of 1995, after seeing that the Locals won better wages in Silicon Valley, Alameda County and Los Angeles by organizing a majority of building service companies. Previously, contractors competed against each other for cleaning contracts with large building owners by cutting wages and benefits. Union agreements standardized wages, taking them out of competition.

After winning workers' support, Local 1877 asked Somers to acknowledge that a majority had signed union cards, and recognize the union. The company refused, and hired the state's best known anti-union law firm, Lettler, Mendelssohn, Fastiff and Tichy. "Our employees don't want a union at all," Somers spokesperson Randall Schaber told this reporter at the time.

A few weeks later, Somers management recognized Couriers and Service Employees Local 1, a hitherto unknown union unaffiliated with the AFL-CIO, and agreed to a contract with no wage increases. No election was held. Two janitors supporting Local 1877 were beaten in an H-P building by a Local 1 steward who still works for Somers.

Eventually, the NLRB found that Local 1 was a company union, and invalidated its agreement with Somers. But "the company still threatens to fire workers for participating in union activities," says Raul Lara, a Somers janitor. "Many support the union but are afraid to show their face."

To up the ante, union activists organized a community coalition -- Justice for Janitors -- to convince Hewlett-Packard to raise the workers' wages and halt the tactics of its contractor. Marlene Somsak, spokesperson for Hewlet-Packard, says the company opposes this corporate campaign because "it uses neutral parties as battlegrounds." In Washington, D.C., Republican politicians began an effort to outlaw corporate campaigns like the janitors'. Michigan Republican Pete Hoekstra's government oversight committee cited the Somers case as an example of the need to restrict union tactics.

Photo © 1998 by David Bacon

"This isn't just a local fight," Art Pulaski, executive secretary of the California Labor Federation, told marchers at an Oakland rally last week. "Companies are using the political process to do away with unions generally and make it impossible for workers to organize.

Last summer, Sacramento city authorities prohibited janitors' marches through the streets. Pulaski and other labor leaders were arrested en masse as they paraded in the union's support.

Anxious to reduce the political heat, Mayor Joe Serna offered to mediate a settlement between Somers and the union. When Somers rebuffed the offer in January, Serna issued a stinging critique. "The company," he wrote in a letter released to the media, "never really came to the table with a viable proposal, thus making clear that the company wasn't ready to negotiate in good faith."