Hundreds march in Pasadena for "Justice for Janitors"

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About a hundred protesters walked from bank to bank in Old Town Pasadena chanting, “Justice for Janitors” in both English and Spanish. They held signs with the same slogan and wore the bright purple shirts of their union, the United Service Workers West.

The janitor’s contract with contractors, including America Building Maintenance and DMS, will expire on April 30th. Negotiations have been tense, with the janitors voting last week to strike on May 1st if their demands aren’t met. Union organizer Nathalie Contreras says the cuts the contractors want are unreasonable.

“What they’re proposing are wage freezes for six years, having them pay difference in increases in insurance on top of co-pays, which at the end of the day don’t add up and would cause an enormous burden on our janitors,” said Contreras.

The protests were meant to be part of the occupy movement of the 99% versus the 1%. Karen Berger is a member of Occupy Pasadena who came out to support what she called the “exploited janitors.”

“It’s not right what the 1% are doing. They’re taking advantage of people because they can,” said Berger.
The protesters chose banks as the stops on the march to allude to the connections to Occupy. Contreras says the banks make-up many of the buildings these janitors clean and that it is them who are pushing for the benefit cuts.

“This is part of the larger message that’s going out across the country, that these banks are getting away with not paying taxes, that these banks are getting away with all these corporate loopholes, but yet they don’t want to put what’s needed into these working families which is what would help get this country out of this recession,” said Contreras.

United Service Workers West will be organizing more protests and other activities in the coming weeks, all leading up to the possible strike.