LA County Federation of Labor Approves a Request to Strike by Janitors Servicing Top Aerospace and Defense Contractors

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO approved a strike sanction request by janitors represented by Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1877. The 500 subcontracted janitors whose contract expired on August 7^th and service top aerospace and defense contractors in Los Angeles County, will now have the full support of the Los Angeles labor movement if or when they decide to go on strike.

“All these workers are asking for is family health care coverage and a wage that will make it a bit easier for them to provide for their families,” said Maria Elena Durazo, Secretary-Treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. “Who can morally deny a living wage?”

The majority of these janitors make $8.35 per hour, not nearly the $24.54 per hour needed to support a modest standard of living in Los Angeles for a family of four, according to the California Budget Project. As part of their new contract, these workers are asking for a wage that will bring them up to the same standards as janitors in other industries. Those in the commercial real estate industry for example, have full family healthcare and an average annual raise of $0.55 that will bring them to $12.85 per hour after four years.

“The aerospace industry is making billions of dollars. But, those of us who clean their buildings are barely surviving,” said Olympia Lopez, a janitor who works for Aramark cleaning a Boeing facility in Long Beach. “We don’t have enough for housing, food, and gas. We don’t have basic health care for our families.”

In granting a strike sanction, the Federation will support these strikers in various forms including picket line support, rallies, demonstrations, boycotts, financial assistance to pay for household expenses, and in coordinating food drives, political, union and community support.

Since janitors cleaning aerospace facilities bargained their first contract in 2005, the Aerospace industry has seen huge profits, from both the commercial airlines sector and defense contracts. During the first half of the year, the top companies saw soaring profits, with Northrop Grumman reporting a $759 million, and Boeing a $2.1 billion, and Raytheon, a profit of $824 million.

Currently, janitors are negotiating with Servicon, KBM, Aramark, Blackstone, Contractors Services Group and Encompass, all janitorial contractors that service Boeing Company (BA), Northrop Grumman Corporation (NOC), Raytheon Company (RTN), Vought Aircraft Industries, The Aerospace Corporation, Honeywell International (HON) and BP Arco (BP).

The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO is the chartered Central Labor Council (CLC) of the AFL-CIO in Los Angeles County and is the second largest in the country, representing over 800,000 workers through over 350 unions. Its mission is to promote a voice for workers so they can remain in the middle class, move themselves out of poverty by joining a union, encourage active participation in the political process by electing pro-union and pro-worker officials and to advance public policies that support workers and their families. As the coordinating center for labor’s political activity, the Federation believes that in educating and mobilizing workers to be politically active they can create and sustain healthy communities, and FIGHT FOR GOOD JOBS that REBUILD THE LOS ANGELES MIDDLE CLASS. Visit the Federation at www.launionaflcio.org.