The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.17           May 3, 1999 
 
 
5,000 Rally To Back N.Y. Janitors' Strike  

BY MITCHEL ROSENBERG
NEW YORK - Well over 5,000 unionists rallied and marched on the Port Authority bus terminal here April 14, in support of janitors who have been on strike for three years against the Port Authority and its cleaning contractor, Laro Service Systems. Leading the action was a large contingent of the strikers' local, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 32B-32J, whose 55,000 members are janitors and maintenance workers in commercial and residential buildings throughout this city.

Workers struck this facility in 1996 when Port Authority contracted its cleaning work to Laro, which attempted to bust the union and has hired workers who are not union members while getting rid of workers who had seniority. The company employs about 200 workers at the bus terminal.

Unionists from health-care workers' Local 1199, carpenters, electricians, hotel workers, laborers, operating engineers, garment workers, and members of the United Auto Workers and Teamsters took part in the rally. Among the crowd were many building janitors still in uniform. "We just took off early to be here," said Joe, a 32B - 32J member who works at a midtown office building. Others with him nodded in agreement.

Among speakers at the rally were AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, whose home local is 32B - 32J; Democratic Party politician Jesse Jackson; and newly-appointed trustee of Local 32B - 32J Tom Balanoff. Jackson attempted to tie the unionists to support for the U.S. bombing of Yugoslavia, stating "If you can fight for human rights and dignity in Kosova, then you can fight for it in New York City."

Discussions among the participants ranged from the Laro strike and recent union fights, to the current struggle against cop brutality in New York, to the bombing of Yugoslavia. Donna Lubavitch, a 32B - 32J member from the Dalmatian coast, which runs from what is now Croatia to Bosnia, called herself a Yugoslavian and condemned the bombing and the breakup of her homeland.

 
 
 
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