BY JIM ALTENBERG
SACRAMENTO, California - Shouting "!Sí, se puede!" (Yes, we can do it) and "Justice! Now!", more than 1,000 farm workers and janitors, along with other unionists, students, and community activists, marched through this state capital's downtown area September 18. The "March for Justice" was led by the United Farm Workers (UFW) and the Justice for Janitors organizing campaign of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to press for the right of farm workers and janitors to organize into unions free from intimidation by their bosses and the police.

Janitors from Los Angeles, San Jose, and Stockton rode buses to Sacramento to join the march. They were joined by farm workers from Salinas and Watsonville, and state employees who have been fighting for pay raises. Other union banners identified members of the United Food and Commercial Workers, SEIU hospital workers, and Painters. A busload of students from the City College of San Francisco also participated.

There have been many marches and rallies this year to back the UFW campaign to organize the 20,000 strawberry workers in California. The largest action, held in Watsonville, drew 25,000 people April 13. In June the union scored a victory when Coastal Berry Co., the state's largest berry grower, said it would remain neutral toward the organizing drive. But the growers and their supporters have actively organized against the union, including holding an anti-UFW march of 1,200 in Watsonville August 10.

Sacramento janitors have been fighting for over two years to organize workers at Somers Building Maintenance, the largest janitorial contractor in the area. They have faced police surveillance and mass arrests, as well as harassment on the job. Sacramento cops arrested 30 union supporters at a demonstration August 27, as well as eight others at a July 24 rally protesting the firing of two workers who had presented a petition complaining of abusive treatment by their supervisors at Somers. The August rally was filmed by a cop posing as a cameraman for a local TV station. A spokesperson for the police sought to justify their undercover spying, telling the Sacramento Bee that such action was a "routine procedure." The cop "was without malicious intent. He felt that if he used a police identification he would bring attention to himself." Protests from the television station have been ignored by the police.

Heladio Muniz, a union janitor now employed by American Building Maintenance (ABM), told the Militant that he had worked for two years at Somers. "They mistreated people there," he said. "I was in the union but got fired due to union activity." Muniz said that they are also seeking wage increases and health insurance from ABM, which has a contract with the SEIU janitors. "We want to get the same contract for both," he said.

"I'm here to support the struggles of the working class and poor," Teresa Rodríguez told this reporter. "People see the numbers out here. They try and ignore you, but people working here could see us." Rodríguez and Nicole Alimon, education students at nearby Sacramento State University, said there were many students from their campus at the rally. They had joined the April 13 UFW demonstration in Watsonville, and said MEChA club and other student groups at Sacramento State were supporting the UFW even before then. MEChA, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanos de Aztlán, is a Chicano student organization with chapters on many campuses throughout the country. Rodríguez also took note of the recent strike victories against United Parcel Service and the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). "People will appreciate it when BART and UPS workers get that they want," she said.

Jim Altenberg is a member of Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Local 1-5  
 
 
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