Workers were prepared for a strike as the contract expired at midnight on May 31. Union officials kept negotiating and reached a proposed agreement a couple of days later. The contract fight in this area followed strikes by janitors in several cities around the country. Janitors recently waged successful strikes in Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Diego. In each case they won significant labor solidarity and public support through organizing rallies and large picket lines, and won improvements in pay and benefits.

In the Bay Area too, Service Employees International Union Local 1877, with 5,500 members, had launched an active campaign to demand better wages, lower health-care payments, and a contract of shorter duration. Over the last few weeks they held picket lines and rallies in the four counties where they work--Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and San Mateo.

Some 700 union members rallied at Todos Santos Park in Concord in a show of confidence and resolve. Banners at the rally read "Ready to Strike," "A Bedroom for Our Kids," and other slogans. Clad in red "Janitors for Justice" T-shirts, the throng of unionists chanted "Sí se puede" (Yes we can) and marched in a disciplined column through two nearby worksites, a Bank of America administrative center and a Morgan-Stanley Dean-Witter stock brokerage building.  
 
Pay and health coverage
Workers interviewed by the Militant outside the June 3 contract meeting stressed that the key issues were better wages and paying less for health care.

"I have worked more than 20 years in the industry and I earn a little more than $10 an hour working in San Jose," said Rosendo Pérez-Chica. "We're organizing people more, and I hope we can win by this. If we don't get our demands, we will go on strike. I am more confident about the union because of this struggle," he added in an interview before the vote.

"I make $8 an hour after working in San Jose for two years," said Elbia Huerta, who has taken part in many of the recent marches. "My family pays $1,200 a month for two bedrooms, plus we pay for light, garbage and water. We pay $70-80 a month for medical benefits."

To make ends meet, an estimated two-thirds of the janitors are forced to work second jobs. Often workers bunch into apartments with relatives or other families. For example, Baldomero Alvarez, a janitor working in Fremont, lives with his parents and shares a single room with his wife and two daughters. Housing costs in the San Francisco Bay Area are among the highest in the country.

The janitors here won a 70-cent an hour increase the first year and an additional 65 cents an hour in the next two years of the contract--about an 8 percent increase over three years. Janitors' hourly wages will rise from an average of $7.64 or $8.04, depending on the county in which they work, to an average of $9.64 or $10.04 by the end of the contract.

Under the first-year wage increase, the higher-paid janitors will be making only a little more than $18,000 a year based on a 40-hour workweek. That is just slightly above the $17,000 official poverty level in Santa Clara County.

With the new contract, workers' health insurance premiums will be rolled back to pre-March 1 rates. The employee contribution to health insurance will be reduced by 43 cents an hour by the third year of the contract. Their out-of-pocket costs had nearly doubled in April when premiums rose from about $40 a month to $71.

The union won a three-year contract instead of the five-year pact initially demanded by the bosses. It will have the same expiration date as the Los Angeles contract, giving workers in California more combined strength when they fight for their next agreement.

The contract vote meeting was conducted primarily in Spanish. Tom Csekey, the janitors' chief negotiator, gave the main presentation in Spanish outlining the proposals and recommending approval.

Deborah Liatos is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. Larry Lane is a member of the International Association of Machinists. Jim Gotesky, a member of the United Steelworkers of America, also contributed to this article.  
 
 
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