California: Silicon Valley Janitors to Strike Today
According to the San Fransisco Chronicle:
Janitors at some of Silicon Valley's marquee technology and biotechnology companies will go out on strike today, having dismissed a contract offer from cleaning companies that employ them as "insulting."
The union that represents the workers, Service Employees International Union Local 1877, said late Monday that janitors will walk off the job at Cisco Systems, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle and other high-tech and biotechnology corporations throughout Silicon Valley and other Bay Area commercial buildings it did not identify.
The SEIU said it had the support of other unions, including Teamsters and construction workers, who pledge not to cross picket lines.
"This is the only way it will be possible to win the benefits that we need for our families," Maria Granados of San Jose said in Spanish, joining an SEIU rally Monday in front of Allied Materials in Santa Clara, where she has worked for cleaning company ABM for nine years.
The cleaning companies have arranged for replacement workers and clients' facilities will be cleaned, said Jim Beard, chief negotiator for the companies.
Beard also defended the offer the employers had made, saying the package represents an increase of more than 20 percent for health, welfare and wages over a four-year period. "That is pretty much in line with the agreements that Local 1877 has reached" elsewhere in California, said Beard, whose company, Beard Affiliates, is in San Francisco...click to continue.
