Most Century City Janitors Decide to Walk Off the Job

Most of the 180 janitors employed by a company that cleans the majority of Century City’s big office towers walked out on strike late Tuesday after trying unsuccessfully for months to persuade the company to negotiate a union contract, union spokesmen said Wednesday.

The company, International Service Systems, an international cleaning corporation based in Denmark, said it believed that most of the workers would show up for work Wednesday night and that participation in the strike will not be significant enough to affect the cleanliness of the buildings.

Leaders of Service Employees International Union Local 399 said 80% of the janitors were participating in the strike.

The strike is the latest and most dramatic tactic of the union’s nationwide “Justice for Janitors” campaign, which has unionized many downtown office janitorial crews in Los Angeles but has yet to organize a building in Century City.

Well-dressed office workers arriving in Century City on Wednesday morning were greeted at office tower parking entrances by scores of striking janitors, who, according to the union, make $4.50 an hour and receive no health benefits or sick leave.

The union contends that a steady shift by Los Angeles building owners to non-union cleaning companies has cut the average janitor’s hourly pay from $7 in 1983 to near-minimum-wage levels today. Union officials say the non-union janitors represent millions of immigrant workers who are laboring for wages insufficient to pay for shelter and food in urban areas.

In many cities, the union has attempted to put public pressure on building maintenance companies to hire only unionized cleaning companies. That effort has yet to work in Century City.

“If they’re unhappy with their plight in life they can do the same thing I did--change jobs,” said a man who would identify himself only as a representative of JMB Realty Corp., which manages several office towers in Century City and contracts with International Service Systems.

ISS has operations in 13 of 18 office buildings in Century City and employs 14,000 people nationwide. It has signed union contracts in numerous other cities but none in Los Angeles.

Union leaders said Wednesday they are hopeful that the strike will force ISS to recognize Local 399 as the workers’ bargaining agent and negotiate higher wages. Unionized janitors in Los Angeles make $5 to $5.50 an hour as well as overtime and other benefits.

One striking janitor, Anna Flores, a 36-year-old single mother of five who came to Los Angeles from El Salvador nine years ago, said she fears losing her job as the result of the strike. Still, she said, she is determined to hold out for a union contract.

“We need to win this battle. I can’t feed my family on what they are paying,” Flores said, taking from her purse a pay stub showing two-week take-home pay of $329.