Talking Trash : Strike Supporters Sweep Through Century City

More than 400 marchers stormed Century City office buildings Friday and trooped through the Century City Shopping Mall to support striking janitors who work in 11 of the area’s 17 high-rises.

The march was organized by Local 399 of the Service Employees International Union, which has been trying to unionize employees of International Service Systems. The Denmark-based company holds contracts in the 11 buildings where maintenance workers went on strike Wednesday.

At lunchtime Friday, shoppers and office workers stood aside, gaping, as the crowd of demonstrators, many wearing red T-shirts reading “Justice for Janitors,” began massing at 2029 Century Park East. To the beat of conga and snare drums, the chanting marchers barged into office lobbies and blocked traffic as they paraded across Century Park East and Constellation Boulevard.

The group tossed bags of garbage into the revolving doors of one office building and plastered tiny orange stickers reading, “Who will clean your offices?” on walls, doors and windows along the way.

At one point, 15 Los Angeles police officers equipped with riot helmets and batons ordered the group to disperse. But the marchers ignored their commands, leaving the officers standing in formation, outnumbered and unable to stop the two-hour demonstration.

“It’s a terrific success,” labor organizer Stephen Lerner said afterward. He said Century City “is a sort of isolated, very elite community, but you can’t wall off poor people and people of color. We’ll come here until we get justice.”

But International Service Systems attorney Christopher Burrows accused the group of assaulting security guards, harassing workers and trespassing on private property.

Burrows said he believes that Friday’s demonstration violated a March 15 Los Angeles Superior Court injunction that restricted the union’s activities at the site. The union will be asked at a June 22 hearing to prove that it has not violated the injunction, Burrows said.

Burrows accused the union of using coercion instead of holding an election. “They’re using these tactics because the employees don’t support them,” he said.

Union organizer Jono Shaffer said the union has been trying for months to be recognized as the bargaining unit for the 200 workers who clean the buildings under contract with International Service Systems, but the company has ignored them.

Shaffer said workers at the same buildings belonged to unions and earned $7.32 hourly plus benefits in 1983. But the contracts were taken over by non-union companies, including ISS, which pay only $4.50 hourly with no benefits, he said.

“They created a whole new group of workers in poverty,” Shaffer said. He said Friday’s demonstration was to pressure building owners to change to unionized maintenance companies.

But Patty Brewer, a spokeswoman for JMB Realty Co., which owns four of the struck buildings, said the owners have nothing to do with the dispute and no reason to change maintenance contracts because the buildings are being cleaned satisfactorily despite the strike.

Office workers and shoppers watching Friday’s demonstration seemed puzzled. “Who’s ISS?” one worker asked.

Most office workers said trash pickups and office cleanings were continuing as usual. “It’s the same,” insurance account executive Shirley Yeung said. “I do not note anything different.”