8 Protesters Arrested During Janitors Rally : Sylmar: Olive View Medical Center employees tried to distribute flyers to decry working conditions.

Violence broke out Friday at demonstrations by janitors protesting working conditions at Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar, leading to eight arrests and a scuffle in which police purportedly clubbed a TV cameraman and broke a protester’s umbrella that was used as a weapon.

The chaotic series of events began at 11:30 a.m. when about 30 janitors gathered at the hospital to hand out leaflets describing what the janitors said was mistreatment by their employer, Pedus Building Services Inc. Pedus officials declined to comment on the janitors’ allegations.

County Safety Police--an arm of the Department of Health Services--arrested a janitor and two union officials at the hospital for trespassing, said Mario Rivas, an organizer for Local 399 of the Hospital and Service Employees Union. Rivas himself was later arrested along with four others at a later demonstration.

Union officials alleged that safety officers were abusive when they made the first three arrests, kicking at least one man in the ribs after he was handcuffed.

Assistant Chief Victor Turner of the county police declined to comment on specific details surrounding the arrests, but he said those arrested were being held on suspicion of trespassing and at least one woman was being held on suspicion of assaulting a peace officer.

When more than 40 janitors and union representatives converged on the hospital about 3:15 p.m. to hold a news conference to protest the arrests, about five officers told the group they were trespassing on county property and ordered them to leave the hospital grounds.

Officers arrested about five people who refused to leave and at one point some of the officers drew their clubs.

Webb Weber, a cameraman for KCAL-TV, said he was clubbed in the stomach. Union organizer Dennis Mejia said he was pushed to the ground.

Meanwhile, some of the protesters threw handfuls of leaflets at the officers and one janitor hit a female officer with an umbrella. The officer confiscated the umbrella and broke it. One female protester fainted and was taken to the hospital’s emergency room for treatment.

Following the arrests, the safety officers escorted the protesters from the hospital grounds to Roxford Street, where they chanted “justicia”-- Spanish for justice--as they continued their protest for about an hour.

Union officials said workers were trying to distribute the flyers Friday to raise public awareness of poor work conditions, which they said includes excessive workloads, unfair dismissals and suspensions, arbitrary wage reductions and mistreatment and humiliation of janitors by their supervisors.

About 120 janitors are employed at Olive View Medical Center, said Jono Shaffer, an organizer. He said the union now plans to seek support from Los Angeles County Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Gloria Molina and from officials of other unions that represent county employees at the hospital.

“This is just the beginning,” Mejia said.