WOODLAND HILLS : Janitors March in Protest of ‘Poverty Wages’

Banging drums and shouting for justice, more than 90 janitors marched through Warner Center Friday afternoon, demonstrating for an increase in what they called “poverty wages.”

The approximately 400 San Fernando Valley members of the Service Employees International Union, Local 399, receive minimum wage and no benefits for graveyard shifts at some Valley companies.

Members of the union in Downtown Los Angeles and Century City make entry-level wages as high as $6.80, including health benefits, sick days and weeklong vacations.

The march was the first action in a planned series of demonstrations designed to increase the union’s clout as it begins negotiations on a new countywide contract with companies including International Servisystems, which oversees maintenance services for office buildings in Warner Center.

Union officials expect the first negotiations on the contract to begin next week. The current contract, hammered out in 1991, expires March 31. It allowed for a lower wage scale in the Valley than in other areas.

“It’s very difficult for me to be a single mother and make just $318 every other week,” said Clara Ramirez, 32, of Canoga Park. “All I have left after paying for rent and food is $20.”

Ramirez said working late hours also makes her nervous because she must leave her two children, ages 15 and 12, alone while she works her 6 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. shift.

Heads turned at the lunchroom patios of the tony business center’s restaurants as the march passed through. The workers wore matching “Justice for Janitors” T-shirts and carried signs that read, “Could your family live on $4.25 an hour?”

Many onlookers dressed in natty business attire paused to read flyers passed out by union organizers.

“I would have thought they were well paid because they’re professional and the building is always clean,” said Hector Badillo, who works in Warner Center. He said he had never really thought about the janitors before the demonstration.

The SEIU’s “Justice for Janitors” movement has garnered nationwide attention for organizing a largely immigrant, low-wage work force at a time of dwindling union membership nationwide. Local 399 represents 8,000 janitors in Los Angeles County, about 70% of those who work in office buildings.