Protesting Janitors Allege Pay Inequities : Labor: Workers march through Downtown, say they seek end to three-tier wage system. Contract talks with employers will open today.

About 500 janitors from all across Los Angeles took to the streets Downtown on Tuesday to protest differing wage rates throughout the area.

The workers, who walked peacefully from 7th Street up Figueroa Street to 3rd and Hope streets, said they want to establish a set wage for all janitorial workers from Downtown offices to the San Fernando Valley.

Officials from Justice for Janitors, which represents 8,000 members through Local 399 in Los Angeles, said the march was in preparation for today’s opening contract talks with building managers and janitorial service companies.

“We want to send a message to the real estate owners, managers and janitorial business owners that we deserve to make enough money to support our families,” said Jono Shaffer, the organizer of the protest.

Currently there is a three-tier wage system used in the janitorial business. Shaffer said janitors who work Downtown make on the average about $6.80 an hour, employees in Mid-Wilshire and Beverly Hills make about $5.50 an hour and most in the San Fernando Valley make the minimum wage of $4.25 an hour.

Shaffer said janitors in San Francisco and New York make from two to four times more than the average workers in Los Angeles.

Father Pedro Villaroya from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, who held a sign and walked with the marchers, said supporting fair wages and health insurance benefits can prevent many from ending up on welfare.

“They are giving to society everything that they have--eight hours of work,” he said.

Villaroya, who serves as a liaison to the Latino community for the church, said janitors have never been given a fair shake.

“These people are doing the job that no one wants to do,” he said. “The least (employers) can do is give us a penny off of every dollar they make. That won’t hurt their pockets.”

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Sam Mistrano, a civil rights lawyer who worked as a janitor to put himself through law school in Minnesota, took an extra long lunch break to join in the march.

“I can’t believe that many of these people are still making the same amount of money that they were 10 years ago,” Mistrano said.