USC Janitors Strike in Bid to Gain Recognition for Their Union

After a year of labor tension, subcontracted janitors at USC and USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center have gone on strike to gain recognition for their union and protest what they say are unfair labor practices against workers trying to organize.

The strike began late Tuesday night and continued Wednesday. Strikers plan to march near the campus today.

USC subcontracts its janitorial work for the cancer center and the university’s academic and administrative areas through ServiceMaster, an Illinois-based company. ServiceMaster said it employs nearly 200 janitors at the two locations.

The janitors were once employees of USC. But a year ago the university subcontracted the work to ServiceMaster. A university spokesman referred calls about the strike’s impact to the subcontractor.

The strike is an attempt “to gain protection through a union contract,” said Leticia Salcedo, lead organizer at Service Employees International Union Local 399. “The workers are striking to get ServiceMaster to stop violating their rights in their organizing campaign and to stop intimidating them.”

By Wednesday afternoon, Salcedo said about 85 janitors had walked off their shifts. ServiceMaster officials said only 60 workers were striking.

“It’s a disruption, but a minor disruption under the circumstances,” said Bob Bruce, vice president and labor relations counsel for ServiceMaster. “We are well-positioned to perform all of the services.”

ServiceMaster officials contend that they have urged Local 399 to file a petition to represent the employees with the National Labor Relations Board but that the union has refused to do so.

If a petition is filed, the NLRB would hold a secret ballot election in which workers could vote to determine if they want the union to be recognized as their bargaining representative.

Increasingly, some groups of workers are seeking immediate recognition of their union from employers, rather than submitting to an NLRB election. Union organizers complain that the NLRB election process can take years, and that many employers engage in unfair or illegal tactics, such as firing employees active in union activity.

“The secret ballot election favors the employer overwhelmingly,” Salcedo said. “I don’t doubt for a minute that that’s why they would like to have it.”

Janitors staged a one-day walkout in December. Salcedo said that out of 100 janitors who voted earlier this month on a strike, a majority favored a walkout. Union organizers said they waited until Tuesday night to begin the current job action to catch management off-guard.

ServiceMaster’s Bruce said the company has already hired temporary replacements and asked some nonstriking janitors to work overtime to fill in for the striking workers.