Justice for Janitors Launches Online Media Campaign with New Video

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The video covers downtown janitors’ campaign and explores how Portland’s changing dynamics and development affect the lives of low-wage workers.

1 Building, 2 Lives examines the ultra-wealthy Portland real estate barons who turn their back on struggling immigrant workers in their buildings, while shelling out big money for vanity landmarks and politicians like George W. Bush and Rick Santorum.

The video also tells the stories of individual janitors who fled civil war in the developing world, only to find they have to fight for respect on the job in their new country.

The video launch is the Justice for Janitors’ campaign first step in building an online presence for the Portland janitors fighting for the American dream.

This video, the first of a series about Portland janitors’ struggle, is available to view, share or post on Youtube.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Janitors in downtown Portland work for Servicemaster Swan Island (NYSE:SVM) cleaning the Rose Garden, Memorial Coliseum and buildings owned by local real estate firm Melvin Mark Companies. Forced to work part-time without health insurance, many earn only about 28 dollars a day. Most are immigrants from Latin America and other parts of the world.

To address their deplorable working conditions and win respect on the job, they have been struggling to form a union with SEIU’s Justice for Janitors campaign. Their company and the wealthy real-estate barons that hire them have refused to address these concerns, even after several strikes and the strong support of many prominent local leaders.

For two decades, SEIU’s Justice for Janitors movement has helped low-wage workers achieve social and economic justice and earn broad-based support from the public as well as religious, political and community leaders. More than 200,000 janitors in more than 29 cities throughout the United States have united in SEIU, America’s largest union of property services workers.