FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  
Thursday, September 28, 2006

FOR MORE INFORMATION:    
Lynda Tran, 202-907-1172 cell

Women Leaders, Health Experts, and Janitors Discuss Health Disparities Between Houston and Other Cities

Uninsured janitor Ercilia Sandoval shares struggle to defeat breast cancer

Houston -- Do Houston workers face more health risks than people in other major cities? That question and the differences in pay and benefit standards provided by the nation's largest real estate corporations in other major cities around the country were the focus of a press conference today with the city's top female elected leaders, leading health experts, and Houston janitor Ercilia Sandoval at the Rose Diagnostic Center. Ercilia shared the story of her current struggle against breast cancer while living without health insurance. On Saturday, a number of janitors have committed to walk on Ercilia's behalf as part of the Susan G. Komen Foundation's Race for the Cure.

"My daughters will have to grow up without a mother because without health care, I didn't get early detection and treatment in time for my breast cancer," said Ercilia Sandoval, a janitor with GCA services. "I'm fighting for access to affordable health care for all working families in Houston so no one else has to go through what my family and I are facing now."

Today's press conference with Executive Director of the Susan G. Komen Foundation Michele Ostrander, Dr. Janet Hoagland of The Rose Breast Cancer Organization, President and CEO of the Houston Area Womens' Center Ellen Cohen, and State Representative Ana Hernandez follows on the heels of janitors' vote last Saturday to authorize a strike at any time. Although janitors in Houston work for the same large, national cleaning companies and clean buildings owned by many of the same large, national real estate companies whose janitors are members of SEIU in other cities, they have the lowest wages and benefits of any major city in the United States. Ercilia cleans the offices of a building managed by Transwestern, a national corporation with properties in a number of other cities.

"Ercilia's story is a striking example of what can happen when hard-working people are left without access to quality, affordable health care," said State Representative Ana Hernandez. "It's shameful that the same large commercial landlords who provide good jobs with health care in other cities are willing to let Houston families continue to live in poverty with no health care."

Houston janitors work part-time for an average wage of $5.30 an hour--$106 a week--and receive no health or other benefits. Currently more than one million people in the Houston area are uninsured and another half million are underinsured. Meanwhile, since 1990, 8 in 10 new jobs in Houston have been low-wage, service sector jobs, such as janitorial services, which typically do not provide health insurance for workers.

More than 5,300 janitors who clean the majority of Houston's downtown office space have entered the final stages of contract negotiations over increased wages, more work hours, and access to health care. On Saturday, September 23, hundreds of janitors voted overwhelmingly to authorize their bargaining committee to call a city-wide strike if necessary. More on Ercilia's story.