MEDIA ADVISORY FOR:
Saturday, November 4, 2006

CONTACT: Natali Fani
301-442-8459

Hundreds of striking janitors, families to receive food supplies from community

Local food drive to support workers preparing for third week of strike

HOUSTON –- As janitors prepare to enter the third week of a growing and public strike, janitors and families will receive food supplies donated by concerned community supporters. Canned food, cereal, rice, beans, jalapenos, and other basic food items will be packed and distributed by community volunteers to striking janitors at 2PM Saturday, November 4 at Jones Plaza in downtown Houston.

WHAT: Community Food Drive in Support of Striking Janitors
WHERE: Tranquility Park (Smith Street between Walker and Rusk)
Downtown Houston
WHEN: 2:00pm, Saturday, November 4, 2006

More than 1,700 janitors are on strike in key buildings in Galleria, Greenway Plaza, and downtown Houston. Janitors who clean the majority of Houston’s office space have among the lowest wages and benefits of any major city in the United States—earning an average of $5.30/hour with no health or other benefits for almost exclusively part-time work. Since forming a union with SEIU last year, more than 5,300 janitors have been seeking a raise to $8.50/hour, more hours, and health insurance in contract talks with the city’s five largest cleaning companies, ABM, OneSource, GCA, Sanitors, and Pritchard.

Janitors have asked Hines and other leading building owners in Houston—including Chevron, Transwestern, Brookfield Properties, and Crescent—to help end the strike by instructing the cleaning contractors they hire to meet the janitors’ proposal for higher wages and health insurance.