For Immediate Release:
Thursday, October 26, 2006

CONTACT:
Lynda Tran
202-907-1172

Dozens of Striking Janitors Attacked as They Walk Off Their Jobs at San Felipe Chase in Galleria

HOUSTON—About 30 janitors who walked off their job last night as cleaners for San Felipe Chase, owned by Thomas Properties, were threatened by an ABM supervisor who followed them to a waiting bus, before assaulting a young Latino organizer. ABM is one of the five national cleaning companies involved in the strike.

"We were all in shock," said Mercedes Herrera, a janitor who cleans San Felipe Chase. "Some were so afraid they hid under the seats because he was hitting the bus so hard and threatening us.

“He was trying to force his way onto the bus, and the organizer told him no. She tried to block him. But he became even angrier and he pushed her down. He started hitting her and then dragged her out of the bus by her hair."

The organizer, Jesenia Reyes, who works for a local union that helped janitors in Los Angeles win higher wages and health insurance, came to Houston to help janitors here win similar gains. "I was trying to protect the janitors, we were on the bus and everyone was frightened. It was an incredibly violent situation," Reyes said. "These national cleaning companies are not accountable to any one. If this is what happened to us yesterday, in the light of day, imagine what happens to these workers every night behind closed doors."

This morning, a delegation of community leaders went to a Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) board meeting, which happened to be at San Felipe Chase, to brief the owners about the violence and to ask their help in protecting janitors who are on strike. The cleaning companies are hired by the building owners.

More than 1,700 janitors are on strike in key buildings in Galleria, Greenway Plaza, and downtown Houston. The strike in expected to escalate and could spread outside of Houston to buildings cleaned by union janitors employed by the five major national cleaning companies.

More than 5,300 janitors who clean the majority of Houston's office space have 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, they 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.