Janitors in Houston work hard scrubbing bathrooms each night at the headquarters of some of the most profitable and powerful corporations in the world. On average, they make as little as $9,000 a year and are forced to struggle in poverty. No one who lives and works in a city with so much wealth should raise their children in poverty.
With the cleaning companies that employ over 3,200 janitors refusing to boost wages by more than 50 cents over five years, they had no choice but to strike. As the Houston janitors enter their fourth week on the picket lines it is clear that they will only win if we do all we can to support their campaign.
Please help us support these janitors as they take a stand for working families.
Though the janitors are struggling, Houston is not. The commercial real estate market is strong, leaving no excuse for the cleaning companies not to pay their workers a living wage. Even in Detroit — where vacancy rates are higher and rental rates are lower than Houston — janitors are paid almost $3 more an hour than those working in Houston.
In Solidarity,
Mary Kay Henry
President, SEIU