Janitors Hoping ‘On Strike’ Means ‘It Can Be Done’

So, there they are at the corner of 5th and Flower, and we’ve got trouble in the streets. Trouble in downtown Los Angeles on a balmy Tuesday afternoon, with traffic blocked off, police mobilizing and hundreds of citizens squatting or sitting or kneeling on the hot pavement, demanding their rights.

Or perhaps “trouble” is too dramatic a word. An uprising in the streets . . . that’s what this is. A revolt.

For this is far from a riot, a long way from out-and-out civil disobedience, even though a cavalry of 20 cops is triple-parked on horseback, just a block up the street, ready to be called in if necessary, and officers on bicycles are monitoring both ends of the demonstration, front and back, and SWAT officers have been going on and off tactical alert, more than once, ever since Monday when the commotion began.

And who exactly are these people, marching through our city, fouling up freeway exits, disturbing whatever peace exists inside a public library nearby? Are they radical dissidents seeking geopolitical change? Are they militant rebels insisting on the release of a political prisoner? Are they possibly even anti-Castro forces, engaged in a fight against repatriating a 6-year-old boy back to Cuba?

No, they’re janitors.

That’s right, this is a mess being created by janitors, janitors tired of cleaning up everybody else’s, janitors tired of working too many hours for too little pay, janitors who are mad as hell and not going to take any garbage from anybody anymore.

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A spokesman with a bullhorn takes a position in the center of Flower’s six lanes, between Arco Plaza and the library.

“We deserve a living wage!” he calls out to the throng gathered in the street at his feet.

He is the only one standing.

“We clean out their toilets. We scrub their floors. We do their dirty work. Now we’re going to take it to the streets, to let you guys know that we want what we deserve--a union contract, decent wages and some dignity!”

Others shout out their assent.

In identical red T-shirts, with “ON STRIKE” emblazoned on back, they have been on parade since early in the morning, assembling at 8:30 at the busy intersection of 6th and Figueroa, causing cops to close off a Harbor Freeway ramp for close to 25 minutes.

From there they marched to a 10 a.m. meeting of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, in the hope that they would acknowledge the hardship of earning as little as $6.80 an hour.

It was late last Friday night that negotiations between the janitors’ union and 18 cleaning contractors broke down, leaving 8,500 custodians in limbo.

A strike was authorized Monday by approximately 3,000 of the union’s membership. And that’s when Service Employees International Union Local 1877’s mess spilled onto the street. There were downtown demonstrations that night, and LAPD’s tactical alert remained in effect until 1 o’clock in the morning.

Bright and early Tuesday, the janitors picked up where they’d left off. They organized a “rolling” strike, never staying in one place for too long, continually gaining in size like a snowball.

Someone hands me a yellow leaflet, detailing just how dirty the work is . . . the scrubbing, dumping, vacuuming, dusting . . . :

“But no matter how hard we work, we’re constantly forced to make sacrifices to make ends meet. We must work extra jobs to put food on the table. That means we’re forced to give up precious time with our children. With wages that keep us below the poverty line, our paycheck is not enough to cover rent on an apartment that can house our families. So many of us live in crowded conditions, taking in family, friends, even strangers.”

I find Mike Garcia, the local’s president, just as his janitorial platoon rises to resume its march.

“This is really a crucial struggle,” he says. “Los Angeles leads the nation in uninsured workers. It leads the nation in immigrant workers. So, unfortunately, that means Los Angeles leads the nation in exploitation.”

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These are men and women who wake up, pick up a newspaper and read about the “troubles” of a Microsoft and a billionaire like Bill Gates, when all they want, all they need, is an extra $1 an hour.

“Here we have a group of janitors, coming outside and rising up for what’s right,” Garcia tells me. “Otherwise, they live and work in the dark.”

We see his marchers move on, chanting “Si, se puede.”

“It means, ‘It can be done,’ ” Garcia explains, so I tell him I hope so.

Mike Downey’s column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Write to him at Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053. E-mail: [email protected].