Drawing attention to the poverty wages and anti-union intimidation faced by Clean Power janitors, a spirited group of labor supporters held a vigil at the entrance of the national headquarters of American Family Insurance, Oct. 27.
Calling for ‘Justice for Janitors’, religious leaders, students and unionists went to insist that American Family take some responsibility for the labor practices of Clean Power, the company that cleans its sprawling office complex on Madison’s far east side.
Clean Power is Madison’s largest commercial cleaning contractor with 44 percent of the commercial office market, a market that is entirely nonunion.
“We made a number of attempts to meet and discuss our concerns with American Family, but they have refused,” said Patrick Hickey, director of the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice (ICWJ). “In our view, companies like American Family Insurance are directly responsible because they’ve bid down contracts so low that janitorial contractors cannot possibly provide decent wages and benefits.”
“These are essential jobs in our community and they should provide a living wage,” said Josh Healey, a supporter from the Student Labor Action Coalition (SLAC). “American Family Insurance should be concerned about the treatment of all the workers in their building because ultimately it reflects on them. We are here to say that the best insurance is a living wage job.”
Last month SLAC wrote to UW Chancellor John Wiley, a member of American Family’s board of directors, expressing concerns about Clean Power’s management practices. Wiley said he took those concerns to American Family “internally” and also planned to pursue the matter with the board.
However, the company “has a firm policy of not seeking to interfere in the business practices of another company” and workers should consider redress through the National Labor Relations Board, said Wiley in his response to SLAC.
The NLRB, union organizers say, has proven it can provide little if any protection for workers seeking unionization these days.
“This is more like ending slavery than union organizing and that takes a social movement, especially given the state of labor law today,” said SEIU Local 1’s lead organizer, Leone Bicchieri. “You can’t win a union election because it’s legal for the company to lie, and it’s illegal if the union does the same. Some of the Clean Power workers wanted to attend the vigil but it was suggested to them that that might not be a good idea.”
As the union becomes more visible, Clean Power has been getting more systematic in its union-busting campaign, forcing workers to watch anti-union videos and telling them not to talk with union organizers, says Bicchieri. “Many workers are afraid to get too close to the union because they’re afraid of company reprisals.”
The head of the Hispanic ministry for Grace Episcopal Church and a member of the ICWJ board, Reverend Pat Size, said she attended the vigil to help raise consciousness about the plight of workers she knows and with whom she worships. “I know some of the struggles they have and how hard they work,” she said. “I also know that they don’t get rewarded the same as other workers.”
“We don’t see these people, they’re invisible,” said Franciscan Friar Phil Gerboch, speaking at the vigil. “They work at times when we are home with our families.”
Friar Gerboch noted the passing of Rosa Parks, a housekeeper, “one who made a difference. We need to honor people like her who work hard yet barely earn a living wage.”
Preceding the vigil, Interfaith Worker Justice and Jobs With Justice chapters in Denver, CO; Columbus, OH; Minneapolis, MN; and St. Joseph, MO, delivered letters to American Families regional offices, said Hickey. The letters asked the regional managers to let American Family’s CEO Harvey Pierce know that they’ve been made aware of what is happening in Madison.
Pressure to Continue
“We’re going to continue bringing more attention to American Family Insurance. The only way they can get away with what they do is to count on ignorance and indifference,” said Hickey. “If it’s happening in the shadows, people don’t know about it. They count on people not caring.”
“It used to be that American Family employed their own janitors and those people received decent pay and benefits,” said Jim Cavanaugh, president of the South Central Federation of Labor. “But that was lost because American Family decided that, to squeeze a few more dollars into their bottom line, they would contract out with Clean Power. On the backs of workers they would make a few more bucks.”
Cavanaugh’s final message was to American Family, Clean Power and it’s janitors: “The labor movement will not go away until janitors receive the dignity and respect they deserve.”