• Listen to this segment

GUESTS: Raphael Leib, organizer with SEIU, Rebecca Vasquez, works at Century Plaza Towers in Century City

California janitors are back on the streets organizing as part of a state-wide effort to win new contracts with higher wages, access to health care and more. More than 1000 janitors with SEIU’s Justice for Janitors campaign will march and rally in Westwood today. They are part of a movement of 20,000 union janitors across California whose contracts are set to expire this April. According to the Economic Policy Institute, currently California janitors would have to work for 112 hours a week to earn enough hourly wages to support a family of four. Many janitors spend about 90% of their income on rent alone, while others have no access to health care at all. The Justice for Janitors 2008 California Contract Campaign is the janitor union’s largest statewide mobilization effort in history. The janitors will be wearing purple shirts and carrying signs, banners, mops and brooms on their march through West Los Angeles today at 12 noon.

For more information, visit www.seiulocal1877.org.