Paul Bass Photo
Fifty custodians marched to their places of employment at rush hour Monday evening armed not with mops, but with picket signs.
They demonstrated as their union, 32BJ SEIU, continues negotiating a new four-year contract on behalf of 500 Greater New Haven custodians with a coalition of 12 companies that hire them on behalf of city government and owners of commercial office buildings like Century Tower. The union has authorized a strike if the two sides don’t reach agreement by the time the ball drops on New Year’s Eve. (Click here for a previous story about that.)
Before marching, the custodians assembled at City Hall for a 4:30 p.m. rally Monday, filling the air with boisterous responsive chants of “32! … BJ!” “An honest day’s work deserves an honest day’s pay,” State Rep. Robyn Porter (in photo) told the crowd between the chants. “As long as you’re fighting, we’re fighting, too.”
“I know standing up for 32BJ means standing up … for a vision of New Haven in which all our residents have good jobs, have good health care, and have respect in the workplace,” declared State Rep. Roland Lemar, pictured with his son Sahil by his side. Mayor Toni Harp assured the crowd, “I am with you.” And Upper Westville Alder Darryl Brackeen reported on progress of a proposed “janitor’s bill of rights” at the Board of Alders.
“We can be sure, when we go into the fight, New Haven is with us!” 32BJ’s Alberto Bernandez declared after translating previous speakers’ remarks into Spanish. The two sides have reached an agreement on health care; they remain divided on wages. Matt Ellis, spokesman for the Association of Building Contractors, which represents 12 companies in the negotiations, said his side has proposed a raise; he said Monday that it’s encouraging that the two sides have reached the health-care deal and that they continue to talk about wages. Neither side divulged details of the outstanding wage proposals.
In the crowd, Troy WIlliams (at center in photo), a 20-hour-a-week custodian at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School, said he’s ready to strike. “There’s no justice in how hard we work” while receiving $12.40 an hour, the going wage for unionized janitors in town. Williams and many other members receive limited hours per week, so they don’t qualify for health insurance (an issue not being negotiated this year).
Lismary Tavares, pictured center right in photo alongside fellow Century Tower custodian Liz Amanda, also gets only 20 hours a week on the job. She supplements that position by working a cashier 32 hours a week at Ferraro’s supermarket on Grand Avenue. A mother of two girls, she does not receive health care.
After the rally, the marchers chanted as they marched on the Church Street sidewalk two blocks north to Century Tower.
Click on or download the above sound file to listen to a recent episode of WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven” in which two custodians and a 32BJ representative discussed their situation.
State Rep. Robyn Porter (in photo) told the crowd between the chants. "As long as you're fighting, we're fighting, too."
"I know standing up for 32BJ means standing up ... for a vision of New Haven in which all our residents have good jobs, have good health care, and have respect in the workplace," declared State Rep. Roland Lemar, pictured with his son Sahil by his side. Mayor Toni Harp assured the crowd, "I am with you
Wake up workers.Election Time Snake-Oll being sold.There not for you.There for the capitalist class.
The Republican and Democratic parties, or, to be more exact, the Republican-Democratic party, represent the capitalist class in the class struggle. They are the political wings of the capitalist system and such differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles.
Eugene V. Debs
As a rule, large capitalists are Republicans and small capitalists are Democrats, but workingmen must remember that they are all capitalists, and that the many small ones, like the fewer large ones, are all politically supporting their class interests, and this is always and everywhere the capitalist class.
Eugene V. Debs
My Bad I forgot DE OPPRESSO LIBER