Strike

Jobs With Justice is reporting janitors at the Union Bank have walked out on strike, as of 4 p.m. today. From the Portland Jobs With Justice e-mail Action Alert:

“SEIU Local 49 members, who work as janitors cleaning the Union Bank of California building in Portland were stripped of their union when Melvin Mark subcontracted out the work that they do to non-union Service Master of Swan Island. While they got to keep their jobs, they lost their union, health care, pensions and wage increases. Come support these workers as they fight to maintain their benefits and the benefits for all janitors in downtown Portland.”

Yesterday, Steve Duin in The Oregonian joined the growing chorus calling for fair pay and reasonable working hours for janitors employed by ServiceMaster (Swan Island). Please read his column.

I want to see many Portlanders standing up to help these hardworking people. Tolerating the employment conditions described in the links above isn’t the Portland way. Please join me at the

If you ever attend events at the Rose Garden or Coliseum, or patronize any of the other downtown businesses whose buildings are cleaned by ServiceMaster employees, or if you simply care about people trying to earn an honest living getting a fair deal from wealthy employers, please come to the demonstration of support.