Signaling increased cooperation amongst low-wage workers, cleaners from five U.S. cities traveled to Indianapolis to pledge support for Indianapolis janitors who are fighting at the bargaining table for the good jobs with health care that Indianapolis needs. At a round table discussion today, janitors from Houston, Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, and Chicago shared their experiences in fighting for and winning industry reforms that improve workers’ lives and strengthen local economies.

“With just wages and good jobs, our communities will improve and we can spend more time with our families,” said Sandra Luz Muños who works for GSF at Well Point. “I’m not just in this struggle for me- it’s for the whole community.”

Janitors from Columbus and Cincinnati discussed their 2007 bargaining-table victories, which will more than double janitors’ income and help bring affordable health care to those cities’ poorest neighborhoods. Houston janitors explained how poor working conditions faced by that city’s 5,700 janitors generated vigorous street protests and a contentious 4-week strike that won a better future for thousands of Houston’s working families and their neighborhoods.

“We are supporting janitors here in Indianapolis because we won wage increases and health care in Houston and we want to see Indianapolis have a better future too,” said Ana Lopez, Houston janitor who works for Sanitors.

1,500 Indianapolis Janitors began negotiations in February with the city’s largest cleaning companies, including American Building Maintenance (ABM), Group Services France (GSF), Mitch Murch Maintenance Methods (4M), Somers Building Maintenance, and Bulldog, who currently offer the majority of janitors just four to six working hours a day and pay between $6.00 and $7.50 an hour with no affordable health care.

The janitors clean the buildings of some of the largest companies in Indianapolis, where corporate giants bring in over $1 billion a day. Most janitors earn less than $10,000 a year and have no access to affordable health care.

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