cleaners
Articles about work, policy and workers' struggles in the service sector, as distinct from retail, energy and communications.
Janitors' civil disobedience ends in police brutality
A march by janitors in Houston, Texas, was attacked by police on 16 November leaving four inured and 44 arressted.
Taken from Houston Justice for Janitors
Reports on struggle railway cleaners in Italy, 2002
Reports and leaflets on a strike of thousands of cleaning at the state-owned railway in Italy in 2002 which involved rail blockades, slowdowns and strikes.
Documents on cleaners' strikes in Paris and Milan, 2002
Leaflets and information on strikes of cleaning workers in Paris and Milan.
Houston janitors take strike across the country
The strikers have travelled to Chicago, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Washington to rally support from other janitors, in what the union organisers have called a "national escalation plan".
The Houston strike is entering it's second week, with around 1,700 janitors on strike. They are demanding a wage increase from $5.30 an hour to $8.50, and health insurance from their employers. The janitors are employed by several different companies, and are organised in the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
London cleaners demand living wage
The Justice for Cleaners campaign reaches Goldman Sachs, where "hidden workers" are paid only £6.20 an hour.
Cleaners at Goldman Sachs have joined the T&G's Justice for Cleaners campaign, and are demanding higher wages. Goldman Sachs, a leading investment bank, will pay it's full time staff an average of £293,000 this year in bonuses alone.
1,700 janitors on strike in Houston
Janitors from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) went on strike last week asking for a pay rise to $8.50 an hour and health insurance.
The janitors work for several companies, and have been calling for janitors across the city to join their strike. The janitors are targetting ABM Janitorial Services, GCA Services, OneSource, Sanitors Services of Texas and Pritchard Industries Southwest.
1999-2000: The US university living wage campaign
Howard Zinn's brief history of the joint campaign between American university students and staff to win a living wage for all campus employees.
Against a background of several victories in workplace organisation in the US – notably for California cleaners, Boeing workers and Los Angeles health employees - a movement of students and university staff began coming together.
Three day strike at Whipps Cross Hospital
This week there was an escalation in the long running dispute betweeen cleaners, porters and switchboard staff, and their private employers at Whipps Cross Hospital in East London.
By yesterday lunchtime approximately forty workers were on the picket line for the first of three days of strike action involving around 200 members of staff, members of Unison. They are striking to gain "Agenda for Change" levels of wages, agreed three years ago but ignored by Rentokil Initial since they were due to come into force earlier this year.
London: Hospital porters and cleaners on strike
Porters, cleaners and switchboard staff employed by Rentokil Initial, based at Whipps Cross Hospital in East London, have been on strike since 21st July.
An agreement over pay and conditions was made in 2003, due to come into force in April 2006, several other East London hospitals agreed to the deal, only Rentokil at Whipps Cross has failed to honour it. The pay award is roughly equivalent to a £2 per hour raise, for staff who in some cases earn as little as £5.52 per hour, the agreement also included increases in leave entitlement.
Strike wave hits US universities
Janitors at the University of Miami have been on hunger strike for more than two weeks, and were joined by seven students from the university last Monday.
The hunger strike is over anti-union practices by their employer UNICCO, the University's cleaning contractor.
