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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Janitors for Justice Part of Big Shift for Labor

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Thursday, June 18, 2015   

PITTSBURGH – Janitors plan to rally on the streets during rush hour tomorrow, as talks start on contracts that cover about 75,000 commercial cleaners in the eastern U.S.

Supporters say it's part of an important new direction for labor.

In Virginia, House Delegate Alfonso Lopez will speak at a rally in Arlington, commemorating the 25th anniversary of what is known as the Justice for Janitors movement. He says when it began, many of the workers made $5 an hour.

Lopez contends raising low pay for service workers and winning union representation has been good for them, and for America.

"It's not just a win for working families, but employers, the economy and the public in general," he insists. "What we're trying to do is make sure we have a stable, reliable workforce that's being paid a livable wage."

The Service Employees International Union in Pennsylvania links the Justice for Janitors movement with the Fight For 15, which is pressing for fast food workers to be paid $15 an hour.

Lopez maintains it's a smart and important direction for organized labor, since many people are trying to support families on these low-wage, service sector jobs.

"A fast-food worker, more often than not, is not a high school student who's just trying to get summer work money," says Lopez. "It's people with families who are working this job and other jobs, trying to eke out a living."

Lopez says one important issue for janitors in the Washington, D.C., area is that too many are only getting part-time hours, with lower pay and fewer benefits. Currently, a part-time commercial cleaner makes $10.60 an hour. Full-time janitors get 50 cents an hour more, and employer-paid health care.

Lopez adds other employers have found that moving service workers to a livable wage has actually been good for profits.

"I think you find you have a more reliable, more loyal and more effective workforce, as opposed to a workforce that is, in many cases, desperate," he states.

Some employers argue they can't afford to guarantee their cleaning staffs a full-time living wage and benefits.

Union officials say the offices their members clean are part of Washington's multi-billion-dollar real estate industry, which can well afford the contract terms.



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