Janitors in Dozens of Cities to Protest Income Inequality; Call on Real Estate Industry to Create Good Jobs

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today janitors in dozens of cities across the country—including Chicago, Houston and New York City—will protest the growing income inequality between the richest 1% and the 99%. Here in Los Angeles, hundreds of workers will march from the UCLA campus through Westwood to draw attention to the impact of inequality on both working-class and middle-class families.

More than 100,000 janitors represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) will sit down with some of country's wealthiest companies this spring to talk about raising standards for workers. Despite working harder, income for 95 percent of American households has either stayed the same or fallen since 1970. In fact, income inequality is at its worst since the 1920s.

"We are at a place in our history where we must make a choice: Will we allow corporations and CEOs to destroy good jobs and the middle class along with them, or will we demand better?" asks SEIU Executive Vice President Valarie Long.

"This year we are not just fighting for janitors," said union activist Guisell Martinez, "but for the entire 99% who are being held back from a better life." Martinez is a janitor with Able Building Maintenance, cleaning the offices of the 1%.

The corporate real estate industry is a prime example of how corporations perpetuate income inequality. The 20 highest paid CEOs in the industry averaged $9.6 million total compensation in 2010—up 84 percent from 2009. While a handful of corporate real estate executives are cashing in, the workers who clean their buildings, mop their floors, and empty their trash are being asked to do with less.

SOURCE Service Employees International Union

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