Collection Guide
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Service Employees International Union, United Service Workers
West records
LSC.1940
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Service Employees International Union, United Service Workers West
records
Creator:
United Service Workers West (USWW), Service Employees
International Union (SEIU).
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.1940
Physical Description:
45 Linear Feet
(45 cartons)
Physical Description:
3.1 Linear Feet
(1 unprocessed record carton, 1 unprocessed oversize flat box, 1
unprocessed oversize mounted photograph)
Date (inclusive): circa 1935-2008
Abstract: The collection
documents the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Los Angeles Justice for Janitors
campaign (circa 1986- 2000), in which a low-wage workforce of largely Latino immigrants
re-organized the Los Angeles commercial cleaning industry and organized janitors in
surrounding counties as well. The campaign is widely seen as turning point for the immigrant
rights movement and labor union renewal in the United States. The collection includes
photographs, audiovisual materials, ephemera, internal publications, internal training and
planning records, staff records, research studies, collective bargaining agreements, and
records pertaining to grievances, legal disputes, union recognition, and contract
negotiations. The bulk of the collection contains photographs, audiovisual materials, and
documents from the Justice for Janitors, Los Angeles campaign from three rounds of
organizing and contract negotiations (circa 1986-2000). The janitors' public demonstrations
and campaign staff's research materials are particularly well documented. The collection
also includes records from SEIU healthcare and security guard campaigns in Southern
California and many photos and union legal records dating back to the 1930s.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access
special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on
this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in
English.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in
advance using the request button located on this page.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
CONTAINS UNPROCESSED DIGITAL AND AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: Digital and audiovisual materials
are not currently available for access and will require further processing and assessment.
If you have questions about this material please email spec-coll@library.ucla.edu.
Conditions Governing Use and Reproduction
Copyright to portions of this collection has been assigned to the UCLA Library Special
Collections. The library can grant permission to publish for materials to which it holds the
copyright. All requests for permission to publish must be submitted in writing to Library
Special Collections. Credit shall be given as follows: The Regents of the University of
California on behalf of the UCLA Library Special Collections.
[Identification of item], Service Employees International Union, United Service Workers
West records (Collection 1940). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Service Employees International Union, United Service Workers West, Gift, 2012.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make
them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and
resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level
of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts
more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to
national and local standards and best practices.
Processed by Julia Tomassetti, with assistance from Caroline Luce, June 2012.
Collection processors used original folder titles from collection creators when present and
applicable. Two collection processors are responsible for date attributions on photographs
when dates were not included on creators' original folder titles.
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UCLA Catalog Record ID:
9969521003606533
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a labor union representing almost 1.9
million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States and Canada. In the Los Angeles
Justice for Janitors campaign (LA JfJ) (circa 1986- 2000), a low-wage workforce of largely
Latino immigrants in a de-unionized industry organized through the Service Employees
International Union (SEIU) Local 399/Local 1877. The campaign won three area-wide contracts
covering up to 9,500 janitors between 1987 and 2000 that included increased wages and full
health coverage for 5,000 workers. It reversed the decline in union density in commercial
cleaning by organizing 90 per cent of the building services market in downtown Los Angeles
and the Century City business district. The campaign also unionized janitors in the suburbs
and four additional counties.
LA JfJ is widely seen as decisive event in contemporary struggles for immigrant rights and
labor union renewal in the United States. The campaign is known for the massive member
participation and its rambunctious, dramatic demonstrations and civil disobedience. LA JfJ
had the highest worker participation of any contemporary labor campaign and mobilized
extensive community support. The campaign defined itself around issues of immigration,
inequality, the working poor, and the identities of workers as Latino/a immigrants. Also
notable were its ability to exert political and economic pressure on key contractors and
building owners, informed by careful and extensive research; its legal strategy; and savvy
use of publicity.
The campaign belied the assumption by organized labor that immigrants, and particularly
undocumented immigrants, were not "organizable," due to their lack of interest and the
political obstacles to organizing them. JfJ demonstrated to both the labor movement and Los
Angeles political community that immigrants were eager to organize and ready to fill the
ranks of organized labor as committed militants and experienced leaders.
In the 1970s and 1980s, building ownership became more concentrated and shifted to large
foreign investors. Despite the investment fueling an office-building boom that increased
demand for janitorial services, janitors faced de-unionization, lower wages, degraded
working conditions, and increased employment violations. Outsourcing became more common, and
large unionized contractors began losing competition to non-unionized firms prompting union
contractors to set up non-union units, or "double-breast." Building owners sought to cut
costs, and they lowered the wages that contractors paid to janitors through a competitive
bidding process. Between 1978 and 1985, Local 399's janitorial membership declined from its
1978 peak of 5,000 to 1,800, only 8% of city's janitorial workforce. The union held onto
only a small slice of the downtown market and in 1983 signed its last master contract, which
included wage concessions.
Workforce demographics also changed during industrial restructuring. In 1950, about half of
the workforce was African American, but Latino/a immigrant employment increased and became
dominant during the restructuring. Undocumented immigrants also became a larger proportion
of the workforce. Non-union contractors devolved responsibility for hiring janitors to
front-line Latino/a crew leaders, who recruited from their networks.
Unionization attempts largely failed in 1980s. When the Local won NLRB elections, building
owners or their management companies would terminate the service contractor and switch to
non-union firm. Despite their control over janitors' wages and working conditions, since
building owners and management companies were not the janitors' direct employers, they did
not incur legal liability for retaliation, as would the contractor if it had fired the
workers in the face of an organizing drive. Given the relative market power of building
owners and managers vis-à-vis contractors, the former entered short-term agreements with
contractors, and could easily replace them. Even if a new contractor hired the former
unionized contractor's employees, it generally was under no legal obligation to recognize
the union. Some contractors regularly fired and rehired employees every 2 years to avoid
unionization.
Employment law violations increased as well with restructuring, including violations of
minimum wage and hour laws, workers compensation and unemployment insurance regulations, and
health and safety laws. The devolution of recruitment and supervision to front-line crew
leaders made exploitation harder to detect and curb. Workers were unaware of who was
responsible for their working conditions. Further, small contractors could violate
employment protections with greater facility. Inadequate record keeping and cash payments
made violations difficult to detect and establish, they had few assets available to satisfy
judgments, and they could easily dissolve or file for bankruptcy in the face of a judgment.
LA JfJ began in downtown Los Angeles. Campaign research revealed that only two companies,
and their non-union subsidiaries, dominated the market for large buildings. The campaign
targeted non-union wings of these contractors and persuaded buildings to terminate their
contracts. Following the downtown victory, the campaign focused on Century City, a Westside
business district of expensive office complexes. Janitors struck and held daily
demonstrations. A turning point came on June 15, 1990, when police attacked a peaceful
daytime demonstration of about 300 workers, students, and community activists in plain sight
of tenants and the public. Public outcry and the threat of a janitorial work stoppage in New
York City prompted the largest contractor to negotiate with the janitors.
Using the same strategy and much of the same tactics, despite changing ownership patterns
in the Los Angeles commercial real estate industry, Local 399/Local 1877 successfully
negotiated a second and third contract, in 1995 and 2000, respectively. A well-organized
strike in 2000 with support from the Los Angeles Federation of Labor and other unions
produced a countywide contract covering 5,000 additional janitors.
SEIU Local 399 was founded in the 1940s and began organizing janitors in Los Angeles in
1946. The union also organized racetrack, entertainment venue, stadium and arena, and other
building service workers in the Los Angeles area, including elevator operators and starters.
During the Justice for Janitors campaign, Local 399 represented healthcare workers as well.
In 1995 SEIU International Union placed Local 399 under trusteeship, and in 1997 janitors
separated from Local 399 and joined a statewide janitor union, Local 1877. The Los Angeles
janitors are now part of USWW, an organization of four SEIU building service Locals
representing janitors, security guards, airport service workers, and other building service
workers.
JfJ began in Denver 1986, a city with a relatively small commercial cleaning industry that
served as a laboratory for developing the campaign's strategic repertoire and scalability.
LA JfJ launched publicly in 1987, although research on Los Angeles began in 1986. Prior to
the Los Angeles campaign, through prior experimentation and experience, SEIU's Building
Services Division devised the campaign's strategic backbone-removing wages from competition
by persuading all building owners in a defined market area to agree to hire only union
contractors and persuade all large contractors in the area to agree to union recognition
through neutrality agreements rather than a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
election.
Justice for Janitors, Los Angeles
When Local 399 began organizing janitors in Los Angeles, most janitors were direct
employees of building owners. In the 1950s, as national and international investors replaced
local building owners, some owners began contracting out for cleaning services, although
most janitors were still direct employees of building owners at this time and Local 399
successfully organized several large contractors. Health benefits, pensions, and full-time
jobs for janitors were standard.
The collection includes photographs, audiovisual materials, ephemera, internal
publications, internal training and planning records for the organization, staff records,
research studies, collective bargaining agreements, and records pertaining to grievances,
legal disputes, union recognition, and contract negotiations. The bulk of the collection
contains photographs, audiovisual materials, and documents from the Justice for Janitors,
Los Angeles campaign from three rounds of organizing and contract negotiations (circa
1986-2000). The collection contains extensive photos, ephemera, and organizing materials
documenting the janitors' dramatic and colorful demonstrations, civil disobedience, savvy
use of media, and community alliances. Also well-documented in staff records are the
campaign's strategic corporate and worksite research, organizing efforts, alliance building,
and political strategies. The collection includes considerable material on the campaign's
major organizing efforts, including downtown Los Angeles, Century City, the University of
Southern California, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Hughes Aircraft, and Toyota.
Also included are materials from other recent Local 399 campaigns and records pre-dating LA
JfJ. Photos document Local 399 healthcare worker organizing, as well as SEIU allied division
organizing of stadium, arena, racetrack, and entertainment workers. Older photos include
Local 399 workers from the 1950s-1970s and photos from other unions dating back to the
1930s. The collection includes research and organizing materials for Justice for Janitors
campaigns in Northern California, including its campaign for Hewlett-Packard workers in
Sacramento, and Los Angeles efforts to organize security guards. The collection also
includes many records dating to the 1950s pertaining to the union's representation of
janitors, racetrack workers, elevator starters and operators, and other service workers.
These document legal disputes, union recognition, collective bargaining relationships, and
internal complaints.
Arranged in the following series and subseries:
- Agreements, bylaws, and constitutions
- Ephemera
- Internal publications
- Internal training and planning
- Legal, older
- Photos
- Press
- Research
- Staff records
- Dave Stillwell
- Leticia Salcedo
- Triana Silton
- Aida Cardenas
- Claudia
- Doris Boyd Snyder
- Viren Moret
- Jon Barton
- Rocio Saenz
- Mary Anne Hohenstein
- Oscar Molina
- Jono Shaffer
- Eddie Iny
- Peter Olney
- Rose Hodges
- Other research
- Miscellaneous
- Studies
- Video/computer records
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Building-service
employees -- Labor unions -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archives.
Collective labor
agreements -- Janitors -- California
Service Employees International Union United Service Workers West
--Archives.
- Collection Overview
-
Collection Details
- Conditions Governing Access
- Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
- Conditions Governing Use and Reproduction
- Preferred Citation
- Provenance/Source of Acquisition
- Processing Note
- UCLA Catalog Record ID
- Biography/History
- Organizational History
- Justice for Janitors History
- Justice for Janitors, Los Angeles
- Scope and Content
- Organization and Arrangement