Janitors at USC Plan March Over Right to Join Union

More than 100 janitors working at the University of Southern California are planning to march from the campus to the nearby Coliseum today to demand the right to join a union.

Almost 70% of the 200 workers who clean the university and the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center voted in an unofficial ballot to join the Service Employees International Local 1877 last month, according to union organizers. Only 5% voted against joining the union, and the remaining workers did not vote, union officials said.

The primary benefit of joining the union is job security, said organizer Blanca Gallegos.

“Now, the janitors can be fired without any reasons,” said Gallegos.

She said today’s march, which begins at 12:15 p.m. at Exposition Boulevard and Menlo Avenue, will be bolstered by hundreds of workers who support the janitors’ demands.

Gallegos accused Service Master, the private contractor that employs the janitors at USC, of intimidating and harassing the workers so they will not vote to join the union.

“That is absolutely not true,” said Ernestine Sweet, a manager at Service Master. “If they have an election and the election is won by them, they have a right.”

An election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board is scheduled May 23 to determine if the janitors will join the union, which has 20,000 members in California.