Janitors Defy Cold and Bosses

As temperatures and twilight fell on the city Tuesday night, music, balloons and spirited union chants filled the chilly air at Farragut Square Park. “Si se puede, si se puede!” chanted hundreds of purple-clad janitors as they massed in the center of the park for a rally and march. “We’re proud of how far we’ve come,” SEIU 32BJ Capital District Chair Jaime Contreras told the crowd, “but there are still thousands of DC-area janitors working for poverty wages.” The union is in the midst of bargaining contracts covering more than 50,000 area janitors who work in the area’s commercial buildings. “These buildings are selling for hundreds of dollars per square foot,” SEIU 32BJ’s Valerie Long said, “yet the bosses tell us they have no money!” After the rally, the janitors conducted a march past many of the buildings they clean on K and L streets to demonstrate their solidarity and determination to win what Contreras called “significant increases in wages and benefits” in contracts that expire later this year. -Report by Chris Garlock