Justice For Janitors - Structure

Structure

The structure used by SEIU for its Justice for Janitors campaigns has been widely recognized for its innovativeness and success. As the labor movement was struggling to gain membership to unions, new models of organizing workers had to be developed. The SEIU strived to increase union membership and participation. The Justice for Janitors campaign utilizes a bottom-up model in which they organize workers based on geographical area rather than just their worksite. It is also an innovative model in that it makes typically unnoticed workers visible and groups them together into larger collections in order to better fight the larger corporations. SEIU also provides trained organizers that are often sent to local unions in order to skillfully organize efforts. The Justice for Janitors campaigns often use disruptive tactics to get their point across.

The campaigns of Justice for Janitors also use master contracts that are market-wide. One contract in a certain market will apply to all union janitors across that market. This allows union workers to fight for different rights while applying any accomplishments to all workers in that market.

The Janitors for Justice campaign began with Stephen Lerner, a former UFW organizer and later head of SEIU’s janitorial division in D.C. Lerner was placed in Denver for his first janitor’s organizing drive. Lerner acknowledges the influence of his work with UFW, and JfJ “was enormously influenced by the tactics…of the farmworkers movement.” Janitors for Justice employed UFW tactics, such as vivid imagery of the exploitation of workers, demonstrations, street theater, hunger strikes, vigils, blockades, clergy-labor alliance, and community organizing. JfJ even adopted the rallying cry of the UFW: “¡Sí se puede!”