From SEIU, Texas
Hello everyone,
What a difference a day makes! We have reached a tentative agreement for a 3 year contract for janitors.
Wages: $1.15 increase the first year, $1.00 the second year, and $.50 the third year.
Health Care: The third year is when single payer health insurance will kick in and janitors will pay $20 per month into that plan. It is a plan designed and managed by SEIU and we are hoping to get all of our members nationwide on this plan.
Vacation: Two weeks paid vacation per year
Holidays: 6 paid Holidays
Hours: 1st year everyone must work a minimum of 4 hours a day, 2nd year everyone must work a minimum of 5 hours per day, 3rd year everyone must work a minimum of 6 hours per day.
Protection: We have a grievance procedure in place. We have protection for all of the striking workers to get their jobs back with no discipline, We have a disciplinary procedure in place so that no one can be illegally fired for no reason any more.
Good for the janitors. As I said from the beginning (mainly in comments on BlogHouston) I have been (and still am) sympathetic to the plight of those that are trying to get higher wages and access to health care.
Espeically those who are working full time.
What I don't like (or agree with) is a union shipping in people from out of town with the EXPRESS PURPOSE of causing traffic, societal disruptions in that town, especially to the general public who's not involved (and in little cases has very little say) in the situation or its outcome. This strike wasn't a strike in the truest sense of the word. Only a portion of the janitors were on strike at any given time, and none of the buildings suffered massive service disruptions. Now you can say (rightly) that the strategy employed by the SEIU was a success, but at what cost?
Have we gone so far overboard in this Country that civil (or, in this case, uncivil) discourse has regressed to a point where the only way to make one's point is to disrupt innocent citizens?
What if a woman had been pregnant in one of the cars that was blocked and didn't make it to the hospital?
What if there was a wreck due to the sudden (and unexpected) traffic backup causing someone to get hurt?
What if someone was delayed getting to work (who wasn't supported by the SEIU) and got laid off from their job and lost the ability to put food on THEIR families table?
What if a student missed a test and failed a class which caused them to miss graduation, forcing them to pay for ANOTHER semester?
What if.....
Doesn't matter right? After all, the JANITORS won.
Sucks to be you if you happened to be in the way.
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1 comments:
These guys (janitors) deserve everything they can get. The "BCS" is perhaps one of the GREEDIEST and most underhanded orgainzations alive today.
Just go to Austin, Texas. Check out your local BIG BSC companies and see not just how the janitors recieve low pay rates (at or about minimum wage), but check out the populous of undocumented workers STILL at work for these guys.
They (BSCs) will tout that they have background screening that cancels out all undocumented worker new hires, but have they in turn checked the now current undocumented workers that are working and have been working for them for YEARS?? NO. They continue (knowingly by the companies) to work for them and will until a stop is put in place for these companies. Meanwhile, Kerry fights the illegal immigrant issues on the border - the real illegal immigrant issues are RIGHT HERE on American soil as much as on the border - and companies like these not only exploit workers, they go about what they get illegally and appear to be protected for it.
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