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Tri-Cities Janitors Kick-Off "Three Cities One Future" Campaign in Fight for the American Dream

At the end of March, janitors throughout the tri-cities kicked off their "Three Cities One Future" campaign. Like many cities across the nation, Cincinnati, Columbus and Indianapolis are seeing an explosion in low-wage service sector jobs that do little to provide opportunity to full-time working families.

Crystal Worthy of Pittsburgh Helps Cincinnati Janitors Have a Shot at the American Dream

Crystal Worthy is a janitor at the Pittsburgh International Airport and a long-time member of SEIU Local 3. She is one of many janitors from across the Midwest that are taking time off from their jobs and time away from their families to help the janitors in Cincinnati fight for jobs that have health care and can support their families. She and the other Member Organizers are uniting the janitors to fight for their first ever Union contract.

“I really like being here and showing the janitors what they can do if they work together,” said Crystal. These janitors make $6.85 an hour and work part time. I met a woman who has 3 jobs and lives in a homeless shelter and another woman who is a single mom with 4 kids including an infant. They need decent jobs to live.”

Pittsburgh Local 3 Members Fight for Mass Transit

This will make it impossible for many of our members to get to work and that will have a devastating effect on their families and the communities they live in. A good job doesn’t mean much if you can’t get to it.

The Local has joined forces with other community allies (ACORN, UNITE HERE, Save Our Transit, the League of Young Voters and the Mon Valley Unemployed Committee) in “The Campaign to Stop the Bus Cuts”.

Union Sends Peters Township Para-Professionals to Conference on Students with Disabilities

Olga Ellsworth and Pam Slomiany are para-professionals in the Peters Township School District who work with children with disabilities.  One of Pam's students has Asperger's Syndrome.  In late March, Pam and Olga, along with members from other SEIU Locals, attended a conference entitled "Inclusive Education: Making It Happen." The conference was sponsored by the Parent Education & Advocacy Leadership (PEAL) Center, a new organization dedicated to making sure that children, youth and adults with disabilities can participate as full members of their schools and communities.

Olga Ellsworth on left and Pam Slomiany on right

"Being an SEIU member provided me with the opportunity to attend this wonderful conference," said Olga.  "Students with disabilities must become engaged and active participants in the classroom and this conference will help me do that."

Pam said, "The high point for me was to hear Stephen Hinkle from California talk of his experiences with students that have Asperger's Syndrome.  Olga and I are going to make sure we share this information with all our co-workers."

SEIU Local 3 Members

Justice for Janitors

Formed in Denver in 1985, Justice for Janitors is in its 19th year. The campaign is about hard-working janitors uniting for fair working conditions with support from our communities. Over the years, Justice for Janitors has worked to provide better wages, basic benefits, and job security for janitors who clean buildings in major cities and suburbs.

This year, janitors in Columbus, Detroit, Cleveland, Toledo, and Pittsburgh are coming together to form a single building service local union in the Midwest, SEIU Local 3. Together, members from the four cities are building a strong union to win better pay, health benefits, pensions and working conditions. 

In today's world, workers need to coordinate and pool resources to deal with employers who tend to be regional and/or national companies.  Employers in the Midwest, like Lakeside, have grown bigger and more powerful. It's time building service workers pooled our resources, developed joint strategies and provide each other with mutual assistance so we don't have to take on companies like Lakeside alone.

Uniting workers who do the same work who've been a part of different unions has worked in other parts of the country.  In 2001, building service workers in New York, Long Island,  Connecticut and New Jersey, all of whom had been members of separate SEIU locals, came together to form a single union because it was the best way to increase their strength and unity.