SEIU Local 3

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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.

This is fueling an increase in the number of families living in poverty that are unable to afford health care, a decent place to live and food for their families. By joining together, low-wage workers are seeking to create a new standard for nearly 165,000 service workers in all three cities. These standards include fair wages, access to affordable health care and full-time jobs. Janitors will lead this effort as they begin negotiating with cleaning contractors who provide janitorial services to the region's commercial offices, malls, banks, universities, airports, pharmaceutical labs, airports, museums, and municipal, county and state offices. Currently, janitors are paid as little as $26 a day, have no benefits and often work part-time.

On April 17th, Janitors and community advocates in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Columbus held a "Three Cities One Future" day of action that called on the area's multibillion-dollar corporations and their leaders to end to poverty-wage jobs that don't create economic opportunity for the cities' families. In Cincinnati, more than a hundred janitors and supporters marched through the economically troubled Over-the-Rhine neighborhood into the city's downtown business district to call attention to the growing divide between the city's poorest and wealthiest people. Their march ended with a rally outside the annual shareholders meeting of $2.8 billion global billing services giant Convergys.

In Columbus, janitors and community leaders testified at a meeting of the Franklin County Commissioners about a recent report SEIU released exposing JP Morgan Chase as being responsible for 1 in 12 home mortgage foreclosures in the area. The group raised concerns about lending practices by JPMorgan Chase that are disproportionately harming low-income families and communities of color.

Meanwhile in Indianapolis, Janitors and community supporters unveiled a new report that shows the cities' working families are continuing to fall behind-a trend with serious implications for the city's neighborhoods and economy. The group protested the failure by area business leaders to support good jobs for working families by delivering the report to Indianapolis Downtown, an association of some of the city's largest and most profitable businesses.

Please visit http://www.threecitiesonefuture.org for more information and updates on the campaign.

April17convergysrally.jpg = "Janitors and Community Supporters March to Convergys Shareholders Meeting through Downtown Cincinnati"