ANNALS OF LABOR Janitors jam for justice BY SARAH GOLDSTEIN

Amauris Casares, a janitor who worked for years at the Bank of America office building in downtown Providence, learned May 31 that he was out of a job. The cleaning subcontractor that hires the janitors had changed, and the new company planned on replacing Casares and his fellow workers the same day. Casares’s story echoes the experience of thousands of commercial office janitors around Rhode Island. Because the janitorial industry is run almost entirely through outside cleaning contractors, even janitors who have worked in a building for years can lose their jobs, without advance notice, when the building changes cleaning contractors.

Kicking off a statewide campaign to unionize janitors, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 615, held a June 15 march and rally to support Justice for Janitors Day. A related ordinance before the city council would impose a 90-day delay against firing janitors when a cleaning contractor changes. Organizers hope to unionize the janitors in Providence’s commercial office buildings and then move on to the rest of the state.

A job can mean the difference between getting by and falling into economic peril, especially for part-time immigrant workers who make little more than minimum wage and don’t receive benefits. Yolanda Flores, who was let go from the Turks Head building in 2003, says, "Friday, we came home normally. Monday, we showed up to work and there was a whole new crew of people. They told us, ‘There’s no work for you — go home.’ " Flores, who sends money back to her family in El Salvador, went months without a paycheck before finding a new job.

Doug Bailey, a spokesman for UNICCO, one of the major cleaning companies hired in downtown Providence, says the company attempts to retain workers whenever possible, but he was unable to provide examples of workers retained in Providence.

Energy ran high during the rally, as the crowd of approximately 80 people marched down Westminster, sometimes blocking traffic. Ward 10 Councilman Miguel Luna and Ward 1 Councilman David Segal cited the need for Providence workers to get a share of the downtown development boom. Council president John Lombardi, although not at the march, expressed his support, saying the ordinance is an issue of "fundamental fairness," and that janitors should not face the loss of their jobs without cause.