WASHINGTON -- The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) said its members on Wednesday will stage Chevron Day of Action demonstrations at Chevron and Texaco gas stations, protesting what it characterizes as Chevron Corp.'s refusal to ensure that 5,300 Houston janitors, including those who clean its office buildings there, have wages of more than $20 a day or health insurance.
It is also planning major protests outside Chevron's corporate headquarters in Houston and San Ramon, Calif.
More than 1,700 SEIU janitors in Houston [image-nocss] have been on strike since October 23 over alleged civil rights abuses and what the union said is a failure to bargain in good faith by their employers, the five national cleaning companies ABM Janitorial Services, Sanitors Services of Texas, OneSource Facility Services, GCA Services Group and Pritchard Industries Southwest.
SEIU said it wants the five major landlords involvedChevron, Hines, Transwestern, Crescent and Brookfield Propertiesto have their cleaning contractors provide higher wages and more health insurance.
Chevron is failing to hold up its end of the bargain for hard-working Americans, said Andy Stern, International President of SEIU, the janitors' union. Corporations like Chevron have a responsibility to use their power to make sure the American Dream stays within reach for working people. Instead of squeezing low-wage janitors, Chevron should be a leader in making sure we have an economy where every worker has fair wages and health care.
As a major building owner and office tenant, Chevron controls the most office space of any company in Houston, according to SEIU.
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