This is a commentary about the San Francisco janitors union SEIU Local 87. Last spring the feds Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- ICE forced the janitorial contractors to remove 475 undocumented janitors from their jobs in San Francisco high-rise office buildings. I explain in my commentary that I oppose immigrant bashing, and that I support legislation to allow put undocumented immigrants on the path to American citizenship. However it's important to see both sides of this issue, and during the 1990's and thereafter SEIU Local 87 in sending new and/or undocumented immigrants to jobs, was failing to represent it's long time members who were American citizens. Here is my commentary. As you SCROLL DOWN below my commentary, you will see the story by an undocumented immigrant janitor who lost her job. I mention that the union ultimately was not helpful to her either.
Walter
Commentary: Feds Remove 475 Undocumented San Francisco Janitors
From Their Jobs
By Walter Ballin
Tuesday August 03, 2010
As a former janitor and member of SEIU Local 87 for 19 years from 1980-1999 including my having been a shop steward, I found Teresa Mina's story "This Law is Very Unjust!" about the feds removing her from her job very heartbreaking. I am strongly opposed to immigrant bashing. I support legislation to allow undocumented immigrants to pay their fine and to become American citizens, and the process for people to become citizens must be speeded up. However I do believe that Local 87 and I suppose other unions are doing very little to encourage their members to learn English, to become American citizens, register to vote, and learn about the unions that they belong to. I certainly found this to be the case with Local 87. Why didn't the Local 87 officials help members like Teresa Mina fill out their employment applications with the contractors, and see to it that they had the documents that they needed to present?
Here is the story of the last couple of years of my experience as an SEIU Local 87 member. In November 1997, the office building that I was working in became vacant. It was a good day job in a Blue Shield building where I enjoyed an excellent work environment. After the building was vacated, the contractor I was employed by cut my hours from full-time to 27 hours and then to 12(one of the buildings that the contractor sent me to afterwords had gone non-union).
This particular contractor had just taken over my building(the Blue Shield building that became vacant) one year prior. Under the union contract, that contractor took over my seniority of which I had 18 years. It was a small contractor and supposedly the contractor didn't have another building to place me in. I was forced to go back to the hiring hall and get dispatches to buildings that the prior contractor whom I was employed by, cleaned. I lost all of my seniority. My pay went down from $13.75 per hour to something like $9.69 per hour.
On several occasions, I made requests to the local to properly represent me, by arranging with the contractor to place me into a permanent position and restore my seniority and pay. I was repeatedly rebuffed in my attempts. During this time, I heard of many instances from reliable sources that there were new janitors obtaining jobs in buildings without ever having to follow the union's rules, by going to the hiring hall to obtain a dispatch.
On one occasion, while working in a building where I had to obtain a dispatch, I found out that a 16-year-old fellow was working there without a dispatch. It was for one night. He happened to be the son of another janitor, whom the contractor allowed to come in and work. This was just one of many cases, where the Local 87 officials simply turned their heads.
There was also a situation where a contractor, fired a foreman for sexual harassment. The local arranged for him to be hired on as a foreman for another contractor with full seniority. I heard that he even received $1.00 per hour more with the new contractor. I also must mention that during the 1990's, it seemed to me and some other Local 87 members who I spoke with of various ethnicities that there was at least an unofficial arrangement between the union and the contractors to give jobs to new immigrants at the expense of American citizens, including those who were longtime union members.
There were many cases where janitors faced disciplinary action including loss of income, for not being able to handle the heavy workloads. They did not receive proper representation from the local. In fact, one business agent actually told members that the problem was their fault in the presence of management. During this period, several Local 87 members concurred with me about the wrongdoing on the part of the local's leadership. Many office buildings were going non-union. While a good part of that was because of greed on the part of building owners, part of that was because of the mismanagement of the local.
When I joined SEIU Local 87, the union was led by President Robert Parr. Under him and officials who preceded him such as Herman Eimers, Rex Kennedy, and the founders Charles and George Hardy, janitors enjoyed excellent wages, benefits, and working conditions. Unfortunately during the 1990s and the first few years of the 21st Century, workloads in many of San Francisco's high-rise office buildings drastically increased along with a deterioration of working conditions. Teresa Mina's mentioning that often because of the very heavy workloads, she didn't have time to take her lunch or breaks, sounds very familiar to me. Nothing has changed, I see. The job of a labor union, is to represent its members and among other things, to see to it that the members have decent working conditions and that the workloads are humanly possible to perform.
As for what happened to me, I ended up going on workers comp in early 1999 due to back injuries and a hernia. I settled my case. I am retired and I'm very active in community affairs in Chico, California where I live.
Story Of Undocumented Immigrant Janitor Who Lost Her Job
http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2010-07-27/article/35935?headline=First-Person-This-Law-is-Very-Unjust-
I come from Tierra Blanca, a very poor town in Veracruz. After my children's father abandoned us, I decided to come to the U.S. There's just no money to survive. We couldn't continue to live that way.
We all felt horrible when I decided to leave. My three kids, my mom, and two sisters are still living at home in Veracruz. The only one supporting them now is me.
My kids' suffering isn't so much about money. I've been able to send enough to pay the bills. What they lack is love. They don't have a father; they just have me. My mother cares for them, but it's not the same. They always ask me to come back. They say maybe we'll be poor, but we'll be together.
I haven't been able to go back to see them for six years, because I don't have any papers to come back to the U.S. afterwards. To cross now is very hard and expensive.
My first two years in San Francisco I cleaned houses. The work was hard, and I was lonely. It's different here. Because I'm Latina and I don't know English, if I go into a store, they watch me from head to foot, like I'm a robber.
After two years, I got a job as a janitor, making $17.85 per hour. Cleaning houses only paid $10. But then I was molested sexually. Another worker exposed himself to me and my friend. When we went to the company and filed a complaint, they took me off the job and kept me out of work a month. They didn't pay me all that time.That's when my problems started, because I called the union and asked them to help me. After that, the company called me a problematic person, because I wouldn't be quiet and I fought for my rights. Sometimes they wouldn't give me any work.
When you work as a janitor you're mostly alone. You pick up trash, clean up the kitchen and vacuum. These are simple things, and they tire you out, but basically it's a good job. Lots of times we don't take any breaks, though. To finish everything, sometimes we don't even stop for lunch.
No one ever said anything to me about immigration for four years. But then the company gave a letter to my coworkers, saying they wouldn't be able to continue working because they had no papers. About 40 people got them at first. Eventually I got a letter too.
The person from human relations said immigration had demanded the papers for all the people working at the company. She said 300 people didn't have good papers. People whose papers were bad had a month to give the company other documents. If the immigration authorities said these were no good too, we'd be fired. She said the immigration might come looking for us where we lived.
We had a meeting at the union about the letters. Some people in that meeting had papers, and came to support those of us who didn't. They said when they first came here they had to cross the border like we did, in order to find work.
They complained that so many of us were being fired that the workload increased for people who were left. The union got weaker too. We're all paying $49 a month in union dues, and that adds up to a lot. We're paying that money so that the union will defend us if we get fired like this. In that meeting we said we wanted equal rights. No one should be fired unless the immigration arrests us. We don't want the company to enforce immigration law. The company isn't the law.
The company gave me no work in December and January. I was desperate. I had no money. I had to move in with someone else, because I couldn't pay rent. I couldn't send money home to my children.
I was so stressed I fell and broke my arm, and was out on disability. Then I went back to work, and when I went to get my check, the woman in the office wouldn't pay me until I showed them new immigration papers. She gave me three days to bring then, and said if I didn't I'd be fired. I asked her, "so you're the immigration?"
I felt really bad. I spent so many years killing myself in that job, and I needed to keep it so I could send money home. But I couldn't keep fighting. I didn't want my problems to get even bigger - I could tell things would only get worse.
I went back after three days, and told the company I didn't have any good papers. I asked for my pay for the hours I'd worked, and my vacation. I told them I had a flight back to Mexico and needed my check. They only paid me 60 hours, though they owed me 82. They knew I was leaving and couldn't fight them over it. The union did get me something. If I come back with papers within two years, I'll get my job back.
This law is very unjust. We're doing jobs that are heavy and dirty. We work day and night to help our children have a better life, or just to eat. My work is the only support for my family. Now my children won't have what they need.
Many people are frightened now. They don't want to complain or fight about anything because they're afraid they might get fired. They think if we keep fighting, the immigration will pick us up. They have families here. What will happen to their children? Nobody knows. They worry that what's happened to me might happen to them.
I can't afford to live here for months without working. I came to this country to work for my children. But if this is what happens because I've been fighting and struggling, I'd rather leave, and go home and live with my children. In the end, they need me more.
So I guess I'll go back to Tierra Blanca. I'll work in the fields or try selling food there. My family says the economic situation at home is very hard. I'm not bringing much money home. But I like to work, and I know I'll find a way.
Teresa Mina was a San Francisco janitor, member of Service Employees Union Local 87, when she was fired because the company said she didn't have legal immigration documents. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told her employer to fire 463 workers because they lack legal immigration status. She told her story to David Bacon the day before she returned to Mexico.

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