Post by Papa C. on Nov 22, 2006 12:43:48 GMT
From Eric Lee - Labourstart.org
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Thirteen days ago, we asked you to send off your messages in support ofthe 1,700 office cleaners in Houston, Texas who had been on strike sinceOctober 23.
Your email messages -- more than 3,000 of them -- were delivered to thechief executive officer of oil giant Chevron, whose offices were being cleaned by people earning around $20 per day.
Last night, that campaign resulted in a huge victory for working people.
More than 5,300 Houston janitors won a massive pay increase (more thandoubling over the course of the contract), an increase in hours from fourto six, affordable health insurance (for only $20 per month for an individual), and paid time off from work, something which many of theseworkers have never experienced in their lives.
It's a huge victory for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and not the first of its kind this year.
A few minutes ago, I interviewed the SEIU's property services division director Stephen Lerner about the significance of the Houston victory. You can hear the interview -- it's only 2 minutes long -- here:
www.labourstart.org/radio/podcast/stephenlerner.mp3
You can read the SEIU's statement announcing the victory here:
www.houstonjanitors.org/janitors-victory-11202006/
And of course there's full coverage of the dispute and the victory on
LabourStart itself:
www.labourstart.org
I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers in the United
States a very happy Thanksgiving holiday.
Eric Lee
----------------------------------------------------------
Thirteen days ago, we asked you to send off your messages in support ofthe 1,700 office cleaners in Houston, Texas who had been on strike sinceOctober 23.
Your email messages -- more than 3,000 of them -- were delivered to thechief executive officer of oil giant Chevron, whose offices were being cleaned by people earning around $20 per day.
Last night, that campaign resulted in a huge victory for working people.
More than 5,300 Houston janitors won a massive pay increase (more thandoubling over the course of the contract), an increase in hours from fourto six, affordable health insurance (for only $20 per month for an individual), and paid time off from work, something which many of theseworkers have never experienced in their lives.
It's a huge victory for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and not the first of its kind this year.
A few minutes ago, I interviewed the SEIU's property services division director Stephen Lerner about the significance of the Houston victory. You can hear the interview -- it's only 2 minutes long -- here:
www.labourstart.org/radio/podcast/stephenlerner.mp3
You can read the SEIU's statement announcing the victory here:
www.houstonjanitors.org/janitors-victory-11202006/
And of course there's full coverage of the dispute and the victory on
LabourStart itself:
www.labourstart.org
I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers in the United
States a very happy Thanksgiving holiday.
Eric Lee
