Justice for Janitors

In 1994, after ten years of organizing, the Janitors Union in Washington, D.C., had only organized about 20 percent of the commercial real estate buildings downtown — not nearly enough to have the power to raise wages in the sector. A change in strategy was required. Over the next two years, Justice for Janitors organized a series of “Days of Rage”: creative escalating actions weaving together corporate campaigns, worker organizing, community support, and direct actions. Within the year, 5,000 janitors — 90 percent of those working in D.C. — were unionized and had won wage hikes and benefits. It was a huge victory. Justice for Janitors had hit upon one of the most successful union organizing strategies in recent US history, and the Days of Rage model has been repeated in many places since then.

The model requires several key components: 1) a visibility campaign (see: TACTIC: Visibility action) designed to reach the collective consciousness, 2) strategic research and campaign planning to create a map and calendar of opportunities, and 3) creative and escalating direct actions focused on a clear target. Combined, these elements help create a political crisis that forces the opponent to either resolve the issues or lose standing in the community (see: PRINCIPLE: Put your target in a decision dilemma).

“D.C. Has Carr Trouble” was our main slogan in December of 1994. Oliver Carr was the biggest commercial real estate owner in D.C. and we thought our little pun creative, given how traffic was sure to be impacted by our bridge-blockading actions. We blocked buildings and parking garages of real estate giants, took over lobbies and the streets, and got arrested throughout the week.

We had captured the hearts and minds of people in D.C. for whom janitors were no longer invisible.

In March we went to the homes of real estate moguls and blocked the roads to the Capitol building by erecting mock houses in traffic lanes. Then we simultaneously took over the City Council Chambers, the office of Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and disrupted Congress from the House Gallery right after the morning prayer, demanding that the wealthy pay their fair share.

September culminated in a massive action shutting down a major bridge from Virginia into D.C. In the middle of the highway, hundreds of janitors erected a classroom, complete with desks and chalk boards. We also parked a school bus and a school van across all four lanes, effectively closing the bridge.

When called out for blocking the bridges, SEIU President John Sweeney replied: “I believe in building bridges whenever [we can] be a full partner with our employers and a full citizen of the communities we live in. But I believe in blocking bridges whenever those employers and those communities turn a deaf ear to the working families we represent.”

The September actions had an impact beyond our expectations. Some Cabinet members couldn’t commute in. Flights were delayed at Reagan National Airport and the Senate had to delay votes. Needless to say, it was soon made a felony to block a bridge in D.C. Meanwhile, though, we had captured the hearts and minds of people in D.C. for whom janitors were no longer invisible.

The Justice for Janitors creative direct action model of organizing has been used again and again to great success, including the series of street actions in New York during the week of May 12, 2011, which to some degree set the stage for Occupy Wall Street and the growing movement against big banking.

Originally published in Beautiful Trouble.