NEWS STORY Liberal Hearts Janitors at Lewis & Clark find allies in student body. BY MATTHIAS FRIPP 243-2122

Lewis & Clark College has 1,800 undergraduate students. Eighty-three percent are white, and 2 percent are Hispanic. Tuition and fees are $19,356 for the 1998-99 school year.     Lewis & Clark had an in-house, unionized cleaning staff before it hired Skyline 31Ž2 years ago. The previous workers were offered positions under Skyline, but most left because of Skyline's lower compensation package.

A local union is using some '90s savvy in its drive at Lewis & Clark College. Organizers for Service Employees International Union Local 49 are trying to organize janitors at the private liberal arts college in Portland's southwest hills--and they're trying to speed up the process with the aid of sympathetic students and professors. Throughout the '90s, unions have been challenged by the increased use of subcontractors by large employers, including colleges, which can fragment work forces and make organizing difficult. At Lewis & Clark, the SEIU is fighting this trend by taking advantage of another '90s phenomenon: College students are as eager to march and protest as they have ever been, but--a generation removed from the activism of the '60s--they find few causes to rally around. The organizing drive on the Lewis & Clark campus is part of the SEIU's national Justice for Janitors campaign. Generating public support is a key tactic in the campaign. Organizers hope it will pressure large employers to require that subcontractors recognize the union. In Portland, the campaign has targeted Skyline Building Maintenance, the fastest-growing janitorial company in the region and employer of Lewis & Clark's 25 or so janitors. Fresh off a successful drive among Skyline's workers at Western Oregon University (Scoreboard, WW, Oct. 28, 1998), SEIU organizers headed to Lewis & Clark College earlier this month. Typically a union organizes a workplace by getting a majority of employees to sign "A cards," forcing a union vote. If, in a subsequent secret-ballot vote, a majority of employees support the union, the employer must begin collective bargaining. Union organizer Emile Jorgensen says there's a big problem with that traditional route. Employers often appeal election results for months, which in high-turnover jobs like janitorial services can sap union support. So organizers had the janitors sign a petition designating SEIU Local 49 as their union representative and asked Skyline to officially recognize them based on signatures they'd collected from 15 of the janitors. They have followed up by appealing for support from students and faculty. The janitors, primarily female immigrants from Mexico and Central America who earn $6.25 to $6.75 per hour, found broad support among the campus community. About 140 students, faculty and staff members showed up Nov. 5 at a public meeting, where the union and the janitors presented their demand for collective bargaining. Within a week, students collected more than 750 signatures from students, faculty and staff on a petition demanding that Skyline and the college accept the union. Meanwhile, most of the faculty signed an open letter to college president Michael Mooney urging him to ask Skyline to recognize the union. Laura Benson, a 21-year-old history major from Ashland, says it's natural for students to come out in support of the janitors. She repeats Martin Luther King Jr.'s statement "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" and adds, "There's a network that keeps our community going, and janitors are part of that. If they're getting the shaft, it speaks badly for all of us. You've got to stand up for basic human rights and civil rights, or you don't deserve them yourself." Last week pro-union activity continued on campus as students sent letters to members of the college's board of trustees and showed up at an alumni dinner on Nov. 14 to recruit support for the janitors. Skyline managers are insisting on a traditional, secret-ballot union election; they say they don't think the union really has support from a majority of the janitors. Mooney issued a campus-wide memo last week endorsing the idea of a traditional election. He's vowed to keep the college out of the dispute. But as the standoff continues, the union hopes student and faculty pressure will make that stance more difficult. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published November 18, 1998