Posted on 11/18/2006 8:13:39 PM PST by Snickering Hound
In an unprecedented transparent attempt to severely limit the right to peaceful protest and freedom of speech of low-wage Houston janitors and their supporters, a Harris County District Attorney has set an extraordinarily high bond of $888,888 cash for each of the 44 peaceful protestors arrested last night. Houston janitors and their supporters, many of them janitors from other cities, were participating in an act of non-violent civil disobedience, protesting in the intersection of Travis at Capitol when they were arrested in downtown Houston Thursday night. They were challenging Houston's real estate industry to settle the janitors' strike and agree on a contract that provides the 5,300 janitors in Houston with higher wages and affordable health insurance.
The combined $39.1 million bond for the workers and their supporters is far and above the normal amount of bail set for people accused of even violent crimes in Harris County. While each of the non-violent protestors is being held on $888,888 bail ...
* For a woman charged with beating her granddaughter to death with a sledgehammer, bail was set at $100,000;
* For a woman accused of disconnecting her quadriplegic mother's breathing machine, bail was set at $30,000;
* For a man charged with murder for stabbing another man to death in a bar brawl, bail was set at $30,000;
* For janitors and protesters charged with Class B misdemeanors for past non-violent protests, standard bail has been set at $500 each.
More than 5,300 Houston janitors are paid $20 a day with no health insurance, among the lowest wages and benefits of any workers in America.
Community activists and leaders expressed concern and dismay today at the police's use of horses to intimidate and corral janitors participating in the non-violent civil disobedience Thursday night in downtown Houston. The police's choice to use horses to stop the protest resulted in four people being injured, including an 83-year old female janitor from New York.
In a statement released today prior to the bonds being set, U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee said, "A protest is a sign of freedom in the United States and exercises our basic rights to free speech."
Photos and video shot by people in the crowd during the incident are available on http://www.houstonjanitors.org/
More than 1,700 SEIU janitors in Houston have been on strike since October 23 over civil rights abuses and a failure to bargain in good faith by their employers, the five national cleaning companies ABM, OneSource, GCA, Sanitors, and Pritchard.
With five of the most influential players in Houston's commercial real estate industry refusing to intervene in the dispute, the workers' strike against five national cleaning firms is increasing in scope and intensity. In the highly competitive market of contract cleaning, it the building landlords that hire the cleaning firms that negotiate and set rates for janitors' wages and benefits. These five major landlords, Hines, Transwestern, Crescent, Brookfield Properties, and the oil giant Chevron, have the power to settle the strike by directing the cleaning contractors they hire to provide higher wages and health insurance all workers need to support their families.
In every city, the janitors work for many of the same national cleaning firms in buildings owned by the same national commercial landlords. But, while janitors in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and other cities make more than $10 an hour, have health insurance and full-time work, Houston workers are paid an average of $20 a day, with no health insurance for part-time work.
Last fall, 5,300 Houston janitors made the historic choice to form a union with SEIU (Service Employees International Union). Their decision capped one of the largest successful organizing drives by private sector workers ever in the Southern half of the United States. Since forming a union with SEIU, Houston janitors have been seeking a raise to $8.50/hour, more hours, and health insurance in a citywide union contract. For more info, visit houstonjanitors.org
More than 225,000 janitors in 29 cities are members of SEIU.
I think these guys are going to be munchin on baloney sandwiches behind bars a while!
Call in the INS too.
Who is going to clean up this mess?
The SEIU has a lot of bread, and these out of town protestors have no connection to the area.
This bail seems a bit excessive to insure that these suspects make it to trial, but a substantial bail is certainly in order.
Don't mess with Texas, esp Houston, who is still dealing with their last bunch of guests.
They shut down traffic at Rusk and Capitol in Downtown Houston during afternoon rush hour.
KTRK is reporting tonight that the union has decided to return to the bargaining table after this debacle.
Dang. Life without parole.
This is freakin' outrageous.
Can they sue the DA?
I suppose they though they would get a fussing and be turned loose. Who do they think they are, Cindy Shehan?
Houston workers are paid an average of $20 a day, with no health insurance for part-time work.
Somebody needs a raise to $888,888 an hour....
The DA needs to do the same thing the next time the illegals take to the streets.
I have to respectfully disagree. Even if this group did not have any required permits to assemble the bail set is outrageous. Remember how the RICO lawsand buffer zones have been used to silence anti-abortion protestors. Remember how speech codes are used to quell conservative opinions on campuses. Remember how peaceful protest helped this nation realize such things as the wrongs of racial segregation.
I have no argument with arresting these people if they were disobeying the law or ignored a peace officers order to disperse. If there were illegals in the crowd by all means INS should be contacted, with the view they should be deproted.
However the American citizens arrested should not be subject to a bail that is far in excess of that for assault, murder and other crimes against person and property. Our laws and courts should never be used as political weapons to stifle peaceful dissent or protest.
The last thing you should do when picketing is stop traffic. Any sympathy or goodwill you might have amongst people commuting is lost forever. If you want to picket, do so on that nice sidewalk over there and stay the hell out of the streets.
In one breath these whiners refer to $10 an hour wages, and then refer to $20 a day for the janitors. Apples and Oranges. What is the hourly comparison of wages, and what is the daily hours worked under existing contracts for the janitors now?
Civil disobedience.....is still disobediance.
"More than 5,300 Houston janitors are paid $20 a day with no health insurance, among the lowest wages and benefits of any workers in America"
Maybe these people should get real jobs.
My objection was to the very high bail set for American citizens. I still think legal peaceful protest by citizens is a legitimate expression of speech.
I do favor the deportation of illegals and have no objection to arresting those who are gathered illegally or ignore orders to disperse.
I do not doubt some were disruptive- reason enough to haul them to jail. But if the article truly reflects bail set for other violent crimes the bail was excessive.
In that case I hold that bail was used to indimidate these persons from engaging in legal, peacefull protest and not as a means to insure their appearance in court.
If a court finds that the protests were illegal by all means levy the appropriate fines and penalties but until then the US citizens are assummed innocent.
Texans are prudent people and the DA is simply letting the union know that such things won't be put up with. So he's hitting them in the pocketbook. Seems to me that this is not much different than what the union is doing. Note that the union started all of this. Not Houston motorists.
Don't mess with Texas and don't block the streets in Houston.
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