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.
Let's make a deal with the DA. These folks should be released on nominal bail, and if the out of towners, with no connections to the community, don't return to trial, you will serve their time.
Did you miss where I said that if they were found guilty the maximum fine or jail time should be levied? If the court is worried about out of towners skipping and not returning for a court date then their bail should be set at a comparable rate for the same charge for other persons without community ties. The bail should not be set at a rate well above the usual for such charges.
Since the bail was set so high I think those who are paying it will take steps to make sure the money is not forfeited by defendents' non appearance.
You know, I'm not saying that janitor shouldn't be among the least paid in society. They perform menial, unskilled work, but to call them a bunch of losers is just mean. There will always be people who have less abililty than others, so, yes, they'll make less. That doesn't make them losers. That just makes them poor.
One of my kids has brain damage and will probably do little more than janititorial work. That doesn't make him a loser.
I didn't mean they're *all* losers. I'm referring to the ones on strike blocking traffic. That's all.
There's a big difference between someone with brain damage and someone who refuses to take any steps to improve his lot and station in life. I'm sure the poster wasn't including brain- damaged or any other handicapped people in his assessment.
e don't even know what they were charged with. The overly sympathetic, biased article doesn't state what these people were ultimately charged with. The only article that even gets close to what the charges might be states that a cop on the scene stated some would probably be charged with class-B misdemeanors, but none of the articles, conveniently in my opinion, actually state what all the DA is charging them with. If the charges include such things as reckless endangerment, or certain enhancements, it could bump the bail way up there.
By the way, a condition of being released on bail, in most jurisdictions, is that no offenses be committed while out on bail. In cases where there are repeat offenses, bail can be enhanced by that previous behavior.
I think you're jumping the gun with your assumption that these were peaceful protests or first offenses. And blocking traffic for hours and jumping out of vans in swarms right in front of moving motorists is not a First Amendment right. Yes, they have a right to assemble, but not in the middle of an intersection.
It seems to me that you have allowed yourself to swallow the media's propaganda on these events hook, line and sinker.
I'm the one who made that comment. Really, people who don't wish to improve their lot in life don't bother me a bit. To each his own. Unskilled strikers bug me to no end though. That's who I was referring to when I said "loser".
The problem with unskilled people who won't take steps to improve their lot in life usually end up demanding that someone else improve it for them.
Or maybe perhaps a skill or two along with speaking English.
Just a thought.
Swabbing toilets while speaking Espanol ain't gonna get you far up the food chain.
If not, then what's the point of calling them losers?
No, I'm not for socialized medicine, but we do have a healthcare issue in this country.
No, I'm not for socialized medicine, but we do have a healthcare issue in this country.
I saw them blocking cars and pounding on them.
I would roll on and if they were run over tough shit.
If they broke the window then it makes for a clear shot.
They need to go to the womyn and boys in HR not screw up the streets.
Perhaps they could spend this time off of work to get a skill?
From the other thread on this subject:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1741281/posts?page=114#114
" ... The Houston Chronicle featured one of the strikers a few weeks ago. It was a story about how the woman has breast cancer. You had to go to the jump page before you learned that she is illegal, she is married to an illegal, we are paying for all of her health care, she has had 6 children since she has been here, and they are all in school and on food stamps. ..."
Some probably do have low IQs, which of course is not their fault. On the other hand, is it other peoples' responsibility to make that right for them? Do we pay them what we pay, say, a manager at a Wal-Mart or Home Depot or a door installer or a cabinet maker because it's not their fault they weren't gifted enough to learn a more challenging and rewarding trade? If so, then you're a socialist.
Others simply don't want to learn to do anything else, even though they're capable. They'd rather demand that somebody make up their income insufficiencies for them.
"You know, I'm not saying that janitor shouldn't be among the least paid in society. They perform menial, unskilled work, but to call them a bunch of losers is just mean. There will always be people who have less abililty than others, so, yes, they'll make less. That doesn't make them losers. That just makes them poor."
From my previous post.
Oh don't I know it. I keep forgetting that the constitution is a living document that changes right before the reader's eyes. Kind of like those "can you see Jesus?" puzzle pictures from Catechism class.
No, but they did clean the rooms at Holiday Inn. :)
The thing that non-Texans will never understand is that Texans don't care what non-Texans think about a Texan problem.
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