Striking Houston janitors stage protest at busy intersection, and get run over.

houstonjanitors.org ^ | November 16, 2006 | Lynda Tran

[grundle]

HOUSTON -- At least one person has been hospitalized after Houston police responded with violence to a non-violent protest by striking janitors from Houston and around the country. It is the fourth week of a strike by Houston janitors. The janitors are paid $20 a day with no health insurance, among the lowest wages of any workers in America. Photos and video shot by people in the crowd during the incident are available on www.houstonjanitors.org

As the janitors began to sit down peacefully in the intersection, Houston Police Department mounted police charged violently into the intersection to break up the demonstration, endangering workers’ lives and using their horses to physically intimidate the peaceful protestors.

Workers report they were stepped on by horses leaving an unknown number of protestors with bruises and other injuries.

[grundle]

Most parents teach their children that if you want to earn a good salary, you should work hard at school, and acquire a good education and job skills.

These people, however, are teaching their children that if you want to earn a good salary, you should lie down in the street at a busy intersection, and yell and scream as loud as you can.

[brytlea]

I think it's illegal to sit down in an intersection. In addition, they don't have to work for a place that pays a lower wage than they want to get. If no one will work for 20$ per day, the company will have to hire at a higher wage. If they can't get a job making more than that, perhaps it's because we are inundated with low skilled workers....
susie

[Wage Slave]

We need more information. Are they illegal? I so, I don't give a flying you-know-what about their problemas. How many hours are they working per week and what is their hourly wage? Most companies don't give health insurance unless an employee is working at least 32 hours per week.

[nmh]

Who cleaned the street up?

[mewzilla]

Did you notice who runs the website?

Service Employees International Union.

Nuff said.

[Casaubon]

YAY!!

friggin idiots.

[Terpfen]

Most parents teach their children that if you want to earn a good salary, you should work hard at school, and acquire a good education and job skills.

These people, however, are teaching their children that if you want to earn a good salary, you should lie down in the street at a busy intersection, and yell and scream as loud as you can.

Ironically, both are wrong.

[DB]

Do these janitors work less than 4 hours a day???

Minimum wage is much more than $20 a day.

"Peaceful" protesters blocking a busy public street is not peaceful. It is causing harm to all the people that need to pass through the area to get on with their jobs and lives. They have no right to impose themselves on others like that and should expect to be removed by whatever means necessary.

[Mercat]

I'm assuming that they are working 8 hour days and whatever their status, $20 for 8 hours work is wrong. If they're full time they should have health insurence from their employer. I'm a sole practitioner and I have one employee. She has health insurance and yes, she makes more than $20/day.

[DB]

So "parents teaching their children that if you want to earn a good salary, you should work hard at school, and acquire a good education and job skills" is wrong?

[Mr_Moonlight]

$20 per day, in America??? Something sounds fishy about this story ... there is something they're leaving out

[DB]

No one forces you to be a slave other than the government here.

Minimum wage is much more than $20 a day for 8 hours work.

If they're working for $20 a day they should seek work elsewhere. Unemployment is extremely low these days. Employers are looking for productive people to hire. These facts means someone is lying through their teeth.

[mountn man]

$20 a day or $20 per hour???

If they don't like the pay and benefits they get as a janitor, maybe they should get a job that pays them money and benefits they are deserving.

[Mr_Moonlight]

Ms. Ingram is a 52-year member of SEIU Local 32BJ. She works for the cleaning firm Pritchard and is paid $19 an hour

And there you have it

[teacherwoes]

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck being a janitor in Houston."

[brytlea]

Probably...
Or maybe they work only part time?
susie

[Fierce Allegiance]

$20 for 8 hours work is wrong.

Not if they are illegals. They should get a free pair of rental handcuffs and have to earn their busride back to the border.

[DB]

So they work each job for an hour with 8 jobs a day???

[dfwddr]

From the houstonjanitors.org site:

$5,512 What a janitor is paid per year for working four hours per night at $5.30 per hour.

The $19/hr figure mentioned earlier, is for a worker from NYC.

[brytlea]

I have no idea.
susie