Justice for Janitors

Justice for Janitors (JfJ) is a social movement organization that fights for the rights of janitors (caretakers and cleaners) across the US and Canada. It was started in 1985 in response to the low wages and minimal health-care coverage that janitors received. Justice for Janitors includes more than 225,000 janitors in at least 29 cities in the United States and at least four cities in Canada. Members have fought and continue to fight for better wages, better conditions, improved health-care, and full-time opportunities. The movement utilizes its extensive memberships as well as prominent leaders in the communities to accomplish its goals.

The Justice for Janitors campaigns are organized under a larger union: the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). SEIU has almost two million members and is a significant part of the labor movement. SEIU is an asset to the Justice for Janitors campaign as it organizes members as well as trains them in necessary workplace skills such as language proficiency. SEIU is also a substantial part of the labor movement in that it retains constructive partnerships with the corporations employing the janitors to ensure that these corporations receive no negative impact due to the campaigns.

In the United Kingdom a similar movement is called "Justice for Cleaners".

Cleaners in Australia, through their union United Voice, are running a similar campaign called Clean Start: Fair Deal for Cleaners. This landmark campaign has won the support of community, faith and political leaders and has helped improve the jobs and lives of thousands of cleaners across Australia. Clean Start began in 2006 with cleaners working in city office buildings. It has now moved to cleaners working in Australia's big shopping malls.

The structure used by SEIU for its Justice for Janitors campaigns has been widely recognized for its innovativeness and success. As the labor movement was struggling to gain membership to unions, new models of organizing workers had to be developed. The SEIU strived to increase union membership and participation. The Justice for Janitors campaign utilizes a bottom-up model in which they organize workers based on geographical area rather than just their worksite. It is also an innovative model in that it makes typically unnoticed workers visible and groups them together into larger collections in order to better fight the larger corporations. SEIU also provides trained organizers that are often sent to local unions in order to skillfully organize efforts. The Justice for Janitors campaigns often use disruptive tactics to get their point across.

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