November 30, 2005
Unionizing the Service Industries
By Froma
Harrop
Ercilia Sandoval
cleans an office tower in Houston. For those efforts, Sandoval
thinks that she should be taking home more than $91.50 a week.
But that's the number on her paycheck, according to news accounts,
and health coverage is not part of the deal. Small wonder that
she joined a drive to unionize janitors in Houston.
The Service Employees
International Union has signed up 5,000 janitors from several
companies. Its campaign has raised alarms in Houston and beyond.
The South in general, and Texas in particular, have never been
very friendly to unions. Some would say they've been downright
unfriendly.
"I don't see
how it's going to help Houston from a business standpoint,"
said a lawyer representing employers. "It has the potential
of raising the cost of doing business."
It most certainly
does, and isn't that too bad. Judging from all those new mansions
dotting the countryside, it looks like there's plenty of money
to go around -- certainly enough to pay the toilet cleaners a
living wage. And if parting with a few extra dollars means some
people can't afford six marble baths, well, they will have to
make do with five.
Union wages may ease
Sandoval's current problem of finding the cash to fix her daughter's
teeth. The newly unionized janitors in New Jersey saw their pay
rise to $11.90 an hour from $5.85 three years ago. The going rate
for janitors in Houston is $5.25 an hour, which "business
leaders" note, puts them a princely 10 cents an hour over
the federal minimum wage.
That brings us to
another problem unions may help solve: illegal immigration. The
vast majority of janitors in Houston are immigrants. We have no
idea how many are here legally and how many are not. But massive
illegal competition for unskilled work is one reason why the "going
rate" for an hour of bagging trash in Houston won't buy you
a Cajun chicken sandwich at Starbucks. Suppose we raise the pay
for dishwashing, laundry work and floor-sweeping to a decent standard.
Legal immigrants and the American-born would probably take those
jobs.
Katharine Donato,
a sociologist at Rice University in Houston, believes that a union
will attract mostly legal workers. Joining a union is a public
announcement of one's presence. "Even if you had a legitimate-looking
false document," she said, "you would be quite hesitant
to put yourself on a union list."
The service industries
are the most suitable for unionizing. After all, these jobs aren't
going anywhere. Work stitching blue jeans can travel to China
or Bangladesh, but a job vacuuming a downtown office building
can't even move across the street. The same goes for frying chicken
at the Colonel's or manning a register at Home Depot. The service
jobs that often pay so poorly are perhaps the most secure positions
in America, which is why the workers can demand more than they're
getting.
Some states now talk
about forcing retailers and fast-food shops to help with the cost
of their employees' health care. The cheap-labor folks at the
Chamber of Commerce always argue that the smallest requirement
to improve their workers' lot will send employers fleeing to other
states. But, frankly, Burger King would have a hard time feeding
Bostonians from a storefront in Cleveland. And people in Seattle
are unlikely to do their regular shopping at a Wal-Mart in Idaho,
however low the prices.
While the workers
have some powerful forces arrayed against them, they also have
some strong friends. The Roman Catholic Church is with them. Archbishop
Joseph Fiorenza told a union meeting in Houston that the unionizing
activity is "truly God's work." Houston Mayor Bill White
is backing the organizing efforts, as are union pension funds.
Professor Donato
believes that joining unions provides foreign-born workers something
more than an improved chance at upward mobility. "It is a
formally sanctioned way to have a voice," she said.
The service-employees
union is now trying to organize janitors in Atlanta and Phoenix.
Such activities may jar the gentry in union-phobic places, but
a healthy working class is better for the community in the long
run. And, in any case, reasonable pay for backbreaking work should
not be too much for anyone to ask.
Copyright
2005 Creators Syndicate
