University of Miami Janitors
At the University of Miami, janitors employed through janitorial contractor UNICCO, were suffering from poor wages and benefits. Before activism through Justice for Janitors, these workers were earning only 51 dollars a day with no health insurance or other benefits. This is not because UNICCO is an entirely unfair organization. At Harvard University, UNICCO janitors earn between 13 and 14 dollars an hour in addition to health insurance and other benefits. UNICCO themselves are hardly the beacon of progression in the United States labor. Rather, their performance record hearkens akin to Lowell factory workers and (Rat in factory). According to the National Council on Occupational Safety and Health, UNICCO is one of the "Dirty Dozen", or the employers with the worst health and safety records in the business. Among other disparaging statistics, since 1999, UNICCO has had 8 (eight!) employee deaths It is tough to believe that the University of Miami, with a sociology department probably much like ours, with classes concerning Race, Class, and Gender just like this one would allow this type of inequality to stand.
For the last 9 weeks, Janitors for Justice have staged a walk-out at the University of Miami with occasional hunger strikes and other tactics in order to convince UNICCO to allow them to unionize. However, on May 2, they were finally succesful. UNICCO has agreed that if 60% of their membership votes for unionization, that they will allow the janitors to unionize.
