Over 250 Join Festive Protest to Support King County Janitors
On Feb. 21, over 250 activists and SEIU 6 Janitors joined together to shake our chin chins at Martin Selig. Real estate owner Selig recently switched 12 of his downtown Seattle buildings to anti-union janitorial contractor Allied Building Services. This move only saved a few pennies per floor, but pays janitors 25% less, no benefits, no retirement, and violates wage, hour, safety, and health laws.
 With red caps, purple balloons, and a huge janitor puppet showing our solidarity, we protested retaliation by Allied Building Services in response to union organizing. On Feb. 14, seven Allied janitors were fired after walking off the job to protest Allied’s unfair labor practices, which include illegally monitoring union meetings, threatening workers engaged in union activities, and discriminating against workers who support the union. The National Labor Relations Board is currently investigating six charges of legal violations against Allied.
Speakers included Adela Ruvalcaba one of the seven fired Allied janitors, King County Councilmember Larry Gossett, and Rev. David Bloom. For these protests, JwJ activists phonebanked, phonetreed, and emailed to over 3000 JwJ pledge card signers in Puget Sound.
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