News

UNI Property Services is supporting striking janitors Houston. Last week, janitors from all nine buildings at Greenway Plaza in Houston went on strike and marched through Houston with 100 other community allies joining them in solidarity. Janitors say any building in Houston could be next to strike.

“This was a very hard decision for us to make but we are doing what we have to do,” says Maria Lopez, a janitor at Greenway Plaza and a mother. “We are standing up for a wage that will allow us to support our families. And in response we are being punished and harassed. So we decided together that we have to stand up for our families.”

As Houston’s poverty and hunger rates rise, janitors are calling attention to the income inequality that’s contributing to the deterioration of our communities. Houston janitors clean the offices of some of the richest corporations in the world, including profitable energy corporations Chevron, Exxon Mobile, Shell Oil, Penzoil, Centerpoint Energy and Reliant.

Despite record profits and ballooning CEO pay, janitors who clean Houston’s office buildings are paid less than $9,000 a year—less than half the poverty level. A janitor would have to work more than 2,000 years in order to earn what the Exxon and Chevron CEOs make in just one year.

In recent weeks, the community has rallied around the janitors. Faith leaders have held special worship services, written op-eds for newspapers, and even held a press conference in support of striking janitors today. Community organizations have held marches and protests as well.

Some employers, though, have chosen to respond to previous reasonable requests from janitors by engaging in misconduct, interfering with employees’ rights. These contractors need to be providing good jobs in Houston, not retaliating against workers for trying to improve their lives.

UNI Property Services and its affiliates stand in solidarity with the striking Houston janitors and will offer their support in the workers campaign for fair wages and better working conditions.