Houston janitors arrested in non-violent civil disobedience

In an unprecedented attempt to severely limit the right to peaceful protest and freedom of speech of low-wage Houston janitors and their supporters, a Harris County District Attorney has set an extraordinarily high bond of $888,888 cash for each of the 44 peaceful protesters arrested on Nov. 16. Houston janitors and their supporters, many of them janitors from other cities, were participating in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience, protesting in the intersection of Travis at Capitol when they were arrested in downtown Houston. They were challenging Houston's real estate industry to settle the janitors' strike and agree on a contract that provides the 5,300 janitors in Houston with higher wages and affordable health insurance. The combined $39.1 million bond for the workers and their supporters is far above the normal amount of bail set for people accused of even violent crimes in Harris County. While each of the nonviolent protesters is being held on $888,888 bail: a woman charged with beating her granddaughter to death with a sledgehammer, bail was set at $100,000; a woman accused of disconnecting her quadriplegic mother's breathing machine, bail was set at $30,000; a man charged with murder for stabbing another man to death in a bar brawl, bail was set at $30,000; janitors and protesters charged with Class B misdemeanors for past nonviolent protests, standard bail has been set at $500 each. More than 5,300 Houston janitors are paid $20 a day with no health insurance, among the lowest wages and benefits of any workers in the US. Community activists and leaders expressed concern and dismay at the police's use of horses to intimidate and corral janitors participating in the nonviolent civil disobedience the previous night in downtown Houston. The decision by police to use horses to stop the protest resulted in four people being injured, including an 83-year-old female janitor from New York. In a statement released prior to the bonds being set, US Representative Sheila Jackson Lee said, "A protest is a sign of freedom in the United States and exercises our basic rights to free speech." More than 1,700 Service Employees International Union (SEIU) janitors in Houston have been on strike since Oct. 23 over civil rights abuses and a failure to bargain in good faith by their employers, the five national cleaning companies ABM, OneSource, GCA, Sanitors and Pritchard. With five of the most influential players in Houston's commercial real estate industry refusing to intervene in the dispute, the workers' strike against five national cleaning firms is increasing in scope and intensity. In the highly competitive market of contract cleaning, the building landlords hire the cleaning firms that negotiate and set rates for janitors' wages and benefits. These five major landlords, Hines, Transwestern, Crescent, Brookfield Properties and the oil giant Chevron, have the power to settle the strike by directing the cleaning contractors they hire to provide higher wages and health insurance. In cities across the US, janitors work for many of the same national cleaning firms in buildings owned by the same national commercial landlords. But, while janitors in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and other cities make more than $10 an hour and have health insurance and full-time work, Houston workers are paid an average of $20 a day, with no health insurance, for part-time work. Last fall, 5,300 Houston janitors made the historic choice to form a union with SEIU. Their decision capped one of the largest successful organizing drives by private sector workers ever in the southern half of the United States. Since forming a union with SEIU, Houston janitors have been seeking a raise to $8.50/hour, more hours and health insurance in a citywide union contract. More than 225,000 janitors in 29 cities are members of SEIU.