Houston janitors vote to authorize strike if pay doesn't improve

Hundreds of Houston janitors are demanding better pay, more benefits and more hours. They say they’ve gone on strike before and are prepared to do so again.

HOUSTON — Hundreds of Houston janitors are calling for change and threatening to go on strike if an agreement isn't reached between their union and cleaning contractors.

Saturday, inside the George R. Brown Convention Center, janitors represented by SEIU Texas agreed to go on strike if their pay and benefits don’t improve.

They want better pay, more benefits and more hours. The janitors say they’ve gone on strike before and are prepared to do so again.

“We will bargain every day until May 31, but if we do not get a fair contract, you guys are authorizing us to call a strike,” President of SEIU Texas Elsa Flores said.

After voting, they took to the streets of downtown chanting things like “Si se puede,” which means “Yes, we can.”

“It really means something that when they need to and when they've had to take that hard step of a strike, they've done it to protect their union, to do better in their wages, to be able to take care of their family,” Flores said. “So, this year, they're back again saying "yes, we can" because they believe it, they feel it, they know it in their heart.”

One of the people marching on Saturday was Maria Zamudio.

“Todos juntos Podemos hacerlo,” Zamudio told us. “All of us together. We can do it.”

Right now, Maria makes $10 an hour and she said it’s difficult.

“Llenas la hielera de comida y vives oscuras por no poder pagar los billes o pagar los biles y no tienes comida,” Zamudio said. “You fill a cooler with food and live in the dark because you can’t pay your bills. Or you pay your bills and have no food.”

She and everyone else marching in their purple shirts on Saturday hope things will improve.

“This is about the generations to come. We all know that we want to work in a building that's clean and sanitized, and we want folks who do that work well to be paid a fair wage,” Executive Vice President of SEIU Texas Resha Thomas said.

The union assures that they will fight for it.

“So that they can, instead of doing three jobs, that they can actually do one job well and get paid well,” Flores said.

If an agreement isn’t reached by May 31, the janitors said they will go on strike.

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