Over 100 students, faculty and community members rally around University of
Alberta janitors to support their struggle for justice

Provincial Labour Critic attends meeting and voices support for janitors

EDMONTON, Oct. 20 /CNW/ - Over one hundred students, faculty, university staff, janitors and members of the community met yesterday to launch the Justice for Janitors at U of A Solidarity Committee. The University of Alberta community gathered to discuss how they could support the Bee Clean Building Maintenance janitors at U of A. Earlier this month, janitors filed charges against Bee Clean at U of A alleging threats made against workers for standing up for their rights and for unpaid overtime.

"These janitors are working on our campus," said Prabjot Singh, and organizer with the Sikh Student Society, and a passionate supporter. "Without their work we can't learn. We won't have clean classrooms, offices, or anything like that." Singh, who opened the solidarity meeting at the Education Building on the university's campus, is concerned with how the janitors have been treated. "They are human beings, they deserve their human rights and they need to be respected and treated fairly," he said.

Workers cleaning at the University of Alberta say their employer, Bee Clean, has been threatening them ever since they decided to stand up for their rights. According to the Unfair Labour Practice (ULP) complaint filed October 1, 2010, temporary foreign workers have been threatened with being sent home for talking about a union; at least one worker has been illegally terminated; management has spied on workers during their meetings; management tried to prevent janitors from attending meetings; and groups of workers have been told they would be laid off if they appeared on Justice or Janitors leaflets. A full list and details of the complaint are available on the janitors' website.

"We are happy the U of A community and students are getting involved," said Danilo de Leon, one of the janitors and a Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) from the Philippines. According to the ULP, the Filipino workers were told "the company was in the process of attempting to determine which employee had contacted the union and that when that individual's identity was determined, he or she would be sent back to the Philippines, as would any other TFW that joined the Union." In addition to those threats, de Leon is one of six employees who have filed lawsuits in an effort to collect unpaid overtime pay.

Bee Clean has neglected or refused to pay a number of employees' overtime as required by the Employment Standards Act. The total sum of unpaid overtime wages for the six workers now exceeds $50,000, but many more workers may also be owed overtime.

Rob Scott, Bee Clean Regional Director, has now publicly admitted the company has failed to pay overtime and that the Ministry of Labour has been conducting an audit of their operations across the province. The review includes all of Bee Clean's 3,000 employees according to an article in a local newspaper. "The fact that they're admitting they've failed to pay the workers correctly and that the Ministry of Labour is conducting an audit which includes their employees across Alberta suggests to us that the problem extends beyond the University of Alberta," said Merryn Edwards, and organizer with the Service Employees International Union Local 2.

Hugh Macdonald, MLA Edmonton Gold Bar and Labour Critic in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, was amongst the crowd at the meeting. "What I heard here today was un‐Canadian," said Macdonald. "To have two sets of rights—one set of rights for Canadians and landed immigrants and another set for Temporary Foreign Workers. Certainly I think the leaders of the University should meet directly with these workers and their agents and see if we can get a solution to this issue," he said.

Marco Katz, a doctoral student and teaching assistant also spoke out at the meeting. "The President's office of this campus, can think of nothing better to say than 'it's none of our business,' those of us, certainly in Humanities departments, ought to be saying 'yes, it is our business, this is absolutely our business!'"

The J4J at U of A Solidarity Committee discussed ways to support the workers in building towards upcoming actions. A screening of the film Bread and Roses, about a similar struggle by Los Angeles cleaners, will be held next week. There was also talk of a solidarity rally sometime in November. In the meantime, supporters continue to sign pledge cards. "In the next few weeks we are going to continue building awareness," said Singh. "We are going to keep the struggle going."

For more information, please visit www.J4JatUofA.org

For further information:

Merryn Edwards
780-910-1951