Nevertheless, for most janitors, the potential gains are clear. Ayala notes that in the Los Angeles basin, wages vary a lot from area to area. Downtown janitors have a medical plan which covers their whole family. In the buildings along the Wilshire corridor, and in Beverly Hills and Westwood, janitors only have individual coverage. The ability to move toward coastwide negotiations is a testament to the success of the SEIU's Justice for Janitors organizing strategy.
Joint bargaining is only possible if the union already represents most workers in the industry.
Ten years ago, Local 399 couldn't say that, nor could 1877. Over that decade, Local 399 has been one of the labor movement's success stories. In the mid-1980s the picture looked very different. At that time, the city's big real estate and development interests had effectively broken the local in building services. Using the enormous influx of immigrant workers from Mexico and Central America as a wedge, building owners and janitorial contractors dumped their old, union workforce, and hired immigrants at rock bottom wages, with no union contract.