LOS ANGELES – As contract negotiations continued today, more than 1,500 janitors and their supporters demonstrated along Wilshire Blvd. by dancing, drumming, blowing horns and whistles and chanting “Here comes the union, there goes exploitation!” The spirited march stretched for blocks and passed outside several office buildings owned by Douglas Emmett among others.

“We’re doing standing up for good jobs so our children will have a better future,” said Laura Tenorio, one of several dozen women who led the march pushing their babies in strollers, with their young children walking alongside.

The second large-scale demonstration by janitors in less than three weeks comes as contract negotiations are heating up. Here in Los Angeles, janitors are negotiating with the largest cleaning contractors that dominate the Southern California market.

Janitors would need to work 112 hours a week on the current wages just to make ends meet for a family of four, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Some area janitors earn as little as $8.60 an hour with no family healthcare. More than 1,500 San Diego janitors do not have access to healthcare for themselves or their families.

Low-wage janitors struggle to provide adequate housing for themselves and their families. A janitor working in Orange County, for example, spends up to an estimated 90% of their income for a one-bedroom apartment.

“I work hard but I don’t earn enough to give my son a safe place to live. The schools are overcrowded and there is a lot of violence. I worry about his safety and his future,” said David Mejia, who shares housing with his father and brother in South Los Angeles.

More than 20,000 of the state’s janitors united in Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1877 have contracts that are set to expire this April. The Justice for Janitors 2008 California Contract Campaign is the janitor union’s largest statewide mobilization effort in history.