SAN JOSE, CA – Striking janitors will head to the Intel shareholder’s meeting one day after hundreds of workers kicked off the first wave of a landmark strike in Silicon Valley in protest of their treatment on the job. At 8:00AM Wednesday, May 21, janitors will take their call for good jobs and access to quality health care to the Museum of Computer History. Janitors are continuing to walk off the job throughout the Bay Area beginning at 5:00AM.

Contract talks for more than 6,000 janitors ended last Thursday with the Bay Area’s largest cleaning companies refusing after months of negotiations to propose even modest pay and benefit improvements to janitors currently making only $347 a week—just $23,000 annually. In addition, the cleaning companies are facing an investigation by the federal labor board over charges they illegally attempted to silence and intimidated janitors who have been speaking out for justice.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS THIS WEEK – Please check for revised times and locations

Wednesday, May 21

5:00AM Janitors Picket Lines Spread to Applied Materials
Corner of Bowers Ave. and Scott Blvd., Santa Clara

8:00AM Striking Janitors Rally Outside Intel Shareholders’ Meeting
Museum of Computer History – 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View

5:00PM Janitors Picket Lines Spread to Oakland City Center, Broadway Corridor
Picket lines starting outside 1333 Broadway, Oakland

Thursday, May 22

12:00PM MARCH TO ‘CLOSE THE GAP’
Route to begin in East Palo Alto and culminate at Stanford University

Despite servicing some of the most profitable industries and office properties in the state, Silicon Valley/Bay Area janitors earn less than half of what it takes to survive in California, and far less than janitors doing the same work earn San Francisco, New York, and Chicago. In addition, they face long waits, as long as 2 ½ years to receive health care.

For more information about SEIU Local 1877 Justice for Janitors visit: http://www.seiu-usww.org.