(MintPress) — Nearly 3,000 union janitors in San Francisco have won their battle to receive a pay raise and health insurance after weeks of public protests. The protests drew thousands to the streets of San Francisco last week, slowing traffic and disrupting business in the busy California city. Many of the workers represented by SEIU Local 87 are employed by Embarcadero Center 4, a major office building owned by Boston Properties, a company with $1.7 billion in total revenue in 2011.
The janitors are part of a growing number of blue collar workers, both union and non-union, who decry the growing income inequality gap in the U.S. The top 1 percent of wage earners now control more than 40 percent of the wealth, a skewed distribution that is exacerbated by current economic policies favoring corporations and Americans in upper tax brackets.
2012: The year of the protest, and union activism
The protest by the janitors began July 31 when their current contract expired. The workers were told that they would receive 50-cent per hour pay raises. Additionally, management insisted that the workers should be “prepared to pay up to $600 in co-pays per month for health insurance.”
After weeks of negotiations, union representatives reported Tuesday that the two sides had reached a tentative agreement. The exact details of the agreement have not been made public.
However, Olga Miranda, the union president, commented on the agreement saying the new contract “makes sure that our city has good jobs that one can raise a family on, with benefits that allow janitors to see a doctor when they’re sick.” Adding, “This is an important victory for San Francisco janitors and their families.”
The pushback by labor groups seeking decent working conditions appears to be connected to a growing movement in 2012, a year filled with political activism in the lead-up to the presidential election this November.
Earlier this year, massive demonstrations in Wisconsin, reaching 100,000 people in the Milwaukee and Madison, prompted an unsuccessful gubernatorial recall election. Gov. Scott Walker riled public sector workers and labor unions when he nullified collective bargaining in the state early 2011.
One million Wisconsin residents signed a petition to hold the recall election, just the third time citizens have attempted the ouster of a governor by recall in U.S. history. The Republican governor ultimately survived the recall, beating the Democratic challenger Tom Barrett by capturing 53.1 percent of the vote.
Walker’s survival elicited mixed responses across America, with many chalking up the GOP victory to the more than $60 million spent on the Walker campaign, far outstripping Barrett’s $14 million.
Occupy Wall Street, while much diminished since police raids ended encampments around the U.S. in late 2011, also worked tactfully to draw attention to the growing income inequality in the U.S. and the plight of working class Americans experiencing losses in real wages and a diminishing share of corporate profits.
At the height of the Occupy movement in late-2011 and early-2012, tens of thousands across America took to the streets seeking populist social policies and increased financial regulation in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
Indeed, a 2010 study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities titled, “Income Gaps Between Very Rich and Everyone Else More Than Tripled in Last Three Decades, New Data Show,” finds that, “The gaps in after-tax income between the richest 1 percent of Americans and the middle and poorest fifths of the country more than tripled between 1979 and 2007, according to data the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).”
Arloc Sherman and Chad Stone, the authors of the report, acknowledge that there has been a good deal of wealth creation over the previous decades. However, the majority of these gains have “trickled upward” to the top income earners.
The problem has become so pronounced that the 400 wealthiest Americans now have the same combined wealth as the bottom half of income earners, or 150 million Americans.
Growing poverty in the US
Although the janitors working in San Francisco are among the highest paid in the nation, the cost of living in the California city has skyrocketed in recent years, making it increasingly difficult for the middle class to afford rent, food and basic living expenses.
The demand for livable wages is a common one among working class Americans dealing with gentrification and increased cost of living expenses. Millions of blue collar workers are struggling to maintain a decent wage, while others continue to search for work.
Unemployment currently stands at 8.3 percent nationally, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many more caught in frictional unemployment and underemployment are not recorded in these statistics. These issues, among others, have contributed to increased rates of poverty.
Many contend that poverty, rather than middle class unemployment, is the most salient issue unaddressed by Washington.
To draw attention to this issue, Princeton University professor Cornel West has teamed up with talk show host Travis Smiley and will be touring Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia during “The Poverty Tour 2.0” next month.
These political swing states continue to have increased rates of unemployment, homelessness and poverty, all issues that the duo would like Congress and the White House to seriously address going forward.
“The politicians will remain stuck on the middle class, because poor people for the most part don’t vote in their mind. And second, both are tied to Wall Street, and Wall Street has a classic indifference when it comes to the most poor people. We Americans should be ashamed when we look at the level of poverty among our fellow citizens,” said West in a recent Al Jazeera interview.
In 2010, 1 in 6 Americans were considered poor. That is more than 47 million people living on less than $10,500 per year.
The problem has become more acute since that time, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Nearly half of all Americans, or 147 million, are living in poverty or near poverty conditions.
During a CNN interview in February, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney commented on the issue saying, “I’m in this race because I care about Americans. I’m not concerned about the very poor — we have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich — they’re doing just fine.”