Panel: Learning from the Past to Change the Future
Over the last two decades, the "Justice for Janitors" campaign of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has become a symbol of social movement unionism and immigrant rights activism. This website gathers over 200 documents, images, interviews, and links to news stories about Justice for Janitors in Los Angeles. The site is still growing, so check back for new additions.
The Justice for Janitors History Project is a collaboration between UCLA and the United Service Workers West, SEIU. You can read more about the project here
Click on an image to start browsing the archive
Browse the archive by tags
- ISS
- demonstration
- Century City
- allies
- Bradford Building Services
- civil disobedience
- police
- immigrant
- Mopman
- Before J4J
- downtown
- John Sweeney
- street theater
- Justice for Janitors
- Rebuild LA
- Turkey of the Year
- AFL-CIO
- cartoon
- Lane Kirkland
- Mike Garcia
- NLRB
- press release
- UCLA
- Aida Cardenas
- Antonio Villaraigosa
- children
- CIWA
- Jono Shaffer
- LIAP
- Local 399
About Restricted Acccess Links
Some of the items in the archive are links to full-text newspaper articles in subscription databases. You can view the full-text articles if you are on the UCLA campus or are using a UCLA proxy server or Virtual Private Network. For information about access see Bruin Online (proxy server | VPN). You can also access these resources from computers at branches of the Los Angeles Public Library.
Project News
- UCLA Library SEIU, United Service Workers West Records open for research at UCLA's Young Research Library.
- UCLA News UCLA Library acquires papers of Justice for Janitors, historic L.A. labor organization
- Panel and Reception, April 19, 2012: Learning from the Past to Change the Future to celebrate donation of janitors' archive to UCLA Library.
- Los Angeles Times Justice for Janitors Campaigners Record Their Stories
- Daily Bruin Project Preserves Union History
Recently Added
- Ceremony Marking the Donation of the Justice for Janitors Archive from USWW to UCLA
- Video of the ceremony marking the transfer of the Justice for Janitors Archive from SEIU United Service Workers West to UCLA on April 19, 2012. Speakers include Gary E. Strong, Eugenio Barrera, Maria… | more »
- Learning from the Past to Change the Future: 20 Years of Justice for Janitors, April 19, 2012, Charles Young Research Library, UCLA
- Panel discussion held at the UCLA Charles Young Research Library to mark the donation of the United Service Workers West papers. Speakers include Kent Wong, Rosa Ayala, Jono Shaffer, Aida Cardenas,… | more »
- Building Skills Partnership
- A short video introduces the Building Skills Partnership, an organization that provides educational programming for building service workers. You can link to the original video here: … | more »
- Downtown Rally, 1990
- Los Angeles Times photographer Mike Sergieff snapped this picture of a janitors rally in 1990, giving it the caption, "Union demonstrators who marched around the downtown high rise buildings where… | more »
- From the Basement to the Boardroom: Los Angeles Should Work for Everyone
- A report by UCLA researcher Paul Schimek documents and explains declining wages and conditions for building service workers in the context of the 1980s building boom. SEIU Local 399 highlighted the… | more »
