In Room A1713 of the Charles E. Young Research Library at UCLA, researchers can find the Service Employees International Union, United Service Workers West records, ca. 1935-2008. Before unpacking the collection of boxes and folders, one could use its finding aid (prepared by Julia Tomassetti and Caroline Luce) to browse and target specific materials. This physical, archival collection is a “paradigmatic example of ‘social movement unionism’”, a hybrid of grassroots mobilization, in-depth research, and deliberate planning to transform laws, workforce demographics, and industrial frameworks.
The Los Angeles Justice for Janitors campaign (c.1986-2000), also known as LA JfJ, was comprised of mostly low-wage Latino immigrants workers from the de-unionized janitors industry. Through the Service Employees International Unions (SEIU) Local 399/Local 1877, they organized themselves and gained more rights in society. Their efforts enabled them to win three area-wide contracts for up to 9,500 janitors from 1987 to 2000, improving their lives with increased wages and full health coverage for 5,000 workers.
The collection is organized in series and sub-series according to the type of material. There are ten series (in numerical order) titled as follows: “Legal, older,” “Internal training and planning,” “Ephemera,” “Internal publications,” “Studies,” “Press,” “Video/computer records,” “Photos,” “Agreements, bylaws, and constitutions,” and “Staff records.” These series titles were copied by collection processors from the titles on the collection’s original folder titles. Each titled series is comprised of its own collection of boxes full of folders with specific subtitles (Box #, Folder #). Most folders include a time window for its respective content.
The series “Staff records” contains 16 subsidies with 15 names. Here, individuals affiliated with the campaign become known. It is unclear, however, why they aren’t ordered alphabetically. Perhaps, this arrangement suggests a hierarchy of campaign involvement. “Other research” and “Miscellaneous” folders follow the names, which records about staff that have fewer documents attributed to their names.
The media types in the collection include “photos, audiovisual records, ephemera, internal publications, internal training and planning records for the organization, staff records, research studies, collective bargaining agreements, and records pertaining to grievances, legal disputes, union recognition, and contract negotiations.” Most of the collection includes photos, audiovisual records, and documents from the three rounds of organizing and completing contract negotiations during the Justice for Janitors, Los Angeles campaign (1986 – 2000).
The heart of the collection is embodied by “extensive photos, ephemera, and organizing materials documenting the janitors’ dramatic and colorful demonstrations, civil disobedience, savvy use of media, and community alliances.” Here, the collection reaches its greatest depths. The activists put a lot of effort in documenting “the campaign’s strategic corporate and worksite research, organizing efforts, alliance building, and political strategies.”
The second part of the collection contains materials from LA JfJ Local 399 predecessor campaigns. These materials provide further historical context, enabling researchers to notice trends in the process of researching, campaigning, and documenting strategies for a worker’s movement. Remnants of JfJ campaigns in Northern California (Hewlett-Packard, Sacramento) and Southern California (security guards, Los Angeles) provide us with campaigning case studies. Documental evidence of legal disputes, recognition, collective bargaining relationships, and internal complaints reveal hardships that the campaigns experienced, and suggest coping mechanisms for enduring similar struggles.
By relying solely on the records in this collection, the LA JfJ’s narrative would be incomplete. The collection exhibits micro and macro gaps in the narrative. For example, the finding aid does not indicate any sign of maps, that would provide researchers with a macro-perspective of information. The campaign congregated its activity in six areas of the city: downtown, Century City, USC, LAX, Hughes Aircraft, and Toyota. A spatial visualization could show which parts of the city were more dense with working and/or demonstrating janitors. Researchers could visit specific addresses if they wanted to seek more information onsite.
The narrative also lacks sequential ordering of events. A JfJ LA timeline would enable researchers to see the progression of the campaign from its origins in the 1930s, or more recently in Downtown Los Angeles. Researchers could analyze how events played off of each other and begin a dialogue regarding the following questions: What were the highs and lows of the campaign? What events triggered fluctuations? Why did the campaign unfold the way it did in history?
Great observations, Anisa. I love this collection!
Great job! It’s interesting how you mentioned maps would be helpful in furthering the research, I haven’t thought of that when looking at the SLDC collection. But I agree having a visual aid would really help link together all the different pieces of evidence, a cause and effect chain that would further the narrative.
Your review of the records was very thorough. Without looking at them myself or even knowing the topic beforehand, I was able to fully comprehend what the Service Employees International Unions collection contained and became very interested in the campaign by the janitors. I agree that a timeline would be beneficial in this collection as with any other social justice movement, events progress and build off one another. Without having a good sense of sequential events, one does not get the full experience of these janitors narrative.