Mayor to help try to prevent janitor's strike from spreading

Unskilled labor cleaning toilets isn't worth more than minimum wage. I'm sorry, but the janitors should be teaching their children to get an education and move up the economic ladder.

Dan wrote:

Unskilled labor cleaning toilets isn't worth more than minimum wage. I'm sorry, but the janitors should be teaching their children to get an education and move up the economic ladder.

Go ahead. Let them strike. Then lock them out and hire some of the thousands of citizens that would like a decent union paying job WITH BENEFITS. Do they think they are the only ones that can do that job?!

Oops. Sorry Dan. I didn't mean to hit your "reply".

The lack of basic compassion and ignorance amongst Americans never ceases to amaze me. Everyone deserves a wage that they can live on, a wage for which people can afford to send their kids to college.

Joe wrote:

The lack of basic compassion and ignorance amongst Americans never ceases to amaze me. Everyone deserves a wage that they can live on, a wage for which people can afford to send their kids to college.

No one is "entitled" to living wages. These are UNSKILLED workers. If they can't afford to live on their wages then get a second job. Is it my fault as an employer that these workers are foolish enough to have multiple kids? Was amazes me is the sense of entitlement that Americans have. Everyone thinks that 2000 square foot homes, cable TV, cars and 40 hour work weeks are "rights" for all Americans!

Joe wrote:

The lack of basic compassion and ignorance amongst Americans never ceases to amaze me. Everyone deserves a wage that they can live on, a wage for which people can afford to send their kids to college.

People that can afford to send their kids to college are either already wealthy or they have saved for many years to do so. That is why there are scholarships, etc...for the less fortunate. These janitors have a union job which includes insurance benefits. That is money in the bank and more than most people have.

Why isn't the hourly wage of these unskilled laborers presented so that we can laugh at their union demand for a pay increase? Clearly, it's far above even CA minimum wage.

Anon wrote:

<quoted text>
No one is "entitled" to living wages. These are UNSKILLED workers. If they can't afford to live on their wages then get a second job. Is it my fault as an employer that these workers are foolish enough to have multiple kids? Was amazes me is the sense of entitlement that Americans have. Everyone thinks that 2000 square foot homes, cable TV, cars and 40 hour work weeks are "rights" for all Americans!

You must know some city employees.

Joe wrote:

The lack of basic compassion and ignorance amongst Americans never ceases to amaze me. Everyone deserves a wage that they can live on, a wage for which people can afford to send their kids to college.

That's not compassion, that's total foolishness. Would you like them to send their kids to private schools with limos and chauffeurs, too? You think unskilled laborers should be able to afford a home in Beverly Hills? Perhaps a wage that allows their children to attend a private college? They either need to work harder or get better skills that every other man and woman in the country can't do.

Are these the same janitors that didn't flush the lead out of the drinking fountains in the schools? Or is that a different union?

Greed of the Mexican Socialist party ! How do you say recession in Spanish !

Joe wrote:

The lack of basic compassion and ignorance amongst Americans never ceases to amaze me. Everyone deserves a wage that they can live on, a wage for which people can afford to send their kids to college.

Everyone has that chance, it's called education. Not entitlement, you dumb jerk!

I say it's time we foment revolution in Mexico!

Viva! Una revolución en Mexico! is gonna' be my new mantra. Fix Mexico! America is for Americans and legal immigrants that want to love and protect America!

Springy wrote:

<quoted text>
People that can afford to send their kids to college are either already wealthy or they have saved for many years to do so. That is why there are scholarships, etc...for the less fortunate. These janitors have a union job which includes insurance benefits. That is money in the bank and more than most people have.

BTW, legal taxpayers in the state of CA subsidize the college education of illegal aliens (many of whom work as janitors) by not requiring any evidence of immigration status in the USA. So their kids get cheap college educations in addition to the free grade school education we already pay for.

While I don't necessarily share the viewpoint of Bureaucratic Mess, he nonetheless brings up a good point. How much do they make? I'm generally pro-union, but why is it no article on this topic, in any media, gives their wages? Does anyone know how much they make? That puts their demands into a more rounded perspective. Or maybe that's the point of not mentioning their pay scale, to prevent perspective.

Actually, I read some of Bureaucratic Mess's posts from other topics, and I don't disagree with him as much as I thought.

Ive heard but have not verified that these union janitors make close to $15.00 an hour with benefits. Not bad for cleaning toilet and pushing a vacuum. Can anybody verify their pay scale? And by the way I seriously doubt all these janitors are legally here. How bout an ICE raid? That would solve the strike.

I just heard on the news that they make between $10 to $12 an hour.

Thanks, Mr. Dynamite, for the info.

Shows what happens when illegals, who make up many of these workers -- I've never met one in my westside building who speaks English, and the female janitor who comes is insisting that I learn Spanish to communicate with her -- are in this country more than 5 minutes. I've seen this in domestic maids, too, why I won't hire them anymore and use a cleaning service.

They have such an attitude of entitlement, and this SEIU Union is very belligerent, made worse by the likes of Janice Hahn and Bill Rosendahl agitating for a 'living wage" at LAX-area hotels, on specious pretexts, for no real reason except that they're pandering to the Hispanics. Their own leaders like Richard Alarcon, Ed Reyes and Cardenas and Gil Cedillo are worse: they want to DOUBLE the min. wage, and are always screaming how unfair it is to expect someone to make a living on this wage.

Fact is, businesses are struggling, rents are already sky-high and factoring these janitors' salaries into it is a big part. We're already ALL suffering from their taking over all our schools in L A, even on the westside except for a few elementary schools; at my HOA meetng last night, people lamented that Emerson Middle School USED to be local a generation ago but now it's all Hispanic and black, gang-infested and low-performing, whites are afraid to go there. Further forcing the middle class out of even "affluent" areas of L A., we can't afford expensive private schools. County hospitals and clinics are collapsed by them, they cost hundreds of millions in welfare, food stamps, MediCal, etc. etc. Our poor and elderly have no safety net anymore, many doctors aren't even taking MediCare in urban California. Meanwhile, blacks are unemployed and unlike a generation ago, disdain this sort of honest work because they see it as something for "wetbacks."

Anyone who talks about the "benefits" of illegal immigration is insane. Unless the city can bring in NEW business, including the small and middle sized ones who employ most people and can't afford to deal with these aggressive unions, we're more and more doomed.