Share This Campaign:
Center of Workers United In the Struggle
Hello! We are Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL), a low-wage worker-led organization that is fighting for fair wages, fair working conditions, and a voice in the workplace for all workers in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Over the past five years, CTUL has organized campaigns with hundreds of low-wage workers to recover over a half a million dollars in unpaid wages and damages, and to pressure 24 employers into changing corporate policies to gain improvements in wages and working conditions with over 4,000 low-wage workers. Currently, we are running the Campaign for Justice in Retail Cleaning, focusing on improving wages and working conditions with low-wage workers who work for companies that clean large retail chains like Target, Kmart, Sears, etc. The goal is to unionize the retail cleaning industry in order to secure respect and a voice in the workplace. Cleaning workers need your support in this struggle!
Why we need YOU to join in the low-wage worker struggle!
In late February, workers are organizing for a large action, calling on their companies to meet with them and improve working conditions. We need to raise $4,000 to cover the costs for a powerful action and the resources to maintain pressure following the action, ensuring that cleaning workers can move beyond poverty wages with a strong voice in the workplace. So, we are calling on our strongest supporters to contribute to the empowerment of low-wage workers to organize for their rights! In exchange, we are offering CTUL T-Shirts and other ways to share your passion for social justice! Each one of your contributions will help CTUL empower low-wage workers with the tools and resources needed to permanently change unjust workplace treatment and create GOOD jobs that strengthen families and communities. Now is your opportunity to be a part of the low-wage worker led fight to change the structures that take away the human rights to respect, dignity, and living wages throughout the U.S.
Background
“Every night, we are surrounded by food as we clean the grocery stores in our community. Yet often we cannot afford to put enough food on the table for our own families.”
Over the past 10-15 years, wages and working conditions in retail cleaning have spiralled out of control, with constantly lowering wages and increasing workloads. Most retail cleaning workers are employed by cleaning companies that are contracted by giant retail chains like Target, which leverage their size to get dozens of cleaning companies to compete against each other for the lowest bid. The result is sub-poverty wages, little to no benefits, and unsafe working conditions. Dozens of United States Department of Labor investigations and federal lawsuits have uncovered millions of dollars in unpaid wages in retail cleaning in recent years.
Over the past two and a half years, cleaning workers have organized with CTUL to change the retail cleaning industry and are working to ensure that all retail cleaning workers have fair wages and working conditions. Workers have gained the first pay increase after over 10 years of declining wages, with most workers earning around $8.50 / hour today; this wage increase leads to an estimated $1.75 million in increased yearly income going into some of the poorest communities in the Twin Cities.
The end goal of the Campaign for Justice in Retail Cleaning is to pull standard wages up to living wages with yearly increases, and a union contract leading to a worker directed rights in the workplace. In successfully unionizing the retail cleaning industry, thousands of low-wage workers will gain living wages, fair working conditions, and a voice in the workplace!
More Ways to Get Involved
Spread the word!! We need your help in passing on this opportunity to suppport low-wage workers to all your contacts through Facebook, Twitter, and email!
Go to ctul.net for more info on other ways to support low-wage workers
Like CTUL on Facebook and sign up for our Twitter to get updates!
Please agree to and comply with the following statement before making the decision to donate: I am not an employer, employer representative, employer agent, manager, or supervisor in the cleaning, janitorial, window cleaning, or security services industries.
