Janitors & Supporters Hold Massive Protest Decrying Cisco Systems’ Mistreatment of Workers

On Thursday, May 7, hundreds of janitors and their supporters from San Jose faith, community, and labor groups marched outside of Cisco Systems’ corporate headquarters to protest the high tech company’s mistreatment of low-wage, contracted service workers. Cisco’s contractor American Building Maintenance (ABM) recently laid off more than 75 janitors, leaving them without a means to support their families, and forcing the janitors that remain on the job to shoulder higher workloads that threaten their health and safety. To expose the injustice of these layoffs in the face of Cisco’s profitability and $34 billion cash surplus, the janitors marched and chanted calls for justice in English and Spanish in front of the company’s main corporate headquarters, Building 10, on East Tasman Drive.

“We are marching today because Cisco does not respect us and what we are trying to do to support our families,” said Maria Cabrera, a janitor who is struggling to keep up with her doubled workload since the layoffs of her coworkers.

The janitors – many of whom are single mothers – marched proudly with their children along the public sidewalk, as a large flatbed truck adorned with posters decrying Cisco’s corporate greed circled the street in front of them. After several minutes, the crowd marched onto the parking lot towards Building 10. At the entrance to the building, a group of several janitors and supporters attempted to enter the building to request a meeting with Cisco decision makers, at which point San Jose Police officers apprehended them for trespassing on private property.

“We are calling on Cisco top stop putting its profits before vulnerable, low-wage workers and their families,” said Andrea Dehlendorf, SEIU United Service Workers West Executive Vice President. ““We will not tolerate the glaring injustice of the world’s fourth most profitable technology company laying off half of its janitorial staff.”

Thursday’s actions were the culmination of a week of growing protests outside of Cisco headquarters. On Tuesday and Wednesday, representatives from local community groups and social service agencies, including the Santa Clara Family Health Plan, ACORN, St. Justin’s Catholic Church, and Most Holy Trinity Church held a sidewalk “laid-off workers emergency relief fair.” They provided aid to the janitors, who cannot afford basic necessities such as food, rent, and health care. On Wednesday evening, leaders of the San Jose faith community including Father Eddie Sarmiengo of Most Holy Trinity Church, Father Bill Leininger, and Rabbi Melanie Aron of Congregation Shir Hadash led a moving ceremony and candlelight vigil to offer encouragement to the janitors.

The janitors are vowing to continue their protests in the coming weeks. They are calling on Cisco to order ABM to reinstate all 75 laid-off janitors and to set up a meeting to discuss the janitors’ health and safety concerns and how to raise standards for other contracted service workers, such as security officers, in the Silicon Valley.

“It’s injustice for them to treat us this way,” said laid-off janitor Angeli