Ten students from local Boston colleges performing acts of civil disobedience were arrested yesterday at the Prudential Building while rallying in support of justice for janitors.
Approximately 75 students attended the protest. Ten students, wearing fake bandages and smeared in fake blood, rolled along the Prudential Center’s food court, flailing and screaming in acts of civil disobedience. A sign reading, “Boston Properties, You make us Sick!” hung nearby.
The Prudential, owned by Boston Properties, pays its janitors $39 a day. More than 75 percent of the janitors are employed as part-time workers, meaning they are ineligible for employer-based health insurance. If they or their children get sick, they must pay the full price for medical treatment out of their $39 a day or go without, according to the Student Labor Action Project that planned the protest.
Boston SLAP is a coalition of students from numerous campuses in the Boston area.
“That’s why we planned this sick-in. We wanted to draw attention to the thousands of janitors forced to live without health insurance who clean the places we live, work and go to school,” said Lara Grmanus, a former Harvard University student and leader of SLAP.
According to SLAP, 2,000 of the 10,000 janitors in the local Service Employees International Union work on college campuses, including Northeastern University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Emerson College, Boston University, Simmons College, Emmanuel College, the University of Massachusetts at Boston, Bunker Hill Community College and Brandeis University.
During current contract negotiations between the janitors’ union and Boston property owners, most major corporations have stated their support for health insurance, full-time status and a living wage for janitors. Among the property owners are Equity Office Properties, State Street Bank, and FleetBoston; Boston Properties is the sole major owner to remain silent, a SLAP press release said.
“We are out here today because Boston Properties is the only major building owner yet to release a statement on their treatment of the janitors,” Grmanus said. “[Janitors] are part of our community and we are out here today to show our support and demand that they be treated equally. Even the city council has issued a statement in support of janitors.”
Anna Falicow, a Harvard University senior, issued a written statement explaining her decision to engage in yesterday’s act of civil disobedience.
“I was arrested because I wish to bring attention to the despicable and immoral behavior of these companies,” she said.
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