Janitors at Google, Meta and other Silicon Valley businesses say they are unsatisfied with their work

For four years, Hilda Mosquera has been working eight hours straight each day manually recycling plastic and cardboard for a Bay Area car company. She said excessive workloads have resulted in her hands needing surgery.

On Thursday, she joined more than 200 janitors working at Silicon Valley’s largest businesses at a march in Sunnyvale to raise awareness about the physical strains local janitors face on the job, and voice support for a proposed state bill that would limit their heavy workloads.

“We’re here demanding that these companies hear our stories,” she said in Spanish. “Moments when we are told to work eight hours with no breaks included, just speaks volumes — that we’re here giving it our all, only for these companies to treat us unfairly.”

Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West, or SEIU-USWW, which represents the rally-goers along with more than 45,000 service workers, organized the Sunnyvale rally and similar ones in San Diego, Orange County and Sacramento.

Wearing matching purple shirts from the union and carrying picket signs that read “Stop Janitor Abuse” and “Our bodies are not a commodity,” they marched along Enterprise Way, passing major companies where union members perform work, like Google and Meta. Walking alongside their families, friends and other allies, the group also chanted phrases, including “Justice for Janitors” in Spanish. Latino janitors comprise 70% of the private sector janitorial industry workforce, according to a 2022 study from the UCLA Labor Center.

Companies generally hire their janitors through contractors, a practice that can sometimes shield both building owners and firms from assuming legal liability related to sub-standard working conditions, according to the study.

Janitorial work consists of hard physical labor, and injuries can go unrecognized. According to the same study, 27% of private sector janitors in California are over the age of 55 and more prone to injury. A 2023 study published by the California Department of Industrial Relations found that 33% of workers may under-report injuries for fear of retaliation.

“The workload is causing a lot of workers’ comp, or a lot of bodily injuries for a lot of our co-workers,” Ana Meza, a union member and janitor, said in Spanish.

SEIU-USWW noted in 2015 that it was common for a single janitor to clean as much as 50,000 to 60,000 square feet a night.

A proposed bill by Assemblymember Luz Rivas, a Los Angeles Democrat, could change that. AB236 would amend the state’s labor code to limit the area a janitor can work in an hour to 2,000 square feet.

“If it passes, it would allow less work for us,” union member Marcla Cueva said in Spanish. “because we are being overworked.”

According to a 2017 University of California, Berkley, study of 59 janitors from several cities, including San Jose, those with more than 10 years in the industry reported increased workload over time, with more than half saying their workload had doubled. The increases manifest in different ways, the study states, including how work is scheduled, the number and complexity of tasks, the quantity of tasks for the hours worked and the number of hours distributed across workers.

Previous bills from the California State Legislature have sought to improve working conditions, including AB 1897 and SB 588, both of which allow client employers, such as building owners and managers, to be fined for workplace violations committed by subcontractors. Others implemented sexual violence and harassment prevention training for workers.

Bay Area janitors’ concerns also follow layoffs in recent years by Silicon Valley titans, which have resulted in cuts to janitorial service providers. In 2022, hundreds of janitors went on strike across various Bay Area Meta campuses in anticipation of mass layoffs, demanding that the company hold its janitorial contractor accountable for creating new work agreements.