Opinion

Falkenberg: Why can't Houston pay janitors a living wage?

Janitor Maria Lopez says her 8-year-old daughter, Shiomara, is the reason she's "going to fight for a better future for our children." Janitor Maria Lopez says her 8-year-old daughter, Shiomara, is the reason she's "going to fight for a better future for our children." Image 1 of / 11 Caption Close Falkenberg: Why can't Houston pay janitors a living wage? 1 / 11 Back to Gallery

"Local market conditions." That's the detached, matter-of-fact, corporate answer you'll get if you ask the Houston Area Contractors Association's lead negotiator why the average janitor scrubbing toilets and mopping linoleum in our city of opportunity makes a poverty wage of $8.35 an hour.

A statement from lead negotiator Tim Reilly on Wednesday, on the eve of Thursday's renewed bargaining talks amid the janitors' strike, said, "in these economic times, customers need to manage costs very carefully."

Certainly, this is true. And if it's true in Houston, it's true in cities with much higher unemployment rates. Places like depressed, beaten-down, burned-out Detroit, which ranks No. 2 on Forbes' list of most "miserable" cities, and where unemployment is well above the national average at 10.2 percent. By comparison Houston's unemployment is 7.5 percent, and Forbes recently named us the nation's "coolest" city. And the city where a paycheck will stretch the furthest.

The magazine apparently didn't get a look at the paycheck of Maria Lopez, a 41-year-old janitor at Greenway Plaza whose annual income from the job hovers around $9,000.

"That's not living," says Lopez, a former legal secretary in Mexico who now works a second job baby-sitting to help her husband keep the lights on at their one-bedroom apartment in Gulfton.

I don't know how much more miserable Lopez would be if she moved to Detroit, where Charlotte Carter, 48, is working at the Cobo Center, doing the same job as Maria, working for the same contractor - ABM - but is making more than $6 per hour more, at $14.90.

Carter's salary, it should be said, reflects that she's been with the company for 30 years, while Lopez has been with ABM for five. But the average janitor in Detroit makes nearly three dollars more than the average janitor in Houston, at $11.17 per hour, according to the local Service Employees International Union.

Whose problem is it?

Of course, some will say, that's the problem with Detroit. It's nothing to do with a failure to diversify the economy, or other complex factors. It's all about how much they pay their janitors, and those darn unions demanding living wages.

I guess it's also the problem with Boston, which pays janitors an average of $15.95 per hour. And the problem with Portland, which averages $12.60 per hour. And the problem with Minneapolis, which averages $13.42 per hour. Except that, all three of the aforementioned have unemployment rates far below Houston's.

No, in Houston, the lead negotiator of the Houston Area Contractors Association deems the union's proposal of $10 per hour for janitors "unrealistically high."

It's unrealistic for Lopez to ask for a fraction of the salary that helped Carter move into a better neighborhood in Detroit, and helped her keep her two children, one of whom is now in college, off welfare.

It's unrealistic for Lopez to ask for a little more money so that she has a chance of getting out of poverty, of spending more time with her 8-year-old daughter, Shiomara, and maybe helping her with homework now and then.

It's unrealistic for Lopez to strive for a better life in a city, in a state, that's perfectly comfortable with the exploitation of immigrant labor. In a state that defines "competitive" less in terms of education levels than low wages, small government and perilously thin safety nets.

Lopez finds dignity in her six-hour shifts at Greenway Plaza, during which she cleans about 100 toilets and urinals, empties 30 wastebaskets and mops 11 floors, among other duties. She finds dignity in the strike, the marches downtown, the hope that Congress members and religious leaders, the business community and a few newspaper readers are hearing her, and will help influence change.

She's not giving in

She's going on her fourth week on strike, and she doesn't plan to give in. She doesn't plan to move to Detroit. She doesn't plan to let down her daughter, who she says tells her to "keep going, keep fighting."

"We're going to fight for a better future for our children," Lopez says.

And that's the fact none of us can ignore. You can roll your eyes at this column. Look the other way when Maria Lopez comes to collect the garbage at your desk. Breeze past her as she stands on the downtown street corner, hoisting a protest sign, during rush hour.

But you can't ignore her 8-year-old daughter who shares a bedroom with her parents in Gulfton. The girl who loves math and wants to be a veterinarian some day but relies on free lunch at school, and Medicaid for the health insurance her parents can't afford.

That janitor's daughter is the future of Houston. Her fate is tied to yours and mine. And whether she gets enough education to contribute to a brighter future is up to us, and the negotiators at the table today, and, of course, the market conditions.

lise.falkenberg@chron.com