By Doug Cunningham

Pressure is mounting on University of Miami President and former Clinton administration cabinet member Donna Shalala to intercede with a campus contractor on behalf of striking janitors. Some two hundred janitors employed by UNICCO are on strike. Some of the janitors employed by Unicco continued a hunger strike through the Easter weekend. Former Congressman David Bonior, who now heads American Rights At Work, went to Miami on Good Friday to call on Shalala to support the striking janitors. Over the Easter weekend, a fourth hunger-striking worker was hospitalized. Janitors at the University of Miami are fighting to form a union and improve their wages and working conditions. Janitors on that campus make as little as $13,000 a year with no health benefits, according to the Service Employees International Union. SEIU says other janitors working for UNICCO –at Harvard for example – earn between $13 and $14 an hour and have fully paid health insurance. The janitors on a hunger strike to win justice on the job are at a critical stage risking their health as the struggle for basic workplace justice continues at the University of Miami.