By Ana Gomez Salcido  

This Thursday, a total of eight workers were arrested in Downtown San Diego during a rally that gathered to demand a better workplace in the janitorial sector.

The rally started outside the Symphony Tower when a group of about 400 people, made up of janitors and their supporters, marched through B Street to hold another rally two blocks away.

The eight people that were arrested were obstructing the main entrance to the building at 401 B Street in downtown San Diego, a move planned by rally organizers.

“By being arrested we can cast a light on what’s happening in San Diego,” said Valerie Long, National Executive Vice-president of SEIU United Service Workers West. “It’s a sacrifice we are doing to be able to succeed.”

Alejandra Valles, Chief of Staff and Secretary-Treasurer of SEIU United Service Workers West, said that janitors in San Diego are living in poverty while workers in other cities, including cities in California, are getting an increase in their wages.

“Janitors in San Diego deserve a living wage, decent health care for them and their families, and also deserve a workplace free of sexual harassment,” added Valles.

Arturo Gutierrez, a worker taking part in the rally, said that without healthcare his wife would not be able to get the treatment she needs for an incurable disease she faces.

The workers demands were an end to poverty wages, protections from sexual violence and assault in the workplace, affordable family healthcare, and an end to unfair labor practices.