Janitors on strike at Silicon Valley

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Employees of Yahoo Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co, Oracle Corp and Cisco Systems Inc may have to add cleaning to their list of duties after janitors launched a strike on Tuesday.

The union for the janitors, who are employed by contractors to the companies, threatened to expand the strike to other Silicon Valley high-technology companies unless demands for better pay and health benefits are met.

Up to 400 janitors were expected to walk off the job throughout Tuesday, with many more prepared to follow in coming days, said Gina Bowers, a spokeswoman for the 6,000-member local of the Service Employees International Union pressing the labor action.

"Today is just Day One of the strike," Bowers said. "It has the potential to escalate."

Although Silicon Valley is one of the wealthiest areas of the nation, janitors there say they earn less than their counterparts in Los Angeles or San Francisco.

Yahoo and Cisco said in statements that current contract negotiations between their janitorial service providers and their employees expired on Saturday.

Both companies said they are hopeful the two sides can reach an agreement soon.

Hewlett-Packard spokesman Ryan Donovan said the company was not a party to the dispute. "We hope it gets resolved rapidly and satisfactorily," he added.

An Oracle representative was not immediately available for comment.