A branch of one of the nation’s largest unions says a Houston janitorial firm that has long been embroiled in a legal battle with local organizers is trying to force the union out of Texas, the Wall Street Journal reported today. In court papers filed on Friday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Corpus Christi, the Texas branch of the Service Employees International Union asked a judge to reject a bid by the company, Professional Janitorial Service of Houston Inc., to have the Texas arm of the union liquidated or tossed out of bankruptcy altogether. Dismissal of the union’s chapter 11 case, filed last month, would lift legal protections that are preventing PJS from collecting a $7.8 million defamation verdict it won against SEIU Texas last year.
