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Imagine working the same job for nearly three decades and never getting a raise.

11 News found one woman who doesn’t have to imagine it because she has lived it.

Now she is willing to join thousands of others to take a stand.

She said as part of the working poor, she has nothing to lose.

For better or worse, Astraberta Rodriquez is about open the door to a world of new possibilities. 

She said she has been spinning her wheels at the same job as a janitor for 27 years.

And while she sees in her granddaughter’s face the promise of youth, she is also reminded of her own youth lost.

She said that after 27 years, she is an old person and doesn't have the strength she used to.  

In that time, Rodriquez has seen her wages more than double all the way from a $1.99 an hour to $5.15.  She spends 20 hours a week cleaning an office tower in downtown Houston, which comes out to about $20 a night before taxes and with no benefits.

I used to have my own apartment, she said, but I can’t pay the bills and the rent.  So I have to move in with my daughter.

"It’s no longer if they’re going to go on strike, but when," said Lynda Tran, union spokesperson.

Approximately 5,300 janitors employed by the city’s five largest cleaning contractors want a raise to $8.50 an hour with health insurance.  The union said the same companies pay janitors more in other cities, but they aren’t budging in Houston.

And why is it that the same companies are paying more money in other cities?  That is exactly the question the janitors are asking.  If these national building owners and cleaning companies can offer good jobs with health care in other parts of the country, why can’t they do that in Houston?

11 News tried to contact each of those five cleaning companies for comment Thursday, but none of them returned our calls. 

Janitors from other cities have contributed $1 million for a Houston strike fund.  And Thursday, the union filed a lawsuit in federal court in an effort to sidestep city restrictions on public demonstrations.