Talks between the union and the Bay Area Maintenance Contractors, which represents 15 contractors, ended Thursday, the San Jose Mercury News reported Wednesday.

A major cleaning contract involving 15 companies ended April 30.

Yahoo! Inc., HP, Cisco and other high-tech companies, have lost their cleaners due to the strike, the Mercury News reported.

The union represents 6,000 janitors.

"This strike is for me, my co-workers, for life and respect," janitors Elsa Guich told the newspaper.

"The company doesn't understand that we work hard. They need to understand," Guich said.