Contractor cuts cleaning staff during pandemic
Despite harrowing circumstances that warrant extra cleaning to keep offices safe for employees, a federal cleaning contractor, Electronic Metrology Laboratory, LLC (EML) is now using fewer office cleaners than its predecessor at the Postal Square Building. EML, which took over the contract last week, also refused to hire the predecessor’s longtime employees who had as much as 30 years of experience. “Cleaning is a crucial public health necessity to prevent the spread of COVID-19, yet EML is cutting back, leaving cleaners out of work and tenants at greater risk,” said Jaime Contreras, Vice President of 32BJ SEIU, which represents the workers. “EML should be maximizing our safety not their profits. They have a moral obligation to keep tenants as safe as possible and prevent workers and their families from facing starvation. Cleaners, who risk their own health and lives to keep the rest of us safe, need an income and health care during this crisis.” The Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Postal Museum are among tenants who continue to pay rent that subsidizes EML, which hired just 19 of the 24 cleaners employed by the previous contractor.
CSA helps keep Teamster rolling
Gabriel Rozzi Sr. has been a UPS driver at the Lauren Center in Laurel, Maryland for eight years. The Teamsters Local 639 member lives with an auto-immune issue that compromises his ability to fight infections, making him especially at-risk to the coronavirus. Two weeks ago, with Gabriel’s life at risk, his physician pulled him off the job, but he could only take sick leave without pay, which created a financial hardship. Gabriel (photo) reached out to the Community Services Agency, which, through its Emergency Assistance Fund, was able to help him with his car payment. In an interview with Union City yesterday, Gabriel expressed his appreciation to the labor movement for this timely assistance. “We’re happy to have been able to help our union brother out in his time of need,” said CSA Executive Director Sonte DuCote, “and we wish him continued health.”
Union Voice/Readers Write: Daily optimism boost
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MWC COVID-19 UPDATES
Legislative updates: click here for the latest updates.
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CSA: latest resource updates posted here.
Today's Labor Quote: LA janitor
“I wasn’t robbing a bank or selling drugs. I’m simply asking for an increase in pay but the police beat us as if we were garbage.”
On this date in 1990, 15,000 janitors in Los Angeles went on strike, part of the Justice for Janitors campaign.
Today's Labor History
This week’s Labor History Today podcast: Coronavirus essential workers’ rights
On this week’s show, organizer and union rep John Barry on “Coronavirus ‘essential workers’ have rights too;” ethnographer Candacy Taylor on "Beauty Shop Culture and the Labor of Hairdressing" and Tales from the Reuther Library podcast host Dan Goldner celebrates Frances Perkins’ birthday.
Last week’s show: Socialists, suffragettes and fear at work
Some 300,000 members of the National Federation of Telephone Workers, soon to become CWA, strike AT&T and the Bell System. Within five weeks all but two of the 39 federation unions had won new contracts - 1947
National Labor Relations Board attorney tells ILWU members to “lie down like good dogs,” Juneau, Alaska - 1947
- David Prosten; photo: Local union President Mary Gannon leads the picket line April 8, 1947 at the C&P Telephone headquarters at 13th & G Streets NW; photo courtesy Washington Area Spark
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Published by the Metropolitan Washington Council, an AFL-CIO "Union City" Central Labor Council whose 200 affiliated union locals represent 150,000 area union members.
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