Low-Wage Workers Still Feeling Effects Of Shutdown
Friday, November 15, 2013
(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Workers who labor as janitors, security
guards, food-service workers and in other
similar positions at federal buildings took a
big financial hit during the recent government
shutdown, reports
Luz Lazo in the Washington Post. “Those
three weeks of work lost are $1,600 that we
don’t have now,” Pablo Lazaro told the
Post; he worked only six days in October at
the Smithsonian Castle where he cooks and
serves food to museum employees. The Service
Employees International Union Local 32BJ, which
represents thousands of janitorial workers and
security guards in the Washington region,
estimates that about 700 of its members were
out of work during the shutdown, according to
the Post report. UNITE HERE Local 23
said about 500 of its members — food-service
workers— were affected. “If the direct
government employees got paid, the
contracted-out federal workers shouldn’t be
seen as collateral damage. They should also get
paid,” said Jaime Contreras, capital area
director of Local 32BJ. “All these people
have bills to pay. They have mortgages. They
have to put food on the table. They have to
make ends meet, and they were without a
paycheck for two weeks.” D.C. Del. Eleanor
Holmes Norton (D) and Rep. Robert A. Brady
(D-Pa.) are considering legislation to grant
back pay to federally contracted retail, food,
custodial and security workers who were
affected by the shutdown. “Our members
received back pay for time lost during the
shutdown,” said AFSCME Council 26 Executive
Director Cark Goldman. “It’s only fair that
low-paid contract workers who provide such
vital services to government agencies and the
public should also receive back
pay.”
photo: Sarah L. Voisin/The
Washington Post