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