A union that represents cleaners, janitors and other service workers in Connecticut says their members are now frontline workers and need better support to do their jobs.
Rochelle Palache with SEIU Local 32BJ in Connecticut says her members need personal protective equipment, training and hazard pay so they can do their jobs safely.
“Our cleaning members that continue to work, they are looking to the federal government or state for particularly hazard pay. Our security officers are now being asked to take the temperature of tenants as they are coming into the building. That’s not what they signed up for.”
Palache is a member of Governor Ned Lamont’s Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group.
She spoke at the last public roundtable of the group’s community committee.
The advisory group is now disbanded.
So far 26 unionized service workers in Connecticut have lost their lives to COVID-19.
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