SEIU Local 2 and Justice for Janitors have issued a statement saying that the ongoing Ottawa truck convoy protests are having a dire effect on the livelihood of janitors and maintenance staff.
Justice for Janitors states that large property owners, including the federal government and the City of Ottawa, and the cleaning companies they contract, are refusing to pay janitors, forcing families to make impossible choices. The occupation has resulted in the shutdown of many buildings in downtown Ottawa and blockades have, at times, prevented workers from getting to their jobs.
In addition, hundreds of incidents of intimidation, harassment, and targeted racism have been reported and made the downtown core unsafe for workers.
Even before recent developments, janitors have been working through the COVID-19 pandemic playing a key role in sanitizing the city. Their work has made it safer for everyone and they have continued to clean.
While cleaning and maintenance staff have in some respects received greater recognition for their work as a result of the pandemic, the statement notes that property owners never saw it fit to provide janitors with pandemic pay despite them having no option to work from home and often needing to work second jobs just to make ends meet.
Juliana Cruz, a member of SEIU Local 2 who has been working at the Rideau Centre mall for a cleaning company for 15 years, explained that the store at which she works had to be closed down. She estimates Juliana she will only see about $200 of the $1,100 plus she normally makes on her next paycheque, and she’s not sure when she will get another shift.
About one hundred SEIU Local 2 members have lost vital income because of closures, as well as countless other workers in the city. Justice for Janitors and the union call upon Ottawa’s property owners (including the City and the Federal government) and cleaning companies to stop turning their backs on working families who have already taken the brunt of the pandemic.
“Be good corporate citizens; show you respect Ottawa’s janitors and pay lost wages,” concludes the statement.
Image: Justice for Janitors
