Maria Rodriguez has labored eight years as a janitor for a cleaning agency that suppliers Novartis, a world pharmaceutical agency headquartered in Cambridge.
The Ayer resident was thought of one in every of higher than 100 janitors all through Massachusetts rallied inside the metropolis she works on Saturday, calling on house biotech companies to induce janitorial service contractors to cope with their employees greater.
Earlier than the pandemic, Rodriguez was answerable for cleaning one flooring of the Novartis setting up, nevertheless now, she acknowledged her job has grown to masking the basement and totally different areas as she tries to get by with fewer colleagues.
A excessive priority from Rodriguez and totally different janitors is for his or her companies to shift their schedule from part-time to full-time, to permit them to start receiving greater pay and benefits, similar to elevated medical medical insurance.
The 20 hours she works now is not going to be ample to meet her elevated work requires, Rodriguez suggested the Herald.
“We want justice, extra respect for us,” she acknowledged. “Perhaps the corporate must be extra conscientious as a result of we’re people.”
Rally organizer 32BJ SEIU held Saturday’s event to begin out getting consideration from biotech organizations, like Novartis, Pfizer and Biogen, sooner than janitors begin negotiating for a model new contract later this summer season. Their current contract expires in November.
The gathering honored Justice for Janitors day, when baton-wielding Los Angeles police assaulted janitors all through a peaceful rally to reinforce working circumstances and wages, in line with 32BJ SEIU. The response to the brutality of June 15, 1990 turned the tide inside the janitors’ battle to unionize.
The union will discount instantly with the janitorial service companies, making it essential for biotech companies to face by the facet of people who clear their buildings and labs, acknowledged Roxana Rivera, assistant to the union’s president.
Supply: www.bostonherald.com”