About 40 workers held a rally Tuesday morning in Downtown Pittsburgh, demanding better pay and protections against COVID-19 and job layoffs.
Members of the SEIU labor group’s regional district, the workers represented commercial cleaners, security officers and food workers in the city, and said they are “essential workers for Black Lives Matter” fighting against the coronavirus as well as racial injustice.
The group demonstrated outside the Grant Building, Downtown.
The service employees union said its workers deserve “essential pay” and more protective equipment.
“This disease disproportionately impacts people of color at higher rates than other ethnicities,” the group said in a statement. “These workers deal with this in addition to the realities they face every day with racial injustice. It’s double jeopardy.”
The labor group is pressing state legislators to respond.
SEIU Local 32BJ represents more than 6,400 members in Western Pennsylvania.
First Published: June 16, 2020, 4:38 p.m.
