32BJ SEIU Congratulates Lydia Edwards on Historic Victory for State Senate

Edwards will represent a district encompassing thousands of the union’s primarily Black, brown, and immigrant membership

The following Statement is attributable to Roxana Rivera, Executive Vice President of 32BJ SEIU:

On behalf of the airport workers, cleaners, and security officers of 32BJ SEIU throughout Massachusetts, I am overjoyed that Lydia Edwards has been elected as State Senator in the primary election. This historic win is long overdue; when she is officially sworn in after the general election in January, Senator Edwards will be the first Black woman to represent this heavily BIPOC district where over 2,000 of 32BJ workers live and thousands more work.

Lydia Edwards is a fierce advocate for social justice, and has been one of workers’ strongest allies throughout her time on the Boston City Council. She has stood shoulder to shoulder with airport workers in their fight for better working conditions, a union, and raises for these essential workers ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, and with her help, these airport workers have won significant change. She has already made positive change as a City Councilor through her housing and transportation advocacy work, and we know she will continue to get the job done for Boston and the entire state.

As we face another pandemic winter, inflation, and inequity, we need to keep electing change-makers like Senator Edwards into office. The members of 32BJ SEIU will enter 2022 with a more hopeful view due to Edward’s victory!

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With 175,000 members in twelve states and Washington D.C., including 19,000 in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, 32BJ SEIU is the largest property service workers’ union in the country.