(New York, NY) Today, 32BJ SEIU congratulated the Biden Administration as it announced a new rule change that will allow workers to choose non-employee individuals to represent them during an inspection by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). This would include union representatives, health and safety experts who are knowledgeable about hazardous conditions in their workplace, or individuals with the language skills needed to allow for effective communication with workers.

The following quote can be attributed to Manny Pastreich, President of 32BJ SEIU:

“As workplace injuries continue to rise in key sectors and fatalities increase at an alarming rate, especially among Black and Latino workers, we commend the Biden administration for responding to this crisis by ensuring that workers have a voice during a health and safety inspection by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. This is in stark contrast to the Trump administration, which threw out protections for worker safety rights adopted under the Obama administration.

“As the union that represents tens of thousands of airport workers, janitors, maintenance personnel and other building service workers—many of them immigrants—we believe it is crucial that they have the clear right to choose an effective and knowledgeable advocate who understands their workplace and can speak their language if necessary.

“We commend President Biden for putting the force of law and the power of OSHA’s authority behind the workers’ right to choose their own representative, thus ensuring a fair and accurate inspection takes place.”

32BJ represents 175,000 property service workers, many of whom are immigrant workers, who can be potentially exposed to workplace hazards. These include South Florida janitors, employed by Nova University’s cleaning contractor, Encompass Onsite, who recently filed an OSHA complaint over a new cleaning product that has caused severe adverse reactions including trouble breathing, blisters, rashes, skin peeling, vomiting, and several hospital visits.

During the initial OSHA inspection, Encompass threatened to call security on the worker’s chosen representative, a shop steward whom Encompass had suspended after she advocated for her co-workers who were concerned about the new cleaning product. The union representative was able to intervene, and Encompass then allowed the inspection to continue with the shop steward present.

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With over 175,000 members in 12 states and Washington D.C, 32BJ SEIU is the largest property services union in the country.