Zoom Teleconference, 11 AM Thursday, April 2:
Sen. Blumenthal, Rep. Himes, 32BJ President Bragg and Entire CT Senate Democratic Delegation
join
Essential Workers at Rest Stops to Demand Protection in Pandemic
Speakers ask McDonald’s and other national chains for support through coronavirus crisis
WHO: Service plaza food workers, elected officials, union members. Confirmed speakers include:
· U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal
· U.S. Representative Jim Himes
· State Treasurer Matt Wooden
· CT Senate President Martin Looney
· Connecticut House Majority Leader Matt Ritter
· State Representative Robyn Porter, Co-Chair of Labor Committee
· Kyle Bragg, President 32BJ SEIU
· Juan Hernandez, Vice President 32BJ SEIU
· Sal Luciano, President of Connecticut AFL-CIO
· Mario Franco, food service workers at McDonalds Darien northbound rest stop
· Ascha Porter, Subway worker, Fairfield southbound rest stop
· Josh Rivas, Subway Worker, Madison southbound rest stop
· Andrea Hernandez, McDonald’s worker, Darien northbound rest stop
· ALL Connecticut Democratic Senators
WHAT: Food service workers raise alarms of worker abuses by McDonalds and other companies at CT state-owned interstate service plazas that risk spreading COVID-19 to communities throughout East Coast.
WHERE: ttps://zoom.us/j/819887397
One-tap mobile dial-in +19292056099,,819887397#
Phone: 929-205-6099
Meeting ID: 819 887 397
Meeting ID: 819 887 397
WHEN: 11 AM, Thursday, April 2, 2020
DARIEN, Conn. – Governor Ned Lamont has designated food service workers as essential employees, yet some 950 employees at Connecticut’s Interstate rest stops are facing systematic abuse that risks the health and well-being of the workers, their families, and communities across the entire Eastern seaboard.
To address this ongoing crisis, a powerful delegation of elected officials are joining with allies and workers at an 11 AM Zoom press conference to demand an end to the abuse and protections for the workers’ health and safety.
“Workers at rest stops on I-95, I-15 and I-395 are facing conditions that jeopardize them, their families, and countless highway travelers and their home communities,” said Juan Hernandez, Vice President of 32BJ SEIU, which has been supporting service plaza workers for the past year. “Worker have been denied paid sick time in clear violation of Connecticut state law, as well as the Standard Wage that is guaranteed to workers employed through state contracts. The lack of paid sick time is an urgent danger that forces workers to choose between providing for their families and coming to work sick. Now, the situation has been aggravated as corporations like McDonald’s and Subway cut workers’ hours and positions – cuts that have landed heavily on workers who have been outspoken in the ongoing fight for their rights.”
“I have been working as a nightshift manager at McDonald’s for three decades,” said Mario Franco, a worker at the Darien Northbound McDonalds. “We received no special training or equipment, no sick days, and now no financial support as the entire nightshift and I have been let go, including single mothers. This is a terrible situation for everyone.”
“It’s tragic that this crisis has provided an opening for companies like McDonald’s to ramp up their abuse,” Hernandez continued. ““We are extremely proud to join with 32BJ President Bragg, Senator Blumenthal, Representative Himes, Senate President Looney, Treasurer Wooden and every Democratic Senator in the state on Thursday, among many other allies and supporter. Together, we will demand that McDonalds and the others reverse course and guarantee these workers their jobs or risk losing their contract to operate on state land.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION – see #ServingUpJustice on Twitter and following posts:
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With over 175,000 members in eleven states and Washington, D.C., including 5,000 in Connecticut, 32BJ SEIU is the largest property service workers union in the country