To: Leon Edward Panetta, Secretary of Defense, Honorable Ray Mabus, Secretary of Navy, and Doug Shulman, Commissioner of the IRS
Demand justice for janitors who clean for veterans, the military and government
Contractor Escab Enterprises hasn’t paid almost 300 janitors in two weeks – the government should stop payment to Escab and pay these workers immediately. The Navy has chosen to hire a responsible contractor at Walter Reed Medical Center and the IRS and the Department of Defense’s USU should do the same.
Why is this important?
As the nation observes Veteran’s Day, janitors who ensure that veterans have safe and sanitary rooms at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center are being denied two weeks’ pay.
I take my job as a janitor at Walter Reed very seriously and I feel responsible for keeping it clean and safe for all the veterans who are getting care there. But Escab Enterprises, a federal cleaning contractor that has received over $40 million in taxpayer money since 2008, hasn’t paid me and my fellow employees our last paycheck--for two weeks of work-- and they won’t even say when we will get paid.
In fact, they haven’t paid nearly 300 janitors that work at Walter Reed, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and the Internal Revenue Service.
We earn just $13.97 per hour at Walter Reed and without two weeks of pay we are already struggling to support our families. We don’t know when—or if—they intend to pay us what we’re owed.
The government is spending millions in tax dollars on this company that hasn’t paid the workers who are helping our nation’s veterans recuperate in a safe and clean environment and cleaning other important government buildings.
We are committed to our jobs and continue to work to best protect the health and safety of the patients and workers in the buildings we clean but we need to be paid immediately so we can support our families.
We have been told a responsible contractor is taking over at the Walter Reed Medical Center. The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and the Internal Revenue Service should do the same; Escab Enterprises is a bad actor and shouldn’t be allowed to work for the government.
I take my job as a janitor at Walter Reed very seriously and I feel responsible for keeping it clean and safe for all the veterans who are getting care there. But Escab Enterprises, a federal cleaning contractor that has received over $40 million in taxpayer money since 2008, hasn’t paid me and my fellow employees our last paycheck--for two weeks of work-- and they won’t even say when we will get paid.
In fact, they haven’t paid nearly 300 janitors that work at Walter Reed, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and the Internal Revenue Service.
We earn just $13.97 per hour at Walter Reed and without two weeks of pay we are already struggling to support our families. We don’t know when—or if—they intend to pay us what we’re owed.
The government is spending millions in tax dollars on this company that hasn’t paid the workers who are helping our nation’s veterans recuperate in a safe and clean environment and cleaning other important government buildings.
We are committed to our jobs and continue to work to best protect the health and safety of the patients and workers in the buildings we clean but we need to be paid immediately so we can support our families.
We have been told a responsible contractor is taking over at the Walter Reed Medical Center. The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and the Internal Revenue Service should do the same; Escab Enterprises is a bad actor and shouldn’t be allowed to work for the government.