To: Melissa Mark-Viverito, NYC Council Speaker
Equal Pay for Equal Work for NYC School Cleaners
Each day more than one million school children depend on 32BJ school cleaners and handypersons to keep their schools healthy and safe, yet we have an unequal system where a school cleaner in one school makes 30% less than a cleaner in another school down the street. The time is now for all workers who do the same hard work cleaning city schools to get raised up to the industry standard.
I urge you to do the right thing by more than 5,000 workers and support their fight to win the prevailing wage that keeps up with the high cost of living in New York City.
Why is this important?
Thousands of workers who maintain NYC public schools are doing the same work as others, but for nearly a third less. This is unfair and must be addressed. NYC must invest in ALL those who make our schools clean and safe environments for our children's learning.