Brookline MA: Students on the March for Workers' Rights
On December 7th, fifth-grade students from the Workmen's Circle Jewish Sunday School in Brookline, MA marched down Harvard Street to protest the practice of Commercial Cleaning Services, a Boston area company. More than 50 people from the Jewish Labor Committee, Brookline PAX, SEIU Local 615, MassCOSH, and the Moishe/Kavod Jewish Social Justice House joined the students, whose statement can be found here.
{Note: This march was highlighted on the front page of the December 12 issue of Boston's Jewish Advocate.}
The workers of Commercial Cleaning are members of SEIU Local 615, which represents more than 10,000 janitors in the Boston area. However, since August 2007, the workers have been without a union contract. In negotiations, Commercial Cleaning insisted on wages and benefits well below area standards.
The employees of Commercial Cleaning want the company to:
* Respect workers' human and legal rights to fair treatment, pay employees for all hours worked without unfair and illegal deductions, and provide a workplace that is safe and free of sexual harassment.
* Reverse arbitrary cuts of full-time workers to part-time.
* Negotiate a fair contract that will provide the workers with union representation and protection against further abuses.
For more information, call Seth Leibson at SEIU 615 at 617 878-7590