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Downtown Janitors Say Employee Appreciation Means Quality Affordable Health Care

This week, Milwaukee is celebrating the 4^th Annual Downtown Employee Appreciation Week with food, games and live music. Over 100 of Milwaukee’s janitors joined in the festivities with a rally outside Senator Herb Kohl’s office on Wisconsin Avenue.  They wanted to remind Senator Kohl that appreciating workers means providing access to quality affordable health care.

“How are we being appreciated when so many downtown employees are going without health care?” asked Maria Sada, a janitor in the building of Senator Kohl’s office.  “Respect means health care for me and my neighbors.”

The downtown janitors are concerned with recent news that health care reform may not come to a vote in accordance to the timeline set out by President Obama. With unemployment on the rise and an uncertain economy, the high cost of health care is a difficult burden for many in Wisconsin and across the nation.

 “Every month Congress fails to pass health care reform, workers are pushed deeper into debt,” stated Jackie Berry, who has been cleaning buildings downtown for over 15 years. “The cost of waiting for quality and affordable health care is too great.”

The downtown rally is one of many actions members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) held this month to encourage passage of health care reform. SEIU members made over 700 phone calls to legislative offices, and collected signatures asking that reform not be delayed.

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