Wednesday is Might Day, also called Worldwide Employees Day. Each Might Day employees’ rights advocates, immigrant rights teams and dealing folks present up within the streets of Seattle to name for change. As a mother, as a daughter of immigrants and as president of SEIU6, this yr I’ll march for a good contract for the 4,000 janitors that we signify — and to guarantee that these employees, no matter citizenship standing, can entry unemployment insurance coverage in the event that they lose their job.
In the course of the pandemic, more folks relied on unemployment insurance coverage than throughout the Nice Despair. In simply the primary few weeks of the pandemic, 500,000 Washingtonians misplaced their jobs, and unemployment insurance coverage saved meals on the desk. Nevertheless, that essential assist wasn’t accessible for everybody. Below present federal and state programs, undocumented employees should not eligible for unemployment advantages and needed to combat for partial, momentary help from the Washington Immigration Reduction Fund.
The labor of undocumented employees has resulted in practically $350 million in contributions to Washington’s state unemployment insurance coverage fund during the last 10 years, however when these employees lose their jobs, they can not entry these funds. This hole impacts a lot of our members at SEIU6, who come from all around the world and converse over 30 completely different languages.
In the course of the late 1800s, when Might Day was named Worldwide Employees Day, the eight-hour workday was an unattainable dream. Employees, together with kids, had been recurrently dying from inhumane situations and exhaustion whereas working 16-hour days. On Might 1, 1886, over 300,000 employees nationwide walked out to demand an eight-hour workday. This was the beginning of a employees’ motion that finally resulted within the legalization of a 40-hour week in 1938, by means of the Honest Labor Requirements Act. We’ve made nice strides since then, however we’re nonetheless preventing for the rights of all employees, and together with undocumented employees in unemployment insurance coverage is the following step ahead.
This Might Day, as I march, I will likely be pondering particularly of one of many janitors I work with, Barey. Final yr, Barey collapsed from exhaustion whereas cleansing probably the most costly business actual property properties in downtown Seattle, owned by a person so wealthy he goes to house recreationally. Barey is a mother and grandma, and her paycheck sustains her household right here and her grandkids nonetheless in Somalia. When Barey’s employer elevated her workload from two flooring to a few, she felt stress to satisfy the brand new calls for. This stress, the results of the worry of job loss, led to Barey’s collapse.
Barey is recovering properly. However all of our members, together with Barey, ought to be capable of converse out about workloads and know that they’ve sources to fall again on in the event that they lose their jobs. The historical past of Might Day is the historical past of collective solidarity constructed between folks such as you and me; working folks struggling to get by and handle our households. We should always be capable of be certain that our children are wholesome and cared for, with the liberty to make decisions and take dangers as a result of they know there’s a security web beneath them. Each single household in Washington state ought to know what that security web looks like.
This Might Day, I’ll march with day laborers and home employees from Casa Latina, with well being care employees from SEIU 1199NW, house care employees from SEIU 775, with immigrant rights organizers and leaders from OneAmerica and with folks from each stroll of life who know that working individuals are the spine of Washington state. Subsequent legislative session, our lawmakers ought to guarantee that all working folks, no matter citizenship standing, are included in the advantages we pay into.
