Last week, contract workers at the US Capitol and Senate went on strike to highlight their low wages and struggles to make ends meet. They are calling on this President, or the next to sign a Model Employer Executive Order.
Now, the workers who went public about their pay and working conditions are being intimidated into silence by a foreign corporation that operates the US Capitol and Senate cafeterias.
After Strike, US Capitol Workers Face Retaliation
By Bridget Bowman, Roll Call
U.S. Capitol contract workers have filed an unfair labor practice complaint against a federal contractor that retaliated against workers who participated in a strike last week.
“When I went into work on Thursday I was being harassed,” US Capitol cashier Kellie Duckett. “The manager cut my hours, she cut me and a co-worker’s hours…she took me in her office and she threatened my job.”
Good Jobs Nation filed the complaint with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of Duckett and another worker.
According to the complaint, the manager removed one day from their weekly schedule and gave the time to workers who did not participate in the strike.
“Just that one day is anywhere from 50 to 70 dollars, and I have two kids — one who’s already in school one who’s about to start school,” Duckett said, noting that she makes $11.25 an hour. “When I’m not making that money, that’s clothes for them or that’s food for them.”
Duckett was laid off last year when Congress went on recess and then rehired in March. “When I got the job, I was not informed that it was a seasonal or temporary job,” she said. Duckett explained that she went on strike to call for a union, which could ensure better job security.
The complaint comes as nine Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Dick Durbin, sent a letter to Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), chair of the committee that oversees Senate contracts, calling for contracting officials to give preference to congressional contractors who pay a living wage, provide benefits and allow for collective bargaining.
On Tuesday, the committee’s ranking Democrat, Sen. Charles Shumer of New York, also likely the next Democratic leader, said he would support raising the wage to $15 an hour for contract workers.
Meanwhile, some workers are taking matters into their own hands. Charles Gladden, a homeless Senate food service worker, has started an online fundraising campaign to raise money for his struggling co-workers.
“The truth is that the current President – as well as the people now running for the White House – all walked past me and others who’ve served them in the Senate,” Gladden said in a statement announcing his campaign. “It’s like we’re invisible to them.”