Elizabeth Warren to rally on Boston Common with a crowd of 2,000 janitors
With a local janitors’ union bargaining for a new contract, Sen. Elizabeth Warren is coming to Boston to show she has their back.
The Massachusetts senator will speak at a rally Saturday on Boston Common, according to 32BJ Service Employees International Union, which represents 13,000 janitors in New England.
Warren is expected to be joined at the Parkman Bandstand at 1 p.m. by 2,000 janitors and property security officers.
“The hardworking men and women who clean, maintain and protect more than 2,000 buildings throughout Greater Boston deserve a fighting chance to build a future for themselves and for their families – and that means ensuring they get fair pay and good benefits,” Warren said in a statement, which perhaps inadvertently plugged the name of her book.
It will be the Democratic senator’s second appearance at a labor event in less than a week. On Monday, she spoke at the annual Labor Day Breakfast at Boston’s Park Plaza hotel, less than a half mile away from the Parkman Bandstand.
“I’m proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the workers of 32BJ SEIU,” she added Thursday.
The union is renegotiating its master contract, which expires September 30, and recently filed federal complaints against state contractors following recent layoffs of MBTA janitors.
The group is asking for expanded employer-paid health care for workers’ family members and increased wages to keep up with rising living costs, as well as to adjust for low commercial vacancy rates and “sky-high” rents.
Roxana Rivera, the vice president of 32BJ SEIU, said the union is “thrilled” to have Warren join them.
“She is not only a real fighter for working people but someone who understands that our economy works better when workers share in the wealth they help create,” Rivera said in a statement.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com