Senate cafeteria workers call on the powerful people they serve to save their jobs
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Pandemic-related layoffs are not fully a thing of the past, a fact that is coming home to the very institution currently considering another round of COVID-19 funding: the Senate. Senate cafeteria workers visited senators on Monday asking them to prevent layoffs scheduled for April 14.
Senate cafeterias and food service work have always gone up and down with the institution’s schedule—busy during long days of voting and deserted during recess. But the pandemic has been like recess on steroids, and even now the Capitol Visitor Center cafeteria is closed. The workers who staff the cafeterias and catering services were never well-paid. They unionized last year and were voluntarily recognized by the private contractor that directly employs them, but haven’t yet gotten to the point of negotiating a first contract. Some are paid just $15.30 an hour, 10 cents above the minimum wage in Washington, D.C.
In a letter supporting the workers, Sen. Sherrod Brown and 17 co-signers—all Democrats—called on Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to include emergency funding for the dining workers in the COVID-19 funding bill currently under consideration.
“After facing down a violent insurrection on Capitol grounds and continuing to serve through more than two years of a pandemic, layoffs should not be on the table. In fact, the United States Senate expressly called for the opposite: workers should be rewarded for their service to this institution, the Capitol complex, and to the people who visit us,” the senators wrote, going on to note that just 18% of the workers have employer-sponsored health insurance and none have employer-sponsored pensions.
On Monday, workers visited senators’ offices asking them for help saving the jobs of the 81 Senate workers slated for layoffs, Latino Rebels’ Pablo Manríquez reported, and were able to speak to some Democrats who had not signed Sherrod Brown’s letter. “That’s bullshit,” Sen. Jon Tester said when he heard about the layoffs, while Sen. Chris Van Hollen told them, “We will look into it.”
The problem is that they need Republicans on board with providing the funding to save their jobs. It will be a critical test of whether Republicans see low-paid Black and brown people as worth helping when it’s low-paid Black and brown people who Republican senators see every day (that the Senate is in session) doing the hard work of keeping the Senate fed.
Workers and allies will picket the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 PM ET.