Wednesday is May Day, also known as International Workers Day. Every May Day workers’ rights advocates, immigrant rights groups and working people show up on the streets of Seattle to call for change. As a mother, as a daughter of immigrants and as president of SEIU6, this year I will march for a fair contract for the 4,000 janitors that we represent — and to make sure that those workers, regardless of citizenship status, can access unemployment insurance if they lose their job.
During the pandemic, more people relied on unemployment insurance than during the Great Depression. In just the first few weeks of the pandemic, 500,000 Washingtonians lost their jobs, and unemployment insurance kept food on the table. However, that crucial help wasn’t available for everyone. Under current federal and state systems, undocumented workers are not eligible for unemployment benefits and had to fight for partial, temporary assistance from the Washington Immigration Relief Fund.
The labor of undocumented workers has resulted in nearly $350 million in contributions to Washington’s state unemployment insurance fund over the last 10 years, but when those workers lose their jobs, they cannot access those funds. This gap affects many of our members at SEIU6, who come from all over the world and speak over 30 different languages.
During the late 1800s, when May Day was called International Workers Day, the eight-hour workday was an impossible dream. Workers, including children, were regularly dying from inhumane conditions and exhaustion while working 16-hour days. On May 1, 1886, over 300,000 nationwide workers walked out to demand an eight-hour workday. This was the start of a workers’ movement that eventually resulted in the legalization of a 40-hour week in 1938, through the Fair Labor Standards Act. We have made great strides since then, but we are still fighting for the rights of all workers , and including undocumented workers in unemployment insurance is the next step forward.
This May Day, as I march, I will be thinking especially of one of the janitors I work with, Barey. Last year, Barey collapsed from exhaustion while cleaning one of the most expensive commercial real estate properties in downtown Seattle, owned by a man so rich he goes to space recreationally. Barey is a mom and grandma, and her paycheck keeps her family here and her grandkids still in Somalia. When Barey’s employer increased her workload from two floors to three, she felt pressure to meet the new demands. This pressure, the result of the fear of job loss, led to Barey’s collapse.
Barey is recovering well. But all of our members, including Barey, should be able to speak out about workloads and know that they have resources to fall back on if they lose their jobs. The history of May Day is the history of collective solidarity built between people like you and me; working people struggling to get by and take care of our families. We should be able to make sure our kids are healthy and cared for, with the freedom to make choices and take risks because they know there is a safety net beneath them. Every single family in Washington state should know what that safety net feels like.
This May Day, I will march with day laborers and domestic workers from Casa Latina, with health care workers from SEIU 1199NW, home care workers from SEIU 775, with immigrant rights organizers and leaders from OneAmerica and with people from every walk of life who knows that working people are the backbone of Washington state. Next legislative session, our legislators should make sure that all working people, regardless of citizenship status, are included in the benefits we pay into.
Zenia Javalera
is president of the labor union SEIU6, which represents 10,000 janitors, airport workers, security officers and stadium workers in Washington.
