Washington, D.C. – On Building Service Worker Appreciation Day, D.C. At-Large Councilmember Elissa Silverman, Virginia Delegates Dan Helmer, Hala Ayala and Paul Krizek, Montgomery County Council member Hans Riemer and Maryland Delegates David Moon and Vaughn Stewart are joining thousands of supporters up and down the East Coast to show their gratitude for over 175,000 frontline janitors, security officers, school workers and doormen/women.

From Connecticut to Florida, supporters will hang signs from their window, children will do drawings, residents, community leaders and lawmakers will take to social media to thank building service workers for their sacrifice and dedication. The Twitterstorm messages of solidarity are intended to ensure that these men and women are recognized as essential. Without the porters, cleaners, door attendants and security officers who risk their own health to secure and sanitize our buildings, it would be virtually impossible to take the steps necessary to confront the COVID-19 pandemic.

Essential workers like janitors, security officers and residential supers, porters and doormen/women are coming together to demand that Congress pass a bailout to support and compensate them for their sacrifice. Essential building service workers have generated more than 75,000 messages to Congress in the past few weeks and are looking to transform public gratitude into legislation that will protect and empower all essential workers. In this unprecedented time, Congress should do all it can to protect the economic health of the nation and it is critical that essential workers who are exposed have full access to emergency relief like layoff protection, essential pay and personal protective equipment to avoid infection.

With over 175,000 members in eleven states and Washington, D.C., 32BJ SEIU is the largest property service workers union in the country