Janitors: ‘We need to be well protected’ from virus
Cleaning workers protest unsafe conditions, ask that employers do more
Every night when Mirna Blanco’s daughter picks her up from from her job cleaning downtown Houston buildings, she has already disinfected her hands and arms at least twice before getting into the car’s back seat. Blanco wants to keep a protective distance from her daughter, wondering if that is going to be the day she brings the COVID-19 virus home.
Once she gets to their home in the Veterans Memorial area, Blanco will not kiss her husband or her two daughters until after a ritual of personal cleaning and washing clothes that she has followed since March, when the virus took hold of Houston.
Still, for all her precautions, the 55-year-old woman feels unsafe at work and is also not sure if she is protecting those who work in the buildings she cleans. On Thursday, she joined about 30 janitors who protested working conditions during the pandemic, saying cleaning contractors lack safety protocols. As part of the demonstration in front of the First City Tower, janitors handed out masks to each other before going to work at nearby buildings.
Service Employees International Union organized the protest.
“Our members, janitors who have been on the front line disin
fecting and cleaning buildings, are concerned about having to work without been provided adequate personal protective equipment,” said Elsa Caballero, president of the Texas branch of the union. The Houston area has about 3,000 members.
Caballero said that janitors are getting inadequate levels of protection, which varies by employer.
In some instances, she said, employers are requesting that janitors use their own masks. Others, including Blanco’s employer, provide a fabric reusable mask.
“Nobody has told me how I should handle the mask or how to clean (the spaces) now with this virus,” Blanco said. “I wash the mask every day, but I always wonder if that’s enough.”
Now that people are returning to work, she said she has become anxious.
“Workers rely on us to keep their spaces clean,” she said, “but we need to be well protected so we don’t spread the virus or bring it home.”
Blanco didn’t want to name her employer for fear of retaliation.
Wearing a reusable fabric mask is not considered an appropriate protection for janitors, according to some employers.
Armando Escarcega, owner of Office Pride Commercial Cleaning Services in Houston, said that janitors should use N95 or KN95 masks, which can be used several times, or disposable mask and gloves with the ability to change them as needed.
Russell Carr, president of Berg Compliance Solutions, an environmental, health and safety consulting company based in Austin, added that fabric face masks are not considered PPE because they’re intended to protect the environment from the user rather than the user from the environment.
“Janitorial-related work exposes janitors to potential COVID-19 infections due to exposure with the public, who might be infected, and exposure to potentially contaminated surfaces which they are required to contact and clean,” Carr said. “The primary control measure in this scenario is PPE in the form of respiratory protection, such as an N95.”
Denise Rousseau, professor of organizational behavior and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, said
that janitors need to take more protective precautions and follow guidelines established by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many of those same guidelines apply for front-line workers as well, she said.
“Especially for people cleaning bathrooms, but for anybody coming in contact with metal surfaces and counters, appropriate PPE includes face masks, gloves, goggles, shoe covers and clothing that covers arms and legs and can be taken off and washed at end of shift,” Rousseau said.
Caballero, the union president, said janitors are also requesting that employers provide health and safety training as well as paid sick leave for coronavirus-related illness or exposure. They typically have only two of such days in their contracts.
The union leader also said that many janitors are being asked to sanitize more spaces in less time because their work hours have been cut.
“I go to work in some floors where there are like 100 offices, and I go to clean one by one,” Blanco said. “You never know. But I hope people understand that we have to take care of each other.”