Labor activists seek support for window accident victims

Yawu Miller

Labor activists are demanding that the cleaning company Unicco support the families of two window washers who fell from an office building in June.

Members of the Service Employees International Union and other labor groups massed outside of Unicco Service Company’s Tremont Street office before a delegation of labor leaders headed into the office of Unicco representative John Correia, vice president of the company’s Northeast region.

Noting that two window washers died in a similar incident in 2003, SEIU Local 615 President Rocio Saenz said the company was negligent.

“OSHA investigated them,” she said. “They knew what they had to do, but they didn’t change anything. Now one worker died, the other one won’t be able to work again. We want to see Unicco take responsibility for their families.”

Correia said the company has already given each family $30,000 — some of it collected through a fundraiser — but would not commit to a specific level of support.

“It was not an easy event for any of us,” he said. “Unicco has supported the families to the best of our ability.”

Unicco is a large integrated facilities service that specializes in office buildings and institutional cleaning. While Correia said the company takes the safety of all its workers seriously, a report from the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health found that the company ignored basic safety regulations that, if implemented, would have prevented the June accident.

“As a result of this investigation, MassCOSH... concludes that this fatality and serious injury were not an unforeseen and unforeseeable event,” the report reads. “This was not an ‘accident.’ Rather this death and accident were the result of willful disregard of both industry practice and specific OSHA direction that would have protected these workers, had they been followed.”

The activists say they will keep pressure on Unicco to provide for the workers’ families.

“We want to sent a message,” said City Councilor Felix Arroyo. We can’t bring their lives back, but they have to do the right thing.”