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.”
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