The heat is on at Con Edison as employees demand the utility nix its contract with a “low-road” cleaning company that pays its workers near-poverty wages.
Employees who work to keep Con Edison facilities sparkling clean in NYC delivered a petition to the company’s Union Square headquarters on Thursday, demanding it drop their employer, Nelson Service Systems, as a cleaning contractor.
Nearly all of the 75 cleaners employed by Nelson at Con Ed facilities, including offices, power plants, substations and service centers, signed the petition that calls for fair wages and benefits. Many employees have held their jobs for years, some up to nearly two decades and still making minimum wage.
The workers are making their demands now because, they say, the company failed to comply with a state wage law adopted in 2020 requiring cleaning and security contractors at certain power plants and other electric utility facilities to pay the equivalent of union-standard wages and benefits.
amNewYork Metro reached out to Con Ed for comment about the wage law and other issues, and is awaiting a response.
Approximately 75 contracted cleaners at Con Ed are organizing with SEIU Local 32BJ, the union that represents property service workers in NYC, to advocate for the improved wages.
As a heatwave continues to smother NYC, SEIU hammered the utility giant, which reportedly made $2.5 billion in profits in 2023 and provides CEO Tim Cawley with $16 million in total compensation.
“Workers demand Con Edison replace Nelson with a cleaning contractor that will hire all the current contracted employees and provide family-sustaining wages and benefits,” an SEIU spokesperson said. “Con Edison can afford to hire a contractor that provides fair wages and benefits, the workers say, since the company made $2.5 billion in profits last year while hiking electricity rates on its NYC customers.”
‘We are essential workers’
Bergica de Leon Vargas has worked for Nelson for 19 years and makes $16 an hour, the city’s minimum wage.
“I don’t feel like we’re being respected,” de Leon Vargas said. “We are not being treated with the dignity we deserve. We worked throughout the pandemic. We keep these buildings and substations running. We are essential workers. I need better benefits. Good medical benefits are so important to me. I also have to support my 95-year-old mother who lives in the Dominican Republic, while making the minimum wage.”
Edith Navarro is another employee who is calling on Con Edison to hire a new cleaning company. She has been working for Nelson as a full-time employee for three years and clears a paltry $490 a week after taxes.
“It is not easy making it in New York City,” she said. “I live with my mother, husband and two kids in a two-bedroom apartment in the Bronx. Everyone other than my mom has to work so we can afford to live here. That includes car insurance, car payments, my kids’ college student debt, electricity bills, rent, food, everything. We deserve security in our jobs. We deserve stability in our lives.”
