SEIU Local 105 members, community allies and staff took to the streets Wednesday, September 18th to call on North American Property Service or NAPS to clean up their act.
“We will not tolerate pay abuses by NAPS any longer,” said Juanita Hessek, SEIU janitor and Steward at the Wellington Webb municipal building. “Our payroll checks from NAPS keep bouncing, our social security contributions are withdrawn from our pay but then go missing and our work load is unfair and unsustainable.”
NAPS is a Denver city contractor providing janitorial service to several city buildings including the Webb building.
“When NAPS first took over the city contract for the Webb building in 2005, there were approximately 40 janitors cleaning the building, now there are only 15 of us to do all the work. That’s less than half,” stated Hessek.
Over 80 SEIU members and community allies joined the janitors picketing the Webb building during the lunch hour. A Denver Auditor’s report released last week shows a pattern of alleged pay abuses by the city contractor. The report was the focus of a Denver Post article published this week.
Juanita Hessek went on to say, “We are calling on Denver government to enforce the city contract with NAPS and stop misusing taxpayer funds.”
