Union Members Rally Outside Carnegie Museum In Oakland, Demand Pay Raise
By: KDKA-TV News Staff
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Union members who clean the Carnegie Museum system throughout the city rallied in Oakland on Friday to call for a pay raise.
Workers with the 32BJ SEIU union were joined in their efforts by Democratic mayoral nominee Ed Gainey and other supporters.
The commercial cleaners at the museum say they are already among the lowest-paid cleaners in all of Pittsburgh.
In addition, they say the pay raise they are being offered is too small, especially after work they performed on the front lines of the pandemic.
"I am an essential worker. We are asked to perform additional sanitizing work to keep our patrons safe. We performed the sanitizing work in a time when we did not fully understand the effectiveness and placed ourselves in harm's way with close contact with the coronavirus," union member Marty Riker said.
We reached out to the Carnegie Museums for a response, but we have not heard back yet.
Stay with KDKA for the latest on this story.
