Bed Stuy Demolition Workers Rally Over Pay, Safety Conditions

BED STUY, NY — Demolition workers continued their year-long fight for better pay and safer working conditions with a rally on Friday in Bed Stuy.

Best Super Cleaning workers launched their campaign May 2022, and have since negotiated some safety measures and a safety committee, according to advocates at the Laundry Workers Center.

But workers and advocates on Friday said Best Super Cleaning employers are taking advantage of the largely immigrant workforce and paying them far below industry norms.

A representative of Best Super Cleaning declined to comment on Friday's protest.

Advocates were particularly focused on better wages, paid sick days and compensation for unpaid wages. While some employees have seen wage increases through negotiations, many are still making $17 an hour for dangerous physical work that is normally paid at $30 an hour, according to Rosanna Rodriguez, an organizer with the Laundry Workers Center.

"The mistake that Super Clean has made is that they think that because the workers are immigrants — maybe some of them don't even speak English — they have no power, they have no rights. [They think] they can treat them however they want [and] no one will care — they're wrong," said Larroy Holmes, a supporter of the Laundry Workers Center.

Back in 2022, workers said they were given improper tools and equipment, at times working 10 stories high without harnesses, according to a report from Documented. Worker David Davila was injured on the job in February, 2021 — taking him out of work for two years, he said.

While employers have provided some compensation for the injury, Davila feels like he's been left hanging by Best Super Cleaning while he still faces surgeries and has three children to care for in Columbia, he said.

Davila is just one example of poor treatment, advocates said. Three other workers have been fired because of their organizing efforts, according to Rodriguez.

If Best Super Cleaning does not come to the table in good faith quickly, Rodriquez said the workers will move toward legal action.

"This whole struggle is not going to go away — It's gonna be reborn. And it's going to be even stronger with the support of the community and the labor movement," Holmes said.