Dear Grover (UG2 Director of Operations) and Robert Carpenter (Executive Director for LBRE),

We hope that you are both healthy. We are writing to you today to demand you 1) coordinate a meeting with workers to discuss hazard pay and 2) provide a $5 hazard pay to all workers who are employed and working in person.

UG2 workers have sent you both a petition (https://bit.ly/hazardpayworkerpetition) asking for a $5 hazard pay that was signed by nearly all workers. However, you have both rejected this request.

We are urging you to both schedule a meeting with workers and to provide a $5 hazard pay because workers should receive a higher wage while working under dangerous conditions. As mentioned in the worker petition, Janitors hired by other companies are receiving a 10% hazard pay. Even before layoffs, workers were telling us that they were overworked and hard-pressed to complete all tasks. Now with half the workforce no longer working, workers are doubly hard-pressed to both finish their pre-COVID work and to also finish the work with higher sanitation standards and practices to limit any possible COVID-19 spread.

Most workers were previously cleaning one building (which was already difficult) and now workers are deep cleaning 3 buildings, which involves multiple chemicals and forcing workers to go on their hands and knees to clean every surface in a space. Workers, due to this increased workload and increased intensity, are experiencing health consequences, including breathing issues, arm and leg pain, and exposure to COVID-19. One UG2  worker has already contracted COVID-19 and yet workers are expected to put their lives in danger without additional pay or support. Are profits and the bottom-line more important to both of you than the lives of workers?

Therefore, we demand you both schedule a meeting with workers and provide a $5 hazard pay because workers should receive a higher wage while working under increased work demands (which are outside their original scope of work) and dangerous working conditions.

UG2 stated in an email to workers, that the company values the essential work of workers. As we know, UG2 workers are the reason why Stanford can even imagine reopening in the fall. Now, it is your time to step and provide hazard pay.

Sincerely,

Stanford Students for Workers Rights