Illinois | Mass layoffs of cleaning workers

Dozens of Elgin janitors and community members protested Wednesday once morest School District U-46 and its new subcontractor.

The workers said they are being fired for lack of immigration documents. “All we ask for is work. Nothing else. No verification. That’s all.

The workers denounced the implementation of the E-Verify system by the new subcontractor HES Facilities Management. E-Verify is a system that verifies employment status by checking Social Security numbers.

“It’s a very bad thing because they left us without work to help the family. My children attended, one of 25 attended U-46 and two others,” said Leticia Gonzalez, who has been working for the district for 20 years.

“My wife also works for this company and we both just lost our jobs. We are demanding that they give us our jobs back. We are quite a close-knit family,” said Carlos Uribe.

Companies confirm layoffs of cleaning workers

Telemundo Chicago contacted School District U-46 and issued a statement stating the following:

We also contacted HES Facility Management Services regarding the protests and received the following statement:

“HES Facility Management’s policy, like that of many contracted service providers, is to comply with all state and federal laws. HES does not target anyone; every new HES employee is subject to the same hiring guidelines nationwide.”

With information from Telemundo

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