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HEAT WEEK 2025



From industrial laundry workers and airport staff to fast food workers and healthcare workers, SEIU members are on the frontlines of a worsening crisis- extreme heat. Extreme heat is no longer a distant climate threat—it’s a daily reality for all of us.   2024 was the hottest summer on record, and the past decade (2015-2024) has been the warmest since record-keeping began.

That's why in August,  service workers across multiple industries escalated their demands for workplace heat protections. 

California fast-food workers released a damning report showing three out of five workers faced excessive heat despite state protections, while airport service workers at LaGuardia and Newark airports held coordinated actions demanding heat protections.

Workers shared harrowing accounts of fainting from heat, working with broken air conditioning reaching 102 degrees, and passing out in cargo holds. 


Green Janitor program updates

2025 is far from over, but we've already graduated more Green Janitors than we did in all of 2024! Keep up the good work!

Seattle Six members of SEIU6 graduated from the program at Seattle Municipal Tower. Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrlll attended and congratulated the members in his speech. Also attending was Washington State Rep. Shaun Scott. The janitors work for MBM and Evergreen with CBRE as the Property Manager. SEIU6 posted a nice update on Facebook. And check out this great article in The Stand for more info. Nice work SEIU6 team!


Cleveland Congrats to the eight SEIU Local 1 members cleaning City of Cleveland space who graduated on August 22nd, in the main atrium of Cleveland City Hall! Many city employees joined to support their janitorial staff, and City Councilwoman Stephanie Howse-Jones gave a congratulatory speech. In a prior position Councilwoman Howse-Jones was a certified LEED AP with the U.S. Green Building Council, so a good connection there.  

Chicago :Classes continue for 82 students at The CME Center and The Franklin Center, with instruction in Spanish, English, and Polish, for Local 1 members. The Local is planning for a graduation ceremony in October.


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Working people, including SEIU members, their families, and communities, are directly and too often disproportionately affected by the threats of air and water pollution, climate change, and extreme weather events. They are also more likely to be confronted with environmental and health hazards at work, and less likely to receive adequate protection from them.

As SEIU members know well from their own communities, climate change is real and poses significant threats to people’s health and livelihood, and disproportionately affects working people, the poor, and people of color.

SEIU members passed a resolution at their 2016 convention- demanding that something be done.  Since then, SEIU members have risen to the occasion, driving action at local, state, and federal levels - from legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at hospitals in Florida to building more resilience in communities in Massachusetts.  We partner with green groups in various states to win legislation that advances all of our interests. Through our networks, we took action to secure historic investments to combat climate change in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and expanded our workplace training programs such as Green Janitor and the Caregiver Resiliency Project.  In addition,  our members in Florida continued their groundbreaking efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from hospitals.