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Janitors press for building ventilation; Supervisor Safaee asks city attorney to draft code changes
Summary
Janitors and union leaders urged the board to strengthen building ventilation and worker protections; Supervisor Ahsha Safaee said she will request the city attorney draft legislation addressing evening air quality and service-sector worker conditions.
Janitors and their union representatives told the Board of Supervisors on July 2 that building ventilation remains inadequate for workers who clean offices after hours, and called for city action to ensure service-sector employees are protected.
Olga Miranda, president of SEIU Local 87, told the supervisors that her union lost 36 janitors during the pandemic and that many workers clean buildings at night without adequate ventilation. “There is no clean air,” Miranda said on the record about after‑hours conditions in commercial buildings.
Miranda asked the board to press building owners and city departments to improve ventilation standards and to account for janitors when buildings receive tax breaks or green certifications. She asked the board to consider square-footage expectations for janitorial shifts and to ensure safe working conditions after business hours.
Near the close of the meeting, Supervisor Ahsha Safaee said she would introduce a drafting request to the city attorney’s office to investigate indoor air quality standards as they apply to service-sector employees and to consider whether existing practices—which, she said, often turn air systems off around 6 p.m.—comply with California air-quality standards. “We want them to investigate following the air quality standards that are practiced in California and extending that into the evening,” Safaee said on the record.
The board did not take a formal vote on a ventilation ordinance at this meeting. Safaee’s statement on the record directs city staff to draft language for possible future legislation or administrative changes; any statutory or code changes would return to the board for committee review and formal action.
