For Working People, The RNC Was A Headache

MCTS bus in front of security checkpoint at intersection of N. Milwaukee and E. Mason Streets. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

The 2024 Republican National Convention (RNC) is over and life is returning to normal for people that go to work in downtown Milwaukee.

For many, the convention made getting to work a headache, with a massive security perimeter, secret service checkpoints, a maze of security fencing and bus detours.

Blanca De Jesus takes the bus to work at the Manpower headquarters in downtown Milwaukee. But to get there during the past week she had to navigate all the bus detours and security checkpoints that choked off the area.

“Yesterday it was nowhere near to me, or near close to my job,” De Jesus told Urban Milwaukee in an interview Tuesday, the second day of the RNC.

For De Jesus and hundreds of other janitors cleaning downtown buildings, the convention forced them to wake up earlier and navigate the bus detours in an attempt to get to work on time. Many also had to make their way through Secret Service security checkpoints. Some had to change their work schedules to account for the disruptions Downtown.

“Yesterday it was nowhere near to me, or near close to my job,” De Jesus said.

Clarissa Acevedo, a lead organizer for SEIU Wisconsin, said Thursday that her union represents more than 300 janitors in downtown Milwaukee. Many of the workers had to plan ahead, like Acevedo, leaving earlier and getting home later — all of this extra time unpaid.

For De Jesus, her company has policies not just for late arrival, but early arrival, too. “I cannot come to work like an hour early,” she said. This made it difficult to make sure she arrived on time, but not too early. Though, De Jesus said her boss has been understanding of the difficulties she and others have faced this week.

Still, the detours proved difficult enough that De Jesus and many other workers simply avoided the bus system altogether and used rideshare service, like Uber, to get to work. However, with the convention in town, the fares were not cheap, De Jesus said.

De Jesu and more than 300 other janitors who work Downtown are members of SEIU Wisconsin. Their starting wage is $14.50 an hour, Acevedo said. An expensive Uber trip can cost that much or more, and when workers are taking rides like that all week, it adds up.

Acevedo said the companies could have planned ahead to better accommodate the workers. De Jesus said she feels like janitors and other working people in Milwaukee were simply forgotten in all the planning for the convention.

“Think about us, because we pay our taxes, we work here,” De Jesus said. “And we have to get to work, and sometimes we don’t have enough money to buy a car.”

Victor Goldsberry is a hospitality worker at the downtown Hilton and a member of Workers United 122. He told Urban Milwaukee the security has led him to get ready for work well in advance of his shifts, waking up a few hours early. “Waking up extra early, to satisfy the guests in hospitality, you know, that’s my job,” Goldsberry said.

All of that might have been worth it, had the economic boom for local businesses ever materialized. Despite thousands of visitors descending on downtown Milwaukee, Goldsberry said some of his co-workers in the hospitality industry were actually out of work during the RNC, as there were not enough events that needed catering to keep them busy.

“I think city leaders dropped the ball as far as planning and the initial reality of what was going to happen,” Goldsberry said. “And, I mean they really dropped the ball.”