Downtown Miami janitors say parking is a safety issue — and too costly to afford

In late January, Elsa Romero and her three coworkers clocked out of their janitor shifts downtown. They were headed toward public parking a few blocks away from the luxury tower they clean for $9 an hour.

That’s when Romero, 57, was attacked by a man with a traffic cone. She and a coworker who was present said he had been shouting obscenities and exposing himself before he approached them. In a video of the altercation shot by one of the workers, Romero is seen falling backward on the pavement, her head hitting it with a loud crack.

It was only a matter of time before something like this happened, Romero said. Janitors who clean the Miami Tower for the cleaning company SFM Services say they are regularly harassed on the walk back to their cars once they leave their shifts at 11 p.m.

Since December, the janitors have asked their employer to provide on-site parking at the building. Most — like Romero — work part-time, clocking in after hours when most of the parking garage is already empty, she said.

Earlier this month, their employer came up with a solution: a discounted parking rate of $50 per month, down from the usual $150 charged by the City of Miami’s Parking Authority.

That would be more than a five-hour shift’s worth of pay at a rate of $9 per hour.

“We don’t have the means to pay for that,” said Evelyn Del Pilar, who’s worked as a janitor with SFM for a little over a year.

Del Pilar takes the Metrorail to work, but by the time her shift is over at 11 p.m. the train has already been out of service for an hour. She and a handful of coworkers carpool to save money, each pitching in a few dollars for the $5 parking fee about four blocks from their job.

“After what happened we’re all pretty scared. Most of us are women walking alone at night in downtown. Resolving the parking issue would be a relief because we’d pay less and feel safer,” del Pilar said.

Despite the trauma, Romero returned to work the day after the attack. “I had a headache the next day, but I went to work because I need the money,” she said. She does not get paid sick days. Emergency services gave her the option of going to the hospital, but her age and diabetic status made it risky with the pandemic in full swing, she said.

Since the incident, she and her coworkers take a longer route back to their cars to avoid the man who attacked her.

For its part, SFM Services said it is doing what it can. “Parking in Downtown Miami is costly and we have been working to address this issue,” said company president Christian Infante, via an email. “Before employees were hired they were made aware of the parking situation.”

Infante said SFM employs between 20 to 30 workers at the Miami Tower. The company’s relationship to its employees has been contentious for months. In November OSHA slapped SFM Services with an initial $21,302 fine and issued three citations for failure to warn employees before spraying hazardous chemicals in their work area.

SFM janitors last month also filed a charge against the company with the National Labor Relations Board after allegedly receiving pushback for trying to unionize.

This story was originally published February 25, 2021 at 7:00 AM.