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An MCTS bus in front of the security checkpoint at the intersection of N. Milwaukee Ave. and E. Mason Ave. Photo by Graham Kilmer.
With the 2024 Republican National Convention (RNC) over, life is returning to normal for those who work in downtown Milwaukee.
For many, the tournament turned commuting into a headache, with a massive security perimeter, Secret Service checkpoints, a maze of security fencing and detouring bus routes.
Blanca de Jesus commutes to Manpower’s headquarters in downtown Milwaukee by bus, but to get there last week she had to navigate all the bus detours and security checkpoints that block her neighborhood.
“Yesterday was something that was completely foreign to me and to my work,” de Jesus said in an interview with Urban Milwaukee on Tuesday, the second day of the Republican National Convention.
De Jesus and hundreds of other cleaners who clean downtown buildings were forced to wake up early for the convention and take bus detours to get to work on time. Many also had to go through Secret Service security checkpoints. Some had to rearrange their work schedules to account for the chaos downtown.
“It wasn’t anywhere near me yesterday, it wasn’t anywhere near my workplace,” De Jesus said.
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Clarissa Acevedo, a lead organizer for SEIU Wisconsin, said Thursday that her union represents more than 300 janitors in downtown Milwaukee, many of whom, like Acevedo, have had to plan ahead, leaving work early and coming home late — all unpaid overtime.
For De Jesus, her company has policies in place that not only prohibit late arrivals, but also early arrivals. “You can’t come in an hour early,” she says. That makes it hard to arrive on time but not too early. But De Jesus says her boss is understanding of the challenges she and other employees have faced this week.
Still, detours proved difficult, so Mr. De Jesus and many other employees opted not to use bus routes at all and instead used ride-sharing services like Uber to get to work, which weren’t cheap, Mr. De Jesus said, because the convention was in the city.
De Gesu and the more than 300 cleaners who work downtown are members of SEIU Wisconsin. Their starting wage is $14.50 an hour, Acevedo said. Expensive Uber trips can cost that amount or more, and the costs mount if workers make those trips throughout the week.
Acevedo said companies could have planned ahead to accommodate workers, and de Jesus said he felt like cleaners and others who work in Milwaukee were simply forgotten about in the planning for the convention.
“Think about us: we pay taxes, we work here,” De Jesus said, “and we have to go to work, but sometimes we don’t have enough money to buy a car.”
Victor Goldsberry works in hospitality at the Hilton downtown and is a member of Workers United 122. He told Urban Milwaukee that security has forced him to get ready for work well before his shift and wake up several hours earlier. “In hospitality, it’s my job to get up earlier than usual to make sure the customers are happy,” Goldsberry said.
It all might have been worth it if an economic boom for local businesses had materialized: Some of his colleagues in the hospitality industry actually had no work during the Republican National Convention because there weren’t enough events requiring catering, even though thousands of tourists flocked to downtown Milwaukee, Goldberry said.
“I think city leadership screwed up on the planning and the initial reality,” Goldsberry said. “They really screwed up.”
