A few weeks ago, after three and half years working the night shift cleaning a JPMorgan Chase-owned building in Los Angeles, I was laid-off. At $13.50 an hour, you'd think my salary would be a mere drop in the bucket for a company like JPMorgan Chase who paid out $9 billion in bonuses last year. But, they told me and 15 of my colleagues who were also laid off that there wasn't enough money. This doesn't make sense to me.
I'm left to wonder how I will pay my rent and feed my family. I am a single mother of a teenage son and I take care of my eighty year old mother. I don't want to tell my son who dreams of going to college that there won't be any money for him to continue his education. But if I don't have a job, he will have to work to help our family survive.
If JPMorgan executives were in my shoes--suddenly losing their job for no good reason--I wonder how they'd handle it? How would they tell their children that they'd have to put their dreams on hold?
Some people would feel all alone if this happened to them, but now I know I am not. In an amazing show of support, 57 of cleaners who work in the JPMorgan building risked their jobs and stopped working to support me and my laid off colleagues.
Together, we protested what the company did to us. We fasted and lived in a tent city outside the building to remind them to think about the workers at the bottom. We had a rally that shut down traffic to make people notice what is happening to all workers in this country. Hundreds of people showed up to support us. UNITE-HERE workers who clean rooms and serve food at the Century Plaza hotel across the street walked off the job to show their support. Their solidarity was just another reminder t me of what workers can accomplish when we link arms and support each other.
This Labor Day, by standing up and telling people how JPMorgan Chase is hurting me and my co-workers, I'm also standing up for the workers everywhere who are losing their jobs. We don't have the luxury to wait for others to stand up for us. We have the power to say that we deserve better. The only way we will be able to create better lives for our children is to stand up now.
Check out more SEIU members' stories and vision for our country this Labor Day here: http://seiu.me/laborday.
