Laura

“Before the pandemic I worked 8 hours, I had enough to cover the costs for food and
rent. When the pandemic hit they would give us 3 to 3.5 hours…It is a tragedy because
I could not cover my costs for the kids and I couldn’t pay rent. Everything here is all
about money […] money moves everything.”

Laura has been working at a McDonald’s in Oakland for about a year. During the start of the pandemic, she was working while pregnant.

“Almost all of my pregnancy I was working […] when the pandemic came, since I’m
pregnant and I’m going to give birth, I didn’t go to work”.

She shares in her interview that her employer did not care about their workers getting sick nor did they provide them with the proper personal protective equipment to protect against COVID-19. She finally left when she felt her life and her baby’s life was in danger.

“It’s worrisome, I had to buy masks. The manager made us some masks, but when I put
on the first mask that the manager brought over, the first thing that my coworker
mentioned was that the masks were diapers…we quickly realized that the masks were
not essential for us.”