Worker Experience: Miriam
Miriam Morales is a wife, a mother and a first responder at the Highway Department of Dane County. At the onset of the pandemic, Miriam spent six months furloughed from her former job as a dental assistant.
A Project of the High Road Strategy Center
Miriam Morales is a wife, a mother and a first responder at the Highway Department of Dane County. At the onset of the pandemic, Miriam spent six months furloughed from her former job as a dental assistant.
Mariah Clark is an emergency nurse and EMT and member of her hospital’s Special Pathogens team in Madison, Wisconsin. Over the past months of the pandemic, Mariah has faced chronic stress from working in a crowded hospital with insufficient protective equipment. But her concerns are not limited to the workplace; living with her higher-risk partner, …
The steady flow of freelance performance gigs that supported Tom’s livelihood halted abruptly when COVID hit, freezing much of the entertainment industry.
Troy Brewer was working three jobs to support his family before COVID-19. Within two weeks, Troy was laid off from all three jobs. Now unemployed for the first time in 30 years, Troy is struggling to pull together the necessary resources to support himself and his three children. “Before COVID hit I had three cooking …
A veteran healthcare professional at a nursing home in Monroe, Wisconsin, Lisa Gordon says CNAs lack adequate PPE and are in urgent need of support in the form of hazard pay as they take on longer hours to provide new levels of emotional support to residents who are unable to spend their last final days with family members. “Every day that I …
A few weeks after being laid off from his job as a cook, Anthony Steward contracted coronavirus. Now recovered, Anthony reflects on how unions can provide support during COVID layoffs and furloughs. “March 11th. That’s when they told us we’re not going back to work until further notice.” Anthony was working as a cook at …
Laid off from one job and working with minimal safety measures in her other job as a healthcare worker, Demetrica Shipp is facing eviction if things don’t change. “I’ve been a healthcare worker for 35 years and this is the worst I’ve ever seen it. We don’t have the things to keep people safe,” Demetrica …
Michael Chapple has always made his living in the food service industry and now works as a cook at a Milwaukee-area hospital cafeteria. Since being dubbed ‘essential’, Michael feels the health risks his job poses for himself, his 80-year-old mother, and 15-year-old son are not worth the paycheck he collects for his work on the …