I’ve lived in South Central Los Angeles for about 15 decades. I stay with my partner, sister, and my 7-calendar year-outdated daughter. Me and my sister [who also works at L.A. Apparel] ship funds to my mom in Mexico.
I commenced operating [at L.A. Apparel] in 2017, making T-shirts. Past yr, I had to operate on the masks. Now, I sew tops, leggings, bike shorts. We employed to have disposable masks that some personnel would have on in any case [before COVID-19] since the machines that slash fabric get dusty. There are a lot of threads in the air. But for the duration of the pandemic, they ran out [of disposable masks].
You know, we’re Mexicans. We are definitely friendly with each individual other. Ahead of, we would hug and share drinks. Now, we don’t share food items or sit shut.
In April, they started having people’s temperatures. I really don’t imagine that it was incredibly beneficial because it turns out some folks did not have robust indications, so they kept going to perform. People were just grateful to be functioning and did not want to be changed or skip out on fork out. Some of the persons employed to enforce the COVID policies themselves didn’t observe them. I would see them not social distancing, inspite of the actuality that they were telling us to social distance.
Until the organization manufactured assessments required [in June 2020], I did not recognize any one was getting sick. But really quite a few individuals were being COVID-beneficial, such as my sister.
I had to continue to be home for two months in May perhaps due to the fact I was about my sister. I viewed the information and noticed how terrible the scenarios were being acquiring. I felt panicked. At a single issue, I felt truly dizzy. I started throwing up since I was so nervous. I thought I had COVID I believed I was dying. I informed my spouse, “If something comes about to me, you have to choose treatment of our daughter.” And he advised me, “I feel you are having a worry attack.”
I bought a COVID take a look at and it came back detrimental. I felt so nervous about anything even though that I felt physically sick. It was a nightmare. And I was not paid out for the complete time I was gone. I argued on my behalf and eventually got paid for two out of the 6 weeks I was not able to operate, but I had to struggle for it. I was frustrated. It does not make any difference if you have COVID or not — if you have to have to quarantine, you must be paid. It’s not truthful that immediately after I went into quarantine, the organization shut down for a very little little bit, so which is pretty much six weeks that I did not bring home any earnings to my spouse and children. I want to fork out my babysitter. I want to pay out lease. [A spokesperson asserts the company provided two weeks pay in compliance with local ordinances.]
I wished that they would pay us a lot more for the reason that we had been doing the job really really hard in the starting of the pandemic to make masks. We should’ve been presented some form of bonus.
Interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.