Factory workers strike for sanitary work conditions
BRAWLEY, Calif. - (KYMA, KECY) Dozens of One World Beef employees lined up in front of Valley Urgent Care to get tested for coronavirus Monday. Many of them participated in a strike that led to their employer granting this test to even occur.
The employees say they decided to strike after some began getting sick and sanitary precautions weren’t being taken.
Karicia Aguilar’s husband works for the company and said that their main fear was that her husband would contract the virus and spread it to their family.
"My husband told me about a young man, who was his neighbor at the lockers who right now is on a ventilator. And so that situation really scared them and they realized they had to do something. They thought we could be taking the virus to our home and our families could get sick," she said.
Some employees say they were told by HR if they did test positive they would be able to keep their jobs however the time off they took would be discounted from vacation and sick days.
"We’re scared for our families. Our families are quarantined in our homes and we’re here working. And we’re in and out of the house. The one thing I hope is we still have a job. We work hard and we care about our job but we’re also concerned about our health," said one factory worker.
The fear of waking up every morning for work and not knowing whether or not you will contract the virus is a reality for many essential workers.
We reached out to One World Beef for comment but they have not responded to our request for an interview.
