KALW Public Radio, By Teresa Cotsirilos Domestic workers are using lessons learned from California’s wildfires to support their communities through the COVID-19 pandemic. They’re also pushing for legislation that could protect workers in future disasters. When the Tubbs Fire burned through Santa Rosa in 2017, Socorro Diaz started losing work. She cleans houses for a…
Los Angeles Times, By Brittny Mejia As fires raged in California, Socorro Diaz found herself cleaning homes in neighborhoods that had been evacuated. The smoke and ash posed a danger, but employers did not provide the 39-year-old house cleaner with any protective equipment. Diaz, a leader with the Graton Day Labor Center in Sonoma County,…
Truthout, By Sheila Bapat Lee Plaza, 60, is a caregiver for a 90-year-old woman in Los Angeles. She works 12 hours per day, six days per week helping her client shower, groom, eat and perform other basic day to day functions. Needless to say, Plaza cannot perform this job remotely. “I take a bus to…