Meet the Workers
Worker stories from Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Columbus
[Indianapolis] Stacey Harris is a caretaker for multiple generations. The 41-year-old mother of three lives with her husband and her youngest son, as well as her Aunt Joyce, who suffers from Alzheimer’s. On the weekends, Stacey enjoys time with her three small grandchildren. Yet Stacey’s job cleaning the Lilly Tech Center for cleaning contractor 4M barely provides the basics for one person, let alone an extended family like hers.
[Indianapolis] Thirty-five-year-old Patricia Mendoza is too young to allow herself to be crippled by arthritis. So she works through the pain. “My arthritis started when I was eight years old. My hands would hurt when I did my homework in school.” By now, Patricia’s arthritis has spread through her whole body. “It hurts all over. Sometimes when it hurts too much my husband tells me that I shouldn’t go to work, but I tell him that my job is a commitment I have with the company, with the tenants and with my coworkers.
[Indianapolis] Life on the edge of abject poverty can be chaotic. Nobody knows that chaos better than Indianapolis janitor Nick George. From drug addiction, to empty bank accounts, to evictions, Nick or somebody close to him has seen it all, including broken cars, broken marriages, and broken dreams. Nick wants to bring order to this chaos by building a stable life for himself and those he loves. With the steady pace of a stone mason, he’s building stability one block at a time.
As a floor technician at Indiana Orthapedic Hospital, healthcare is often on 42-year-old Rodolfo Gomez' mind. Perhaps ironically, Rodolfo, an employee of QBM, is one of 100,000 Indianapolis-area residents without health insurance. "Thank God my wife and children have never seriously been ill," says Rodolfo.
Sahro Ahmed
[Columbus] By anyone’s standards Sahro Ahmed has had a difficult life. Born in the East African nation of Somalia, Sahro saw her country descend into chaos and civil war beginning in the early 1990s.
Adtrid Caceres
[Indianapolis] Most Americans associate paying in installments over a period of years with big ticket items such as cars, boats, or houses. For the past 5 years, however, Indianapolis janitor Adtrid Caceres has been paying on the installment plan for a couple of pieces of clothing—her work uniform.
Dale Carter
[Columbus] For 25 years in Michigan, Dale was a custodian in the Rochester Community Schools—and a member of a labor union. Dale earned a living wage and had access to quality health care. Now, after a long job search, Dale works as a janitor for Aetna Building Maintenance cleaning Huntington Bank. He longs for the protection of a union contract.
Mary Freeman
[Cincinnati] When Mary looks back toward her own neighborhood, the view gets ugly. “The main intersection in my neighborhood is a marquee for poverty,” she says.
Mumina Ibrahim
[Columbus] For the last nine years janitor Mumina Ibrahim has worked hard cleaning JP Morgan Chase’s sprawling Polaris Corporate Center in Columbus, Ohio.
Craig Jones
[Cincinnati] Employed by cleaning contractor Professional Maintenance, Craig works hard. Limited by his employer to working just 6 hours each day, Craig is paid just $6.85 an hour, which amounts to $10,000 per year, most of which goes to rent.
Sandra Jones
[Indianapolis] Like millions of immigrants before her, Sandra Jones came to the United States in search of better opportunities for herself and her children. As an employee of EMS, Sandra has encountered low wages, limited part-time hours, and no access to affordable health care.
Tiffany Mapp
[Cincinnati] For Tiffany, working hard is not paying off. To provide health coverage for her two children, she must rely on government assistance.
David McDonald
[Cincinnati] David started working with his co-workers to form a union with SEIU three years ago. Now that janitors are fighting for their first union contract, he believes workers will see real improvements in their quality of life.
Antowine Muir
[Indianapolis] Putting money aside is a daunting task while trying to live on the poverty wages that EMS pays its janitors, who earn just $7.50 or $7.75 an hour. But Antowine confronts another challenge, trying to manage asthma without having health insurance.
Angela Rivera
[Columbus] Angela works for Cleaning Service Industries (CSI) at the 1 Nationwide Plaza building in downtown Columbus. Her eight-hour workday is a race against the clock. “I spend 4 hours collecting trash and then there’s dusting and vacuuming,” she says. “You have to move your hands and feet. If you don’t run, you don’t finish.”
Jean Simpson
[Indianapolis] Jean was on disability for a pinched nerve in her neck. But she decided that as a loving grandmother, she must take responsibility to provide for her four grandchildren. In need of additional money, Jean took a job cleaning for the Mitch Murch Maintenance Management Company at the Lilly Technology Center owned by the Fortune 500 pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly.
Darnale Tillman
[Indianapolis] “The wages at EMS are not enough to support a single person let alone a man with a wife and six children.”
Lauressie Tillman
[Cincinnati] Lauressie is determined to gain access to the medical care that she and her family need. But she knows that she’s not alone when it comes to lack of access to health care.
Becky Washington
[Indianapolis] “Indianapolis needs better jobs, jobs that pay a decent wage and provide medicine if you get sick.”