Meet the workers: Angela Rivera


Angela%20Rivera%20160.jpg Angela Rivera’s medical condition is not life-threatening—but it may change her life.

The 54-year-old Columbus janitor has damaged ligaments in her knee—and a compounding symptom, no health insurance.

“I didn’t fall down, I didn’t get hit, last winter it just began to hurt,” she says. More than three months later, it hasn’t stopped hurting. “Every day I suffer,” she says. “Sometimes the pain is so bad that I just want to cry.”

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.”

Under normal circumstances, Angela enjoys work. “I’ve worked in cleaning all my life,” she says. “I like to work and to be responsible. It’s the law of life, you have to work.”

But Angela has yet to enjoy many of the rewards that come from working. Her low salary—just $7.80 an hour—does not permit her to buy clothing, save for retirement, or live on her own. She shares an apartment with her son, daughter, and grandchildren and rent alone is $1100 a month. “There’s a church where they give clothing out two Saturdays each month,” she says. “I go there for everything—shoes, blouses, and pants.”

Angela has decided to form a union with her coworkers in order to improve conditions on the job. They are seeking living wages, health coverage, and a better relationship with their employer. “When there’s no harmony at work, it’s very unpleasant,” she says. “We’re treated like mules sometimes.”

For Angela, health coverage is the most pressing need. After living in pain for months, she visited a local hospital, where she was given a supply of pain-killers. She has carefully rationed the medicine according to the level of her discomfort. “Today I’m down to my pain-killer,” she says. “Will I be able to bear the pain or will I have to take the pill? And tomorrow?”