Stacey Harris

[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.

“I feel like I have to rob Peter to pay Paul all the time. I always have to decide which is more important—paying the rent or paying the bill for the gas and electric. When I fall behind on my bills, I’m forced into even more debt.”

Despite working for one of Indy’s largest cleaning contractors, cleaning the facilities of Fortune 500 company Eli Lilly, Stacey has no illusions about her status. “I’m not even in the middle class. I’m in working poverty. They are taking in so much money, they should give something back because we help the company to make money.”

Stacey’s family, like many other working class and African American families in Indianapolis, is plagued with poor health. Besides her aunt’s battle with Alzheimer’s, Stacey watches her husband deal with asthma even as she herself struggles with an ulcer and throat and back problems. “Once I got sick at work, and my supervisor called an ambulance. They say we have insurance, and they take premiums out of my check every week, but my health insurance didn’t cover the doctor’s visit or the ambulance.” To Stacey the solution is clear. “People wouldn’t walk around sick and ill all the time if there were good jobs with healthcare.”

Besides major financial catastrophes such as an unexpected ambulance bill, Stacey has faced a series of broken promises by her employer. Stacey has had to fight to get her insurance card, has given up on direct deposit after the company lost her voided check twice, and still has not received her drug card despite having been subjected to and passed three drug tests before she’d even finished her first week of work. Stacey’s analysis is understandably cynical: “Anything to their benefit, they don’t mess up on, but anything to our benefit, they do mess up on.”

Yet Stacey’s not the kind of person to give up easily. She’s joined up with other janitors across Indianapolis in an effort to improve the quality of their jobs and their communities. “We need to speak up and speak out for ourselves. I’m here to stand up for myself and others.” And Stacey’s dreams? They’re simple: “I hope to be able to do more as a family: get my auntie’s nails done, spend time with my husband, and get the house fixed up. I’d like my neighbors to be able to build their houses back up to make the community more beautiful.”