Hello. Welcome to On Politics, your information to the day in nationwide politics. I’m Lisa Lerer, your host.Join right here to get On Politics in
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Join right here to get On Politics in your inbox each weekday.
Amid all the awful information concerning the coronavirus pandemic, it’s vital to do not forget that there are such a lot of heroes in America proper now.
After all, there are the E.R. docs, the I.C.U. nurses and all of the well being care employees who’re on the entrance strains at hospitals, a few of that are in “apocalyptic” situation.
However there are different, much less heralded heroes. The orderlies altering the sheets within the hospitals. The employees stocking cabinets and making deliveries. Dwelling well being aides, cleaners, baby care suppliers, safety guards, postal employees, rubbish collectors — all these folks threat their well being to maintain America fed, protected and cared for.
The nationwide politics reporter Jennifer Medina brings us the story of one of them: Ezzie Dominguez, a mother of two in Denver, who is a member of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, an association for nannies, caregivers and house cleaners.
For years, Ms. Dominguez, 38, has worked as a nanny and cleaned houses around the city. A few weeks ago, the family she has been working for told her to stop coming but did not offer to pay her. Her husband lost his jobs as a cook and a janitor around the same time and cannot collect unemployment benefits because he is an undocumented immigrant.
So for now, she is working for a subcontractor cleaning offices and hospitals at night. Here is Jenny’s conversation with Ms. Dominguez about what her life is like now. (As usual, it has been edited and condensed.)
Tell us about your work right now. What are you doing?
MS. DOMINGUEZ We’ve been going in to clean and sanitize buildings that are essential to support the public. We’re like on-scene little soldiers, going in, scrubbing down and then disappearing, mostly staying invisible. People don’t even understand how it happens and we’re exposing ourselves and risking our lives. But I have no choice — we lost more than half of our income. My income is the only one, for who knows how long. I have to do something.
There’s a shortage of cleaning personnel who have experience with pathogens, so as long as I am healthy I will do this. We get a message every night saying they have a building and need a certain number of people. It’s mostly hospitals. We are paid $10 an hour in cash, and you get paid as soon as you’re done.
How concerned are you about getting sick because you are working in these public buildings?
I am terrified, because I am in cancer remission. Every day they check our temperatures, but we are still risking a lot. And we are risking a lot for our families. When I get home, I have a little room I enter, I get down to my underwear and bra, washing everything separately. Then I jump in the shower immediately. I think I started to irritate my skin because how much I am scrubbing and using disinfectant. My hands are starting to crack.
Then I kind of hunker on my corner of the bed and stay there, because I am still afraid of touching my husband. I sleep for a couple of hours and then get up to start my job at the nonprofit. Normally I do a lot of organizing; right now I sort mail and donations and deal with any deliveries. I took the job five months ago and I am grateful I have it.
My husband had been working at the same place for 20 years before he was laid off. And he cannot apply for unemployment because he is undocumented. I really panicked when he lost his job, which is why I am doing the cleaning. We’re not in a space where I can say no to anything. You clean as fast as you can and get out of there.
Are you given any kind of protective gear when you clean?
No, and at first I didn’t even realize that we were going to clean hospitals. The calls just started coming and you just reply to say you want to work. They didn’t say they were going to give us anything special. They gave us two gloves and two little aprons and whatever cleaning supplies. A lot of times they don’t tell you what chemicals they are using, and that worries me, too. They get upset at me because they say I ask a lot of questions.
How did the family you had been working for tell you they no longer wanted you to come?
I have been working for them for two years. It’s a divorced couple and I am kind of like a secondary mom for the children. They have special needs and the father needs the help at his home. They just said they didn’t want me to come anymore and that they would call me when I can come back. Then they told me they could not contribute anything to me while I am not coming.
What do you wish people understood about your work right now?
It’s a huge sacrifice. I know I can die if we are exposed, but we are also going to die if we don’t have basic needs. We need the stability of an earned income no matter what. We should not be invisible, but we are all humans, too. We have families and we should be able to have sick leave, so that we can stay home and take care of them. We should not have to choose between working and living.
I want Congress to include us, to give us help, too. A crisis is not the time we should say, you need to have documents to have the basic necessities. We should not be excluded from everything. The system is so broken and does not include people like us, even when we are called essential.
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From Opinion: ‘Lots of blame to go around’
Times Opinion has been concentrating on the perspectives of many people directly affected by the coronavirus pandemic — emergency medical workers, infected patients, grocery store clerks and local officials. But we’ve also been keeping tabs on the political ramifications of the crisis.
The package is “a raw deal for the people,” Mr. Amash argued. “It does far too little for individuals who want probably the most assist, whereas offering lots of of billions in company welfare.”
This week, Thomas Edsall, a longtime contributing author, explored the chance that “the coronavirus disaster will decide whether or not Trump is a one-term president.” He talked to pollsters and famous a revealing Pew Analysis survey that confirmed “considerably increased percentages of younger folks, minorities, low-wage earners and Democrats reported opposed impacts on their households” — outlined as somebody shedding a job or pay on account of Covid-19 — “than did older, white, high-income Republican respondents.”
In an interview with Mr. Edsall, Lee Drutman, a senior fellow on the New America Basis, predicted that “there will likely be a number of blame to go round” and “that blame will nearly definitely gas much more partisan politics.”
— Talmon Joseph Smith
… Significantly
The brand new Peloton mothers? N.F.L., N.B.A. and P.G.A. gamers embrace the bike.
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