On Saturday, July 23, at noon, local community leaders gathered at the closed-down Starbucks across from Franklin High School for a rally in opposition to a proposed Amazon warehouse in the neighborhood. While it has been widely reported that Amazon no longer has plans to build a warehouse in the Rainier Valley neighborhood, protesters rallied, calling for the company to officially pull its permit of development.
Every morning at 6 a.m., Penelope punches into work at a food processing warehouse in Eltopia, Washington. She works seven days a week with no days off for $13.65 an hour. With the exception of a 30-minute lunch break, Penelope is on her feet sorting spears of asparagus for up to nine or 10 hours a day. It’s difficult work in normal times. But now, it’s become dangerous.
Penelope says her employer is not providing her or other employees with enough personal protective equipment or allowing them any space to social distance to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus. She is undocumented, so she’s afraid of repercussions if she speaks out or tries to involve the Department of Labor and Industries, which is responsible for overseeing safe workplace conditions. But she is also afraid that these conditions will get her killed: she’s 40 years old and suffers from diabetes and heart disease, and has breast cancer that has recently reemerged.
