Olegaria Ruiz is among scores of undocumented front-line workers who feel left out of California’s age-based COVID-19 vaccination plan.
“More than anything, we need the government to help us get the vaccine, too,” said Ruiz, 46, who’s worked in the garment industry in Los Angeles for 27 years.
Ruiz says she doesn't know of any co-workers, including those over 65, who have gotten the vaccine yet. A lot of them, she says, lack internet access and don't know how to navigate the state's complicated sign-up system.
Throughout the pandemic, Ruiz has worked 12-hour shifts, seven days a week to sew masks, hospital gowns and surgical hair nets for doctors and nurses, she says.
But she says she’s not always paid for all the hours she works and sometimes earns less than minimum wage.
At the same time, it's difficult to socially distance in sweatshop factories, where upward of 50 seamstresses can often be sewing in one room. To make matters worse, Ruiz says many of her co-workers workers aren’t being provided face masks by their employers.
“There’s no social distancing, and people don’t use masks,” Ruiz said. “[Some of my co-workers] sometimes can’t afford to buy masks because we aren’t being paid what we’re supposed to — a minimum salary.”