Mary Ellen Sanchez, a single mother of six in Fresno, works as an in-home supportive service provider for two women. One is paralyzed from the neck down, and the other one is in her late 60s.
Like over 400,000 in-home supportive service workers across the state represented by the Service Employees International Union Local 2015, she receives only two days of paid sick leave a year, whereas California mandates at least three days for full-time employees. And in the era of COVID-19, she’s on the front lines: the elderly and immunocompromised are most at-risk for contracting the novel coronavirus.
“I’ll stay home if I get sick,” she said. “But I don’t have any savings. I never thought something like this would happen.”
