Relief for furloughed J’can workers in South Florida
Published:Sunday | May 31, 2020 | 12:16 AMKaryl Walker - Senior Gleaner Writer
Jamaican and other Caribbean workers employed to non-essential retail chains in South Florida are breathing a collective sigh of relief after a number of stores at which they work reopened their doors after weeks of closure due to the coronavirus. As the American economy begins to reopen, the Burlington, Ross, TJ Maxx and Beall’s stores lifted their shutters to the relief of the furloughed workers.
Customers began forming queues outside Burlington outlets in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties hours before opening time as they anticipated making the best of deals of 50 per cent off clothes and shoes and 25 per cent discounts on household supplies.
The sight of customers lining up to enter the store brought relief to 42-year-old Sophia Wright, who has worked as an associate at a Burlington store in West Palm Beach for nine years.
“It is a welcome sight, I tell you. I have not been working for almost two months, and when we see these long lines, we know the hours are going to come,” Wright said with a broad smile.
She is one of four Jamaicans, three Haitians and a Barbadian employed to that store. All had been furloughed due to the closure brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
DIPPED SIGNIFICANTLY
Several Caribbean nationals who work at the Burlington store told The Sunday Gleaner that they send remittances back home to their loved ones. Since the closure of most businesses in the US, the amount of remittances sent back to the region has dipped significantly. A recent study revealed that some 40 million people in the United States are currently out of work due to the crisis.
“I was on the phone with my cousin, who made me know that they are reading the news online and know that life was hard with us up here,” Marie Miller told The Sunday Gleaner. “Him say, ‘We going take care of Mama’ and I must just build back because me been a tower of strength in the family and many times is me make them eat,” Miller said.
Miller was on door duty at the Burlington Store and was tasked with sanitising shopping carts and monitoring the traffic to ensure no more than 150 persons were in the store at any one time.
“I can take four more,” she shouted to the dozens of customers standing in the scorching South Florida humidity.
As the people dutifully shuffled in and she closed the door behind them, Miller said: “I am not ashamed to do this job. It allows me to take care of my mother and extended family. I was feeling down over the last couple months because them was calling me to send a thing and I never have it. I was almost evicted as the landlord didn’t get him rent for two months and is my father pay the rent so me and my two children have a roof over we head. I only hope Jamaican people know say when them get even $40 from us up here is a major sacrifice,” Miller said.