I found out from the mayor I was laid off.

Toya C. - Boston, MA

Transcription

“My name is Toiyah, I’m an electrical apprentice in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 103, and I’m from Boston, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, I found out yesterday from the Mayor that I got laid off; he did a press conference. Nobody knew what was going on, not even my shop knew what was going on. I didn’t even get to pack up my tools; nothing like that.

I get home, no job, had to call up my mom and tell her unfortunately I can’t afford to help her pay rent this month – so I can’t imagine what other low-wage workers are going through. And it’s just ridiculous, the response that we have.

Trump put Pence in charge, the most inhumane person to deal with this humanitarian crisis. I mean, the Republicans and Democrats are trying to put together some bills that aren’t even going to help the majority of workers. They’re trying to throw other stuff into the bills – it’s just a disaster!

There is no way that these these billionaires shouldn’t be giving up their money to make sure that people can continue to pay rent – and if people can’t continue to pay rent, then they should halt the rent payments! They should halt the mortgage payments!

This is ridiculous. People are going crazy, hoarding toilet paper, hoarding food, you got elderly people going to the grocery store worried they’re gonna catch the virus… It’s just nuts.

So what we need to do is we need to organize, we need to get ourselves together – we’re all in quarantine, we’re all in our houses bored. (I know I am, that’s why I’m walking around outside.) We need to get together.

So please – I’m a member of Socialist Alternative. You should consider joining Socialist Alternative. If not, join us for our virtual town hall meeting where Seattle city councilmember Kshama Sawant is gonna speak about this coronavirus, and the havoc that it’s wreaking over society, and what we need to do about it. Thank you.”