About Rose (or, her title, Bad Luck Rose)

  Rose's favorite 
  Originally uploaded by Jodi3425.

"Maybe Oprah would get me on her show."

When I asked Rose if I could tell a little bit of her story, she told me to 'let the world know how they mistreated an old lady."

Rose was born in August 1947 in Geneva, New York. She worked at a company called Hults (I haven't checked the name) where her job was to correct characters on typewriters. During a strike, she got tired of having eggs thrown at her and quit. She then worked at Sylvania making television screens. Her husband didn't want her to work, so she quit. A while after that she was on her own with two small kids. She also worked at Zotos International making shampoo and perfumes. In those years, all these companies were in Geneva. Not anymore. Rose says that back then you could quit and find something else. Zotos would hire people by the job. When it was done or work was slow, they'd be laid off. In 1972 she started working as a cleaner at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. There she had health insurance, but no pension. She generally worked nights, the 11:00 to 7:30 shift.

In 2002, Rose had to have surgery on her shoulder. The pain had gotten bad. The social science departments housed in Trinity Hall were moving to a new building, Stern Hall. Before the move, Trinity was filled with boxes and bags of discarded books, old exams, outdated files, boring academic journals--the detrius of faculty lives. There was no elevator in Trinity, so the cleaners had to carry the heavy boxes and bags down three flights of stairs. Rose was 55. So she took time off to have surgery but was then laid off for missing too much work. She didn't get any workman's compensation. Her regular doctor said that it was clear the injury was work related (Dr. Platzer), but Rose didn't know about that until it was too late. When the doctor who peformed the surgery (Dr. Lieburg) asked her if the injury was work related, she said yes but that he could put what he wanted. He told her it would faster to use her health insurance through Marriott (the company that manages the cleaning staff at HWS) and put in her records that the injury was not related to work.

Rose says that since then it's all been down hill. She works as a cleaner for eight dollars an hour at Guardian Glass. She doesn't get any benefits. And, she think that they are stealing some of the little bit she does get paid. But she doesn't know how to get it back.

Comments

[Mary Gerhart]

As I understand the situation, the employer deducted some amount from the salary of anyone who left the premises for lunch break. This was the answer given when Rose asked why her check and that of others were less than the rate at which they were hired. Thereafter Rose and others stayed on the premises for the lunch break. I think she said the deduction was less than before but her check continues to be less than when she was first hired.

She was going to call the out-of-town boss to find out why?

Is there anything we can do without jeopardizing her job?

[Jodi Dean]

That's the hard question. I don't know if she called the out-of-town boss yet or how much risk she is able to take right now given the overall dire employment situation. Maybe it's possible to find out details, investigate a bit, without being connected with Rose.