A single mother and janitor for years at Twitter’s office in New York City, Laureta, wants Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest people and the new CEO of the social media platform, to know just how the loss of her job would impact her six year old.
Several other janitors at Twitter – as well as many other employees at the troubled company, which has slacked off thousands of staff – she said she never received any answer for her unexpected dismissal.
Laureta said, “I was so happy working for Twitter. I was able to pay my bills, get babysitters for my kids. Now, it’s a nightmare for me. I don’t know how I’m going to do it or know what’s going to happen,” said Laureta, who did not want her last name used out of fear of future employment consequences. “There was no explanation. We worked Monday, the 19th, and that night we got the message. It was shocking right before Christmas. We didn’t have a good holiday. No merry Christmas, no happy new year, we were thinking about our jobs and if we were going back.”
Laureta shared how she had a hard time trying to tell her six-year-old son about what happened to her job and to reassure his concerns about having food now that she has been slacked off by the company. Laureta has no other source of income and will lose the health insurance for her and her children that she relied on through her employment at the end of this month.
She further added, “I want to go back to work and I want to know why Elon Musk is getting rid of us. It’s not right that Elon Musk has gotten rid of me and all of my co-workers.”
Laureta is one of the twelve janitors who worked at Twitter’s office in New York City who are now protesting against the social media company’s sudden decision to lay off all janitors, who were employed by contractor Flagship Services, the latest layoffs at Twitter since Musk acquired the company on 27 October 2022.
On Tuesday, the workers with their union, 32BJ SEIU, protested outside Twitter’s New York City offices to demand an explanation and the return of their jobs.
All of them had received a notice from Twitter on the evening of 19 December that the contract with their employer and their jobs were terminated, with immediate effect. They say in previous cases where a contractor was changed, Twitter had retained the same employees who have been working at Twitter since 2015.
In December 2022, Twitter suddenly slacked off janitors at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco. City of San Francisco attorney David Chiu said he was probing into whether Twitter broke the law with the sudden layoffs due to laws that makes it compulsory for employers retain workers for at least 90 days during a transition between contractors.
Twitter has laid off around half of its employees since Musk’s acquisition, the manner of which has led to several lawsuits or demands for arbitration.
