Remember to smile. Hello everybody and welcome to Carolyn's corner um this week we are going to be talking about uh again about Corona virus and health care, but this time uh thinking about the impact on the Hispanic community uh in the seventh district and in surrounding areas um this is kind of in anticipation of Hispanic Heritage Month uh which starts on September 15th and at that point, you know we'll be doing some other uh great things uh talking about outreach and engagement uh in the Hispanic community uh but for. I am a very pleased uh to have a three people with me here uh who are involved in various ways in the Hispanic community and in things that are going on I have uh Maria del Rosario Palacios, who is the Latin mix chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia. Um it's a founding member of Georgia Familia. You need um and also just in a personal level and with her family has uh talked a lot. I've done a lot of advocacy for poultry. In Hall County uh working with Tyson Foods and so it has a very important perspective on what's happening here in Georgia. um we have uh Kathy uh and your last name is Hines Okay, I did it uh who is a nurse uh here in Gwinnett. uh also to talk about the issues and implications that the Hispanic community and then we have Andy who works on the campaign and it is very involved in Hispanic community outreach and we'll just talk a little bit about what we're doing in that area as part of the campaign and then last volume. Open the floor for questions um and so please put those in the Facebook feed and uh you know we'll ask them to our panelists so to start off though um and starting with Maria um what can you tell our audience about the spread of Cove and poultry plants and the work that Georgia Familia you need us does. Can you unmute? Are you able to mute? Uh okay, alright work on that a little bit and uh um we'll skip forward to Kathy. Can you get your audio to work? and can you just talk a little bit about um as a nurse? um do you see any racial disparities or inequities in the quality of health care uh especially in the current pandemic and how do we start that gap? Yeah, I do see a lot of it, especially with colored people, but a lot with all of my community as well. um just a. Are just having a lot of trouble and this has been an ongoing problem to even before the pandemic um being able to get insurance and a lot of um help um with their health care problems cuz I mean one of the main things is like diabetes and the Hispanic population right now and like I don't work necessarily on a cold floor. We get the cold the negative but um, at least with what I've heard about. A lot of it has affected like with this pandemic to spending a lot of it and we're just struggling to get help um so that they can meet their needs because being Hispanic and not having papers here and you have a job that you work every week just to make ends. meet you don't they barely get to put anything in their savings cuz they're going with their whole. check they meet their needs. And they have a lot of family to support back in their countries. I have a lot of family like that as well, like Andy knows about this to our family, we have to send checks like mostly like every week to back to our families in our country and so like we have a lot of problems with how to support our own self care a lot of our own health care needs, and that's really uh a big problem that we've had and we just wish there was an easier way where all. And everybody that all people can have insurance What are some of the jobs that people are working in um where you see these kinds of issues? okay, so a lot of people working in construction, a lot of them and of course and all the women they work like cleaning houses and their paid very little um and it's working like a little jobs like in supermarkets and that's not enough. Like make their ends meet at home, like at least they have enough to provide like food at the table, but they don't have problems on how to get health care like most of the time they're scared to go to clinics or hospitals because of the bills they're so high. uh huh. So we're gonna the type of jobs they're working in right. Um and, of course, you know what uh Maria. I'm not sure if she'll be able to oh she's back. Do you have the audio working? Hey? yes. that's great. Um okay. so Kathy was just talking about some of the health care issues that she's Hispanic community um people working in low-wage jobs um people who are undocumented and they can't get health care and we have people who you know they have cod and or they're sick and in various ways and you know struggle to find a way to. See a doctor and when you have a pandemic uh you know, it's always been this way that our health is very interconnected um but in a pandemic it is particularly so and so if you know somebody is sick around you and they can't see a doctor can't get treatment and um you know we all struggle uh it can affect all of us but just going back to the question for you though, um can you tell us some about the spread of Cove and the poultry plants definitely um so thank you so much for having me here. Caroline. It's really an honor to be here to have this discussion and I'm so grateful that we're bringing light. Important issue um that is part of you know, Gwinnett and definitely part of how and really even South Georgia numerous parts of Georgia. um what I've I've been seen in the poetry plants to give a little bit of background. I have I used to work in poultry myself uh 10 years ago. uh Maria Rosario was a quality insurance inspector. Really, I just made sure everything was within the customer speculations. It wasn't fancy at all um but I you. Poultry and my family has worked in poetry for over 20 years. We moved to Georgia with that purpose and what we've been seeing around the county where we've been seeing um some discussions with the poetry plot workers that we get to talk to um we're doing a mutual aid efforts you know going to poetry plants uh connect to the community members trying to get financial assistance and providing face masks because disposable face masks are a luxury um the exposure of. Nineteen has been pretty rapid. There's a lot of folks who um you know poultry is uh is a cornerstone industry and Howard County. I think it's a cornerstone industry in our state. I think we we boast about our contributions to the global economy and this country's economy and the food supply and so needless to say essential workers in these industries don't get a day off uh they often go to work sick and um we've been seeing people exposed or after the other, there's some measures in place to check temperatures, but we know that's not the. Side of and so I've been hearing a lot from different folks. you know they'll get they'll get exposed to that work and how do they know they're being exposed because they're their coworkers are going home very sick um to the point where they don't really go home until they can't even walk anymore and by that time, you know they've probably been positive with Copic for for a few days or so, so it's been really unfortunate and we're trying to help families out right now with financial assistance. Actually, we've been lucky to have a lot of support from the community, so we've been helping out with. $50 plus up to a thousand uh right now, we're trying to help seventy-five families total and hopefully we'll get to help another round in the next couple of weeks and what what are you helping with? what is it just finding health care or with being able to have a family while they take the time off? Um I you know, I wish we could say we've been doing a lot of long-term stuff. It's been very rapid response and emergency relief uh financial assistance so we've actually been loading uh gift cards. For folks to be able to have $250 500 a thousand at a time and that's going directly to rent to utility bills and to medical costs. uh we also help the family with funeral costs. We help them with $1500 funeral costs for uh someone who passed away from that worked worked in poultry. Wow. That is a disturbing and has you know it's my impression. This is a really serious problem a couple of months ago, but since then. What kind of you know that under control? I know uh Emery hospital. Uh it's a bunch of health care workers to test people uh in in Hall County and and uh we hear of course that you know the poultry companies are doing the other, saying they're doing a better job of protecting people and and things like that. So what does it look like? but it look like then? What does it look like now? Yeah. definitely. I think we saw some surges in May and definitely in June uh but I think more folks. Getting tested and realize that they have been exposed. I wish I could say that I don't hear of new family members who um were escorted out from a poetry plants or a friends right of of neighbors or within our network and how can I um I wish I could say that I still out here in new cases we actually um had to set up a um assistance that we gave yesterday to someone who uh had been in the hospital. For a week um and uh she was let out a single mother of four kids um all under the age of eight and so um you know we're we're we're trying to measure our impact and reach and the need really uh we're also trying to make sure we safeguard the personal information of folks because some families are undocumented and you know that comes up every day in our conversations or this impact me if. 1 day, I want to adjust my status from a to Z right um because it's a process and so um we're still here, reports of folks in the workplace who um follow over sick or something of that sort. Um I wish we could say that it's it's been decreasing but I do think that most people are getting tested now, which is um something we worry about personally that not enough folks are getting tested to help try to slow down the spread. So that's our next. Um try to bring more testing events and do significant outreach to folks actually get tested. Okay and that yeah, I've been concerned about that all over the state that we're we're we're not doing testing right but students going back to college and uh great students going back to school and that's a real a real concern. um what are some of the policies um that could better protect the workers in the Georgia poultry plants. You know, I believe strongly in accountability and um I you know on a state level uh Georgia you know just pass protections for corporations against uh well and and medical professionals right against being taken to court for the impact or the spread of Cot at the workplace. and so that's that's a bit unfortunate because um I think you know employers really have to think about the sustainability of uh of their own. It is not from a humanitarian lens um but on a federal level, you know um I think it was in the opposite direction of what it needed to go when we sped up uh the speed of the belt line that had not you know been increased since we did a massive labor rights movement in the United States right, so there's a federal policy to protect workers that should be um increase not decrease your value in the opposite direction, you know um. You know these folks um get sick every single year from pneumonia, just because of the time it is or from other things and to imagine six folks um who are already sick and then a pandemic hits and we speed up the lines. That's the kind of policies that we need to address so that's your growth and policies and and they're breaking our workers and they're definitely gonna break our nation. tell me more about speeding up the lines for those who haven't heard of it. What is that mean? what's happening? Yes? we're yeah definitely so actually in. Thanks to a congressional uh rep to in um in the ninth district in county, where I live um we saw them in speed the Beltline um I don't remember the exact speed that the Beltline were at but and then go on to the where they're processing the the chicken right and it's moving it faster in front of the the workers right correct correct and it's not a fully automated workplace to give context that way it's. It's very uh physical labor human labor heavy so each time you know, it's moved from the killing of a poultry to you know, cutting it up to size it into tenders devoting as a lot of folks call to I'm every step of the process. There's human labor attached that is vastly moving along the product actually doing the work um so really all that's moving through is tubs of fifty. Hundred pounds of chicken and each tabs that you know poetry about working with their processing so when you're speeding up lines that move those tubs of chicken um to a much faster speed. that means that poetry pot workers have to work significantly harder and also the space that they're in sometimes they used to be elbow to elbow. Now, we're still getting reports that people are still just three feet away from each other nowhere near what you know where mandating and large public settings and these are departments who have um you know 100. Plus folks in each section right and you'll have to three departments running in one shift at a time so uh my poker's one of the plants that my mother used to work at um is is one of the best we've been at the most and we know that the working conditions that have not improved. It's gotten uh somewhat worse uh because of the Beltline increasing and because of the amount of pressure um a lot of folks are getting paid by production, they make money depending on how much they produce uh. Get to a point of exhaustion and you're not able to produce as much and so it it's just it's hurtful in so many ways financially physically health. um it's very worrisome. Yeah. and I mean I've I've heard of you know very horrifying conditions. people's fingers fusing together because they have to plunge them over and over to freezing vets and I um you know and making sure that you know this is this is why we have chicken right because you know these are low w. Who are working on a really tough conditions? um a question from uh Kevin um the uh how can we donate to these families who are affected by other? So uh thank you for the question. um we do have so we're uh we're on Facebook and Instagram. That's where our community can most easily be reached. um or if you look at Georgia Familia will meet us, which is Spanish for United families. um you'll find us and there are there's a donation link We have a GoFundMe set up um but we also um have a amazing uh sponsorship with um. Local organization that state um and they're the Latino Community fund and they have a relief fund. that's operating statewide and they're helping agricultural workers to help folks and various industries um and I would urge you to donate to them as well because they've been extremely supportive. They send us uh thousands of PE and um hand sanitizers Clorox bottles so any help you can give to ourselves. We're barely in the process of becoming a 501 C three uh we hope to be able to do that. End of the year um if not sooner but um between us and I think the Latino community fun and amazing other organizations out there serving as a work. we'd love. we'd love any help we can get. Okay and I'm sure we can post a link to your web page on on the on the Facebook page. Great Okay. Well. Thank you for the work you're doing. I appreciate that and I know it must be very challenging and you know some of the most heartbreaking stories I have heard both on the campaign trail and you know in the district and talking with people have been about the conditions in the poultry plants the conditions of the families and you know you know, it's just the. That people are facing right now um so Kathy do you have any thoughts on policies um that we can put into place or outreach that can be done uh to help to close some of the gaps and disparities that we see. Well the policy um there has been some things done, but still they just haven't been approved, but I wish there was more policy as well, like um Maria was um talking about earlier like they were taking health care workers to core and things like that, and I was there was more policies to protect us because we don't get the sufficient PPE at the beginning of October, we had to reuse some PE and at least. Whenever we've gone into a room where a patient has like, for example, droplet precautions for flu patients, you have to wear a mask and you have to throw away that one after you leave the room um but now we have to be constantly reusing that we use one of the little blue surgical mask once the ship, but at least me out of my own pocket, I have to go out of my way and get myself some type of a 90.4 and 90.5 miles, but I was there was. To see where there was like more protection for health care workers and one thing I do like that we have been doing now um in our patient's room is that every time a nurse attack somebody goes in a doctor. The patient has to wear a mask They have to wear a mask when we walk in the room cuz that way it's protecting them and protecting us cuz nowadays we don't know who has it because we can do the rapid test, but there's been a lot of false. Some people haven't been doing it right and sometimes it can actually be negative but Colt takes up to 14 days to develop a couple days later, they will come out positive, so I wish there was more ways where we can protect ourselves as well as health care workers. I wear a mask I wear a ninety-four I wear gloves eye wear goggles. I wear a face shield even though my patients aren't so I wish there. Policies to push for that, of course, um because it's not just the head was. it's also protecting yourself cuz it's a droplet so you can get it from like sneezing, coughing and touching surfaces. That's that's a big thing too, and we wish we had more surprise. We we really did and we have to be like um basically we have to take care of our supplies cuz we don't have as much Clorox wipes as we had in the past, we have to take care of those things um but other than that. We're just trying our best day by day on the numbers have come down. Thankfully um I can definitely say that cuz kinda like calm now but our other worry now too is full season is about to start and a lot of more schools are opening. I know Gwinnett County so September September 9th Most students are gonna go back to school so we're concerned about that. So right now, we're just taking it 1 day at a time and trying to protect ourselves and trying to raise awareness of you really need to put. Going when you go out and practice that hygiene and that's also something right so we'll repeat everybody should be wearing a mask when you go outside and you're in public places. um it is very important to protecting your neighbors. You're protecting your friends. You're protecting your community when you do that. uh it's not about you. It's about everybody else um but it's also about you too. and I just you know I wanna thank you. these are you know the our poultry workers our nurses our health care. Our front line workers um who are uh you know, are not taking days off and are you know going to work every day They can't work remotely and you know putting themselves at risk and in the line of you know in in the path of this disease in order to protect all of us and to make sure that we're all able to eat and to have healthy lives. So I really I appreciate what you guys are doing um going on to a happier note. Um can you share what gives you? In being a Hispanic and why it is important for us to to celebrate this month that's coming up. Maria. You're the next chair of the Democratic Party. And we're a few hats um not at the same time though um so yes, I am I you Know, II grew up in Hall County. uh since I was five and uh believe it or not English is actually my first language and um even though I was born in Mexico, I grew up in documented oblivious to it when I was fifteen that I grew up in documented and um I think that what really makes me you know proud of my culture. My heritage is. The besides the food because let me tell you how it. The Mexican food is amazing, but Peruvian food oh my goodness and it's the places in Norcross in Lawrenceville about it later, but um I am I'm really proud of the emphasis on coming together. It's it's like second nature. um you know the importance of of having like this collective duty, you know if someone's in need if someone um you know is is in the middle of a crisis or something coming to help out. Like that's normal, you know folks going over to eat and having dinner uh you know not that I cook. I don't don't come ask me for dinner. We can order but II think I've learned from a very small as a very small child that I had this collective duty to help folks around me and we saw a lot of help growing up. you know my mother was a single mother so survivor of domestic violence. she's been through so much in her life. There was always people around that you could tell they had the. Duty to help out the community and I love that I love that about being Hispanic and I think that's true in many other cultures and there's a unique beauty though and and being Hispanic and seeing that you could you know, go to um different Latin American countries and fill that welcome generosity, sincere care and I really appreciate that great Kathy. Okay, So I'm going back kinda like Maria said. Um yes, I would say like all Hispanics across the board if they see somebody in need, we have like this this giving heart where we want to help and I've seen that like my entire life, I grew up 8 years in California cuz that's where I was born move to when I was eight of course and then ever since then I could see it in both places so whenever somebody. Is in need, we have a sense of duty to um help others out. Besides the really good food that we make of course um and I was raised in a household where it's like if you see somebody that's in need you have to help them. It's going back to kind of why I also wanted to become a nurse cuz I like helping others and why not in that sense. I've I really enjoy it so uh that's why I'm like really proud of my culture um besides them being hardworking people coming to another. For the American dream like I completely, I like I'm in awe that they've done that like my parents came to this country to give us a better life. They are hardworking very determined and very helpful people. so I'm I'm really proud to be Hispanic. Great Okay and then Andy. I'm gonna let you wrap us up here. give us uh why you are proud um and being Hispanic and then also just take it from there and go into talking about what the campaign is doing uh in terms of outreach this community and thank you for your help on the campaign. Thank you uh well there's a lot of reasons why I'm actually very proud to be Hispanic but if I had to pinpoint one of them, it would be. Uh from my eyes um in my opinion, I think the Hispanic community is very hardworking. I feel like there's obstacles um from many generations before me that have been placed and one way or another that we always find a way to like be able to go pass it and always go the extra mile for example, my mother uh actually at one point her mom left to immigrate here she gave the California and my mom had to take care of her brothers and sisters. She had a cup and also at the same time she was going to go study. At a private school that was, I don't know a couple like a couple miles away and she would do this every day and it's just a testament of hard work. I have a singles from my dad is like he's the type of person that tells me like just put your head down and go to work and like you will reap what you sow and that's what I see as like as an embodiment of the Hispanic community and uh we're always trying. we're always trying to better ourselves like we always um what I hear my family and Kathy knows as we always wanna try to better our community and also better. Each generation that's coming to make a better world and a better place for everybody. That's um with us and for the campaign, we're doing many wonderful things for um for the Hispanic community in regards to health care we've had uh this Caroline corner, for example, we've also had uh the series of um of round tables where you're invited different people and we've also talked about the issues that Hispanics have faced and also how that affects a multitude of other communities. Obviously, like just because we're. We're focusing on Hispanic community doesn't mean it can't affect you. everything in this country is intermingled and um uh interconnected and it's also very good to also know about what's happening and how you can help others that you really uh have that desire to and so we've had a series of that we had doctors. We have nurses. my cousin is also been on there and we've talked about like all the problems that we're having and we have so much more that uh we plan on doing in the future, especially since um Hispanics month. September it's coming up on the fifteenth and so many more we're gonna have some fun banks in Spanish and um so if if folks wanna volunteer uh to work with the campaign, we really encourage folks to get involved. Um these are the kind of issues that we need to tackle. We need to make sure that people have health care. We need to make sure that our workers are treated fairly um and have a living wage and these are um you know issues that need to be tackled in this country and it's been many generations now. Uh since I started working, I worked to start working for members of Congress back in 1992 and we still have not addressed so it really fundamental issues in this country um despite numerous efforts to try to do so and the time is now, we've got a new generation. These young folks are coming along and it's time to make some of these really important changes in this country um to make sure that we are protecting and helping our working people um so with that, uh we're gonna wrap things up. uh if uh uh some folks out there that can post the link on how to volunteer to work on the campaign. Um we're gonna be working really hard on. To the Hispanic community within the seventh district, thank you guys so much for joining me. Thank you for the good work that you do in the community and um to all of you watching. Thank you for joining us and we will see you next week at 6 o'clock o'clock uh for the next carolyn's corner.