MIAMI _ Before the coronavirus pandemic, Ketty Toussaint Rene kept her hands busy every day working the same way she had for three years scrubbing dishes at the largest hotel in Miami-Dade County for a little more than $13 an hour. Now, she says her knuckles are so sore from knocking on doors that she has resorted to carrying around a 2-inch white piece of stone she found at home to do the knocking for her.
Toussaint Rene is one of thousands of the state's hospitality workers who were laid off in March when the pandemic decimated South Florida's hotel industry, leaving a majority of minimum wage workers without a paycheck and some without medical insurance in the middle of a worldwide health emergency. Months later, however, hundreds of jobless workers like her have invested nearly all of their time to canvassing for Democratic campaigns on behalf of labor unions like Unite Here and the Service Employees International Union.
Originally from Haiti, Toussaint Rene, 49, now helps low-propensity Democratic voters throughout Miami-Dade and Broward counties to make a plan for Election Day.
Some tell her they haven't gotten their ballots in the mail yet. Others say bluntly that they don't trust mailing their ballot will count. On occasion, she hears them vent about the candidates they care about, their frustrations and shares a bit of her own.
"We were supposed to receive unemployment money. Unemployment money is something you work for ... that you save for the worst situation," Toussaint Rene said, recalling the collapse of Florida's unemployment system, plagued by inefficiencies and an unprecedented backlog of claims.
"They're not working for workers, for the poor," she added.
The recent ground efforts from workers pitching Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and county mayoral hopeful Daniella Levine Cava (even though mayor is a nonpartisan race) are part of mobilization plans some unions crafted ahead of 2020. Before the COVID-19 crisis, unions like Unite Here Florida _ which represents 34,000 hospitality workers in South and Central Florida _ were planning to fan out throughout the state.
In Miami-Dade, that means targeting places like Miami Gardens, Allapattah, Overtown, Liberty City and Little Havana.
"We don't think we can win the election without Florida," said Maria Jose Leira, spokeswoman for Unite Here Florida.
Since the pandemic devastated the union's dues-paying members, the groups are now fighting for their own survival and revisiting their pre-election plans. They've flown in experienced organizers from around the country, hoping they can duplicate in Florida the Democratic victory they saw in Nevada, where the 60,000-member culinary union was able to successfully mobilize voters in 2016 for former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
"I think that Trump, the governor, our employers, all viewed us as powerless and viewed us as sort of desperate and defeated and out of work and unable to mobilize," said Wendi Walsh, secretary and treasurer of South Florida's Unite Here Local 355.
But, Walsh says, "the exact opposite is true."
"Our members will never forget how they were treated over these past six months," she said. "Our workers understand very well, just like we have to struggle every day and fight employers for a raise, in this election we have to fight Donald Trump to rebuild our families and our union."
The Unite Here "Take Back 2020" canvassing campaign comes barely a month before the general election and as 5 million mail ballots are being voted in the state. The Biden campaign recently relaunched its canvassing program nationwide, after canceling it for months over fears of COVID-19 spread, which caused concern for Democrats who thought that there hasn't been enough door-knocking from the campaign.
The Trump campaign in Florida, which made early investments in the president's state of residence, says it has so far knocked on over 2.3 million doors and has over 200 staffers deployed across all 67 counties. Florida Trump Victory spokeswoman Emma Vaughn added the president's reelection campaign has made more than 16.5 million phone calls and has held over 50,000 grassroots events.
"Having just decided to launch a ground game, it's no wonder Biden has to rely on his union bosses to knock doors for him," said Vaughn. "Meanwhile, Trump Victory has activated tens of thousands of volunteers across the Sunshine State."
She added this is a "tenfold" difference from 2016 in terms of voter outreach for the Trump campaign, in which it came in contact with 1.5 million voters by Election Day.
Still, unions insist that Florida's hospitality workers, who are overwhelmingly Black and Hispanic and mostly women, feel let down by all levels of government in their response to COVID-19.
Hotel workers hoped Miami Beach would provide direct cash assistance to them while hotels remained closed and officials urged them to stay home, but the city turned down the idea and opted for helping them navigate the state's unemployment site. Similarly, airport security guards still working for companies contracted by Miami-Dade County urged commissioners to require the companies to provide paid sick days. Commissioners rejected the idea.
Hotels were allowed to open back up in June. Still, around 400,000 workers have lost their jobs since the closure, according to an estimate from the FIU Jorge M. Perez Metropolitan Center. That does not include undocumented immigrants who work in the sector.
Meanwhile, Helene O'Brien, director of the 32BJ SEIU union that represents airport workers, janitors and security guards, said she has never seen members so motivated to volunteer their time for canvassing and phone banking.
"In other elections, especially if someone is feeling good about their job or their union contract, the feeling of desperation isn't always as acute," she said. "But now people's lived experience is really waking them up to how they can lose their job, their lives, weeks of income, and no one seems to be talking about it."
About 20% of the union's nearly 5,000 South Florida members are still out of work. Those who are back on the job risk COVID-19 infection without proper masks and gloves, O'Brien said. If workers get sick or are exposed to COVID-19, they have to stay home without pay.
"They're being told it's communist to want a paid sick day in the middle of a pandemic," said O'Brien, citing comments made by Commissioner Steve Bovo, who is running for county mayor, comparing requiring companies to provide paid sick leave to policies popular with governments in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. "It's all hands on deck. Our members feel there has been a failure of leadership from Trump all the way down to Steve Bovo."
One of those members is Odeimy Melendres, a 48-year-old janitor at the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine who has kept her job through the pandemic. Though she said her employer ABM, a sub-contractor at the university, provided all the necessary protective equipment, the company initially refused to pay for time off when employees had to self-quarantine after potential exposure.
She's one of the 32BJ SEIU workers who has been canvassing for the union ahead of the election.
"It's been a really nice experience because you're working for something you believe in," Melendres said.
Melendres herself thought she had been exposed to the virus and self-quarantined for eight days. Though she tested negative, she was not paid for her sick time off. Since then, the company has agreed to 10 COVID-19-related sick days.
"If you think giving sick days to a worker is communist, I can't agree with that message because you're not thinking of me. You're thinking of an idea of things that you're bringing to the table," Melendres said. "I'm Cuban and I don't think any of it is communist. We're not machines, we're human beings."
