A memorial for Gómez outside of the Burger King where she worked.
Employees at the Pico Blvd. Burger King in Santa Monica, California went on strike this week after Angela Martinez Gómez, a transgender woman, died from COVID-19. Management refused to let her leave work even after she showed numerous symptoms and her employers later blamed her death on injection hormones.
A TRANS WOMAN NAMED ANGELA GOMEZ, A 15 YR EMPLOYEE AT BURGER KING WORKED FOR A WEEK STRAIGHT WITH SEVER SYMPTOMS AFTER MANAGEMENT TOLD HER TO KEEP WORKING. SHE DIED. BK IS BLAMING HER “HORMONES” FOR HER DEATH. WORKERS ARE GOING ON STRIKE IN SANTA MONICA. BOYCOTT BK & SPREAD THIS!
— ✞ (@ravennsheaa) July 13, 2020
Angela Martinez Gómez began showing symptoms, coughing and feeling nauseous about a week before she passed away.
When she died on July 6, the store manager told Yolanda Garcia, another employee, that Angela had died from her hormone injections, not COVID-19, to which Garcia responded “that doesn’t make sense to me.” Santa Monica Daily Press reported that Garcia believes this is a way for the company to “avoid responsibility for the situation, given Martinez has been sick while on shift.”
According to the complaint filed with CAL/OSHA and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, “several workers walked out for safety on July 6, after learning of Angela’s death.”
“A worker shouldn’t have to die and workers shouldn’t have to strike to call attention to COVID-19 safety at Burger King,” Garcia told Santa Monica Daily Press that the restaurant has not provided clean masks for each shift, enforced social distancing measures, trained staff on the safety protocols regarding COVID-19 and that the place is not cleaned as frequently as it should be.
Burger King workers in Santa Monica, CA are on strike and protesting today after a Trans woman employee died after getting sick with coronavirus symptoms. pic.twitter.com/wBZ2S1vQLT
— Michael Sainato (@msainat1) July 10, 2020
The complaint included that a second employee, who worked the same shifts as Angela, has exhibited chills and a high temperature. Yolanda Garcia has stepped up as the third employee to develop similar symptoms.
“I feel very worried and I have a bad headache…July 8 I woke up coughing with chills, shaking and body aches, my right lung hurts making it difficult to breathe, and I am very tired,” she wrote. “I am worried about my health and my family’s health; eight of us live together, and my brother and I both have diabetes. Last week I visited my grandchildren, and now I do not know if I have COVID-19, or if I gave it to them. I am worried.
“I truly believe that they don’t care about our health, they don’t care about us as a people and they don’t care about anybody except their income and the money they can make. That’s all they care about.”
On Friday, July 10, employees organized a silent protest outside the store and set up a memorial for Gómez.
According to six studies done between 1996 and 2006, Human Rights Campaign reported that 57 percent of transgender respondents said they had experienced “employment discrimnation, including being fired, denied a promotion or harassed.”
A report released in October of 2019 showed that 9 out of 10 employees will go to work while they are sick out of fear of losing their job. Because healthcare benefits are majorly through your employer in the United States, during the pandemic, workers are fearful of being fired and losing access to them.
Angela’s story shows how our current economic system kills the most vulnerable during a pandemic, including trans women of color.
