Adela

For Adela, the last 10 years has involved working a variety of jobs in the cleaning industry seeking better opportunities to support her family. Before joining Natural Home Cleaning, the Oakland-based co-op where she has been a member for three-and-a-half years, Adela worked around-the-clock, mostly at night, cleaning tables at a restaurant. Eventually, she began to experience nasal problems, trouble breathing, and irritation in her eyes, but otherwise she considered her job pretty good. Her boss was kind and pay was steady, but benefits were nonexistent; it was only after four years on the job that she was given a week off from work, unpaid. After some prodding from her mother (a founding member of the co-op who has been with NHC for eight years), Adela heeded her mother's advice and joined the co-op.

Since joining Natural Home Cleaning, Adela, a mother of three, says what she enjoys most about working in the co-op has been having more time to spend with her children. She says her children are very happy that they see her more often. “They understand it's an added benefit that we get to spend more time together. Having a job like this, the stability, gives us all better opportunities, “ says Adela.”My daughter, Yarely, tells me she wants to clean houses just like me when she grows up. And I tell her, 'Okay, but study hard first then decide later what you want to do.” For her daughter’s future, Adela says, “I want her to realize that she can be anything she wants.”