Heroes are born in moments of tragedy. Angel Flores, a janitor of 14 years at the city of Houston’s transport building, honored his call when Hurricane Harvey came crashing down on his city. The building he works at was put on lockdown, becoming an emergency ground zero, with public officials and government employees flooding the building to monitor the storm when he answered his call.
Due to the conditions and lack of personnel, Flores was requested to work 24-hour shifts for an uncertain amount of days, all the while his family was back home enduring the storm.
“It hurts me to talk about this,” Flores told Mitu. “My family was at home, and I was here. It was something so hard. I yearned for them so much.” The noble janitor had to work 24 hours for seven days straight, getting only 2 hours of sleep in a small closet, only to wake up at 4 AM to start emptying out the trash.
After those seven days, Flores still had to work another four days of 12-hour shifts, losing six pounds in the process. In total, Flores worked 12 brutal days before getting one day of rest.
“Every 10 minutes you had to pick up trash. It was continuous. No breaks,” says Flores. “I took 10-to-15 minutes to eat because that was the less I can do. I know I didn’t have enough time. I had to go back because the trash would start piling up.”
One could believe that such a selfless act like his, would come with some reward, however, Flores was stiffed out his money by JBM the janitorial cleaning service company he works with. This wasn’t new, JBM had been shorting his checks for years now, and he was already expecting to not be paid for all the extra hours he put in during the storm. Unfortunately, he was right, when his first check after the hurricane came, it was short by approximately $100.
Flores was left with no choice but to file a wage theft complaint against JBM, and with the support of Texas State Senator Garcia and Houston Council Member Gallegos, to whom Flores had talked to previously about his ongoing dilemma, JBM paid everything that was owed to him.
“Senator Garcia and Councilmember Gallegos made personal calls on my behalf to McLemore, JBM’s boss, to make sure I got paid correctly,” says Flores. “And when I got the next check after the hurricane, they paid me everything I was owed. I really believe it is because the Senator and Council Member called.”
However, this has come at a great cost for Flores, because JBM took petty retribution and started cutting his hours, going as far as to defame Flores by saying he wasn’t even in the building during the storm
“They were saying I wasn’t in the building and that it looked like I didn’t clean,” says Flores. “But I clock in and have to use a card to get into the building. I have the proof I was there.”
This has prompted Flores to form a union with other abused janitors and custodial workers with the Service Employees International Union of Texas, so they can ensure their rights and are protected from any retribution from their employers.
It is a real shame to see how these companies operate with their employees, especially after they have shown great courage in the face of tragedy.