Glenda Sefla worked up to ten hours a day putting acrylic nails in a salon in New York.
Her difficult hours were six and sometimes even seven days a week, to get a maximum of 200 dollars for those 60 or 70 hours worked.
Thus he survived six years this Ecuadorian immigrant, until the day came when she had to process her manicurist license and went to ask Workers United, the union that represents employees like her, about the requirements.
In that place, in addition to give her the information she needed, they gave her other very valuable information, such as what her rights were as an employee of the nail salon industry, which she, like many workers in that industry, did not know.
“Hence My activism arose, from the conditions that one goes through in those places, from the abuses, the injustices that we face daily,” said Sefla, who was a representative for several years of the New York Nail Salon Workers Association.
It is an organization that represents some 800 people, mostly immigrant women from our area.
In her position as organizer, Sefla offered advice and education, in the form of workshops, to the people who work in this union, not only so that they can get paid a fair salary, but also so that they are given the appropriate protective equipment –since the raw material they use they are solvents and chemicals that are harmful to health–, the right to half an hour to be able to eat and pay for sick days and overtime.
“There are laws and they are not being followed”, said Sefla. “The abuse continues to happen with colleagues who have to work six days to have the minimum money for their expenses.”
It is estimated that 95 percent of people – a large part of them undocumented immigrants – who work in New York City nail salons still do so under unfavorable conditions, even though the law states that they must be paid $11.35 dollars per hour plus tip, which must be part of the salary.
The owners of these premises should ensure that the employee earns $15 the time, Sefla said.
