After three years in the fast food industry, things were trending up for Alejandra Aguilar Perez. She was promoted to shift leader at a restaurant near USC, where her daughter dreamed of going to school, and she was working sustainable hours. But when she stepped in to defend one of her employees from harassment, she said things drastically changed. Within the next few days, she was transferred, demoted and stripped of hours.
The forced relocation was life-changing for Perez. Eventually, she says, she was transferred to a new restaurant where management drastically reduced her hours to just eight per week. Her daughter now lives with her mom about an hour away in Norwalk.
“I ended up losing the place where I was at…because only 8 hours – what is that gonna pay?” she said. “We’re getting [fewer] hours, but the new people are getting 34 to 40 hours per week.”…