Eddie Dorsey, Security Officer at Kaiser Permanente Warehouse in Oakland

Eddie Dorsey is a single father who works full-time as a security officer at a Kaiser Permanente pharmaceutical warehouse in Oakland. Despite guarding a valuable cache of pharmaceuticals in a dangerous, industrial area of East Oakland, Eddie is struggling to provide basic necessities for Edjrienna, his 5-year-old daughter, on the salary and benefits that Kaiser’s contractor Securitas offers.

Eddie is paid just $12.05 an hour, despite having worked at the Kaiser facility for more than three years.  He and Edjrienna live alone in a rented apartment near downtown Oakland, where she attends the local public elementary school.  Recently, Securitas changed his schedule so that it interferes with the time he spends with Edjrienna in the evening and on Saturdays.  While Eddie works these irregular hours at the Kaiser warehouse, Edjrienna has to stay at her elderly grandmother’s house.  “Now that I’m working overtime and they took my weekends away, I don’t have time for my child,” Eddie says. “I can’t take her anywhere; not to ride her bike, not to the park, not to Children’s Fairyland. I can’t even fix her a bowl of cereal.”

Eddie is also struggling to afford medical care for himself and Edjrienna.  The health insurance plan Securitas offers has a $1,000 annual deductible that he must pay out-of-pocket before the insurance will cover any of his or his daughter’s medical care. As a result, when Edjrienna had to go to the dentist for her annual exam last week, Eddie decided that he couldn’t afford to take her.  Eddie himself has avoided going to the doctor for several years, because of the high costs.

Eddie sees the irony of working for a healthcare provider and being unable to afford medical care himself.  “We’re working for Kaiser, they should give us healthcare,” he says. “Right now, the deductible is more than I make.”

Eddie and his coworkers provide a critical service at the Kaiser facilities. Eddie has had to chase away many people who were spraying graffiti and climbing up telephone poles behind the warehouse to try to break in through its roof.  Last year, Eddie found bullet casings in front of the main security gate, and he often hears gunshots in the neighborhood at night. “This is a dangerous site, in a bad area,” he says. “It makes me feel bad, because we’re here protecting them, and we get nothing in return. It doesn’t make sense that we’re the lowest-paid, but we’re doing a high-risk security job.”

Despite the difficulties he faces, Eddie is determined to make a better life for Edjrienna. Eddie is actively working with his union, SEIU United Service Workers West, to bargain with Securitas for better wages and benefits.  “My hope for the future is that we have some changes,” he says.  “I hope the economy gets better, that I have time for my child again.”