Chapter 33
Julia
Isighed as I finished putting away the last of my clothing into Winona’s guest room dressers. It had been a week since I arrived in Los Angeles driving a car full of hastily-packed boxes brimming with belongings from my old apartment. Winona and her husband had graciously offered for me to stay with them while I was getting back on my feet after losing my job.
Moving to L.A. had never been my plan, but if I wanted to cobble together a freelance career, I figured it couldn’t hurt to live in a big city.
The trouble was, I already missed Utah. I missed the mountains. I missed…them.
Winona’s littlest came running into the guest room wearing fins and goggles and a tutu over her bathing suit.
“Aunt Juji! C’mon, c’mon, let’s go! Mama’s waiting!”
I giggled at my niece’s getup, the sight of her a spark of delight to lift my low mood. “Okay, I’m coming! Tell your mom I’ll be right there.”
She ran off excitedly, and I started searching through the still-unfamiliar drawers for my bathing suit.
In a month or so, most of these clothes won’t fit anymore.
I wasn’t showing yet. But it wouldn’t be long.
Everything had changed so quickly since Las Vegas..
First, I was suddenly single, then I found out I was pregnant. To say that I was in a slump those first few weeks was an understatement. Not only was I miserable, but I was also dealing with horrible bouts of morning sickness.
I contemplated reaching out to the guys several times to tell them about the baby, but my hesitancy was too strong. After our falling out at Red’s father’s funeral, would it even matter? It wasn’t like our situation had changed. It was true that all the unwanted public attention eventually petered out, but I had no doubt it would flare up again if I wasn’t careful.
The guys had stopped calling after the funeral. Part of me felt hurt, but the other half appreciated that they had respected my decision. So I faced the knowledge of my pregnancy alone, and all the complicated emotions that came with it.
It wasn’t until the second month that I finally decided to pull myself up by the bootstraps. Lounging around feeling sorry for myself wasn’t going to pay the bills. I’d been getting by using the money in my savings account, but with a baby on the way, I needed a more secure form of income. If I was adamant about doing this alone, I needed to make sure I was in a position to provide.
And I knew exactly who to go after.
Leo Holistic Lifestyle was still the same shitty, exploitative company I called them out to be. After doing a little digging, I discovered whispers of workers wanting to unionize. Those hopes were dashed swiftly and harshly, widespread and indiscriminate layoffs being cited throughout the company’s structure.
LHL had no qualms about firing its employees. Little did they know, they were giving me the ammunition I needed to take them down.
I spent the next month painstakingly tracking down wrongfully terminated employees. It was obvious within the first ten minutes of talking to them that they had a case.
“I showed up five minutes late,” an anonymous source told me. “My manager used this as an excuse to take away my lunch break even though I told them I have low blood sugar and need the time to take my insulin around noon. When I wrote a complaint, I wound up with a pink slip the next day.”
“They had me constantly working overtime,” said another source. “They were always sneaky about it, too. My supervisor would have me come in early and tell me to get started on opening duties even though it wasn’t time to clock in. When I tried to, they said I wasn’t being a team player and wrote me up. The same thing happened after work. They got me to clock-out but made me stay behind for closing duties. It was ridiculous!”
“They promised me health benefits,” said yet another heartbroken ex-employee. “But they kept putting it off and putting it off. Said something about missing paperwork, or some made up BS that I forgot to submit the forms. I was never given the forms! I thought if I tried joining the unionization efforts, it’d put pressure on LHL to make good on what was promised. I ended up getting fired instead for ‘insubordinate behavior.’ Now I’m out of a job with two kids to care for. It’s just not fair!”
I spent the past month compiling as many testimonies as possible. Instead of writing it in article format, I devoted my time to creating a brand-new webpage from scratch. The concept was simple: a page full of text cards with people’s experiences with LHL.
It took some time to figure out how to code it, but I even created a submission form where people could submit their stories. People were afraid to speak out against this corporate giant, so all I had to do was create a safe space for them to gather, share, and call Leo Holistic out on their bull.
Since there was no way to sue a public forum, there was nothing they could do to squash the story. It was only a matter of time before they came under fire.
Last I heard, a series of investigations was being organized to review their internal conduct. Now that the ball was rolling, I felt satisfied in clapping my hands free. The world was starting to realize what a questionable and heartless company they were. I exposed the truth so that people could pass their own judgements.
Now, I planned to expose other cases of corrupt labor practices in Los Angeles, pitching my stories to the local newspapers and web magazines. It was a major change for me, but I wanted to do some good in the world, even if my private life was in shambles.
After changing and grabbing a towel from the linen closet, I made my way to the backyard to find Winona spritzing herself with tanning oil while the kids splashed happily in the pool. It was constantly sunny here —almost overkill, really— and a reliable eighty degrees outside even at ten in the morning, just two weeks into summer.
“Hey sis,” Winona said as I pulled up a chaise longue next to her.