Now we all know how important it is to have a really good job, one that pays well and has good working conditions.

Hello, I'm Bonnie Boswell and welcome to our three part series on Life in the Workplace.

During the pandemic, people like grocery store workers and pharmacists saved our lives.

Ashley Monet Manning, she's been working in a grocery store for ten years.

The pandemic was rife.

We didn't have a lot of PPE, which is the protective gear, the gloves and masks.

We didn't have no cleaning supplies, so it was hard.

So Ashley and others in the United Food and Commercial Workers Union asked for better wages and safer work conditions.

Kent Wong directs the UCLA Labor Center.

Supermarket jobs historically have provided a middle class income.

What we see increasingly, however, with the rise of big box stores, is that once again, they are depressing wages and working conditions.

And the United Food and Commercial Workers has been very important in defending the standard of living of workers, but also to fight for better health and safety conditions for Ashley, Advocating for better conditions became personal.

And I lost my grandma, you know, to this.

So it's like it was serious for me.

I even took a leave of work because I was so scared that, you know, older people living in my house, I don't want to take that home.

I don't want to be the reason, you know.

So it was hard.

I'm sorry.

Ashley says it all comes down to one word respect.

We'll learn more about Ashley on the next edition of Bonnie Boswell Reports for KCET, I'm Bonnie Boswell.