Laura Ospina, Contributing Photographer

On Sept. 1, Rosa Morales Rodríguez, an undocumented immigrant, arrived at Yale New Haven Hospital to begin her 3 p.m. cleaning shift — just as she had for the past year and five months. Morales Rodríguez said that shortly after she clocked in, her supervisor demanded immigration papers from her and other workers. When some workers did not provide work authorization and legal status, the supervisor fired them and threatened to call the immigration authorities, according to Morales Rodríguez. 

Morales Rodríguez worked for AffinEco — a janitorial subcontractor headquartered in Bridgeport, Connecticut — along with dozens of other undocumented workers at Yale New Haven Hospital. Morales Rodríguez and two other workers told the News that in the handful of years during which they worked for AffinEco, the company had never asked for documents showing legal immigration status and work authorization. Rodríguez estimated that the AffinEco supervisor fired 45 to 50 cleaning staff across three shifts. 

AffinEco did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“The supervisor said, ‘If you don’t want to give me your documents, I am going to call immigration,’” Morales Rodríguez said in Spanish. “And he started telling us, ‘Don’t go to work.’ But he talked so slowly, we barely understood. I repeated, ‘Should I go to work?’ And he told me, ‘You no longer have a job.’”

Mark D’Antonio, a spokesperson for Yale New Haven Health, wrote to the News that YNHH learned of the possibility that AffinEco, one of their temporary staffing agencies, lacked necessary worker documents this summer. In compliance with federal law, YNHH “immediately directed” the subcontractor to check for work authorization.

Unidad Latina en Acción, a New Haven advocacy group for immigrant workers and their families, staged a protest on Monday evening outside the entrance of the Yale New Haven Hospital. Holding signs such as “Caution: Workplace Declared Unhealthy for Employees,” a dozen former AffinEco workers and ULA members called on YNHH to end the use of subcontractors and meet with the fired workers. 

“They used us all throughout the pandemic [as essential workers] and now, when we really need the jobs, is when they fire us,” Armando Meza, a former employee of AffinEco who worked in the New Haven hospital during the pandemic, said in Spanish. 

Four former AffinEco workers told the News that the subcontractor discriminated against them on the basis of their immigration status throughout their time at the New Haven hospital. The immigrant workers said that their AffinEco supervisor would assign them more work than workers who were American citizens, although they were paid the same.

The workers additionally described the firings of Sept. 1 as “humiliating.” Morales Rodríguez recalled that the AffinEco supervisor assembled and fired the workers in a public area of the hospital. She said that workers did not provide identification over “fear.”

While the supervisor threatened to call immigration authorities on the workers who did not provide proper documentation, other AffinEco staff witnessed immigrant workers crying and some other staff laughed, according to Morales Rodríguez and Rosa Portes, one of the fired workers. 

“There were a lot of workers there, elderly people like me, crying,” said Morales Rodríguez in Spanish. “The worst part, what hurt us the most, was the discrimination in front of the Black and Puerto Rican workers [who are American citizens].” 

Portes questioned why the AffinEco supervisor asked for documents in public, rather than a private office space. 

She also said that the sudden firing was disrespectful given the sacrifices she made as a member of the cleaning staff during the pandemic. 

“I told the supervisor that it was unjust that from one moment to another, I no longer have a job,” Portes said in Spanish. “One has a family to maintain. I worked throughout the pandemic, exposing my family and my grandchildren that were only 2 and 3 years old by going into COVID rooms.” 

John Jairo Lugo, the community organizing director of ULA, said that the organization would stage weekly protests at the New Haven hospital until the YNHH administrators agreed to meet with the fired workers and listen to their complaints. 

Lugo believes that YNHH, by continuing business with the subcontractors, is complicit in the exploitation of workers. Subcontractors deny workers job stability and adequate protections and benefits, leading to the common abuse of workers, according to Lugo. Lugo pointed to a trend of companies in New Haven using subcontractors for manual labor jobs, such as shoveling snow and gardening.

“Temporary staffing support is a critical part of the workforce at Yale New Haven Health and throughout healthcare to fill staffing vacancies in order to ensure that our facilities are safe and clean,” D’Antonio wrote to the News. “We continue to actively recruit for full-time staff to fill needed roles, and we partner with community agencies and other organizations to support job training and preparation.”

D’Antonio did not respond to the News’ inquiries about formal oversight protocols for subcontractors, AffinEco’s alleged discrimination and threats, why YNHH did not flag AffinEco’s lack of documentation earlier or ULA’s demands.  

ULA is additionally pushing for reimbursement or compensation for the fired workers. 

Morales Rodríguez said that through public protests, the workers hope to demand the respect they deserve. 

“We want to teach [AffinEco] that they should respect people,” Morales Rodríguez said in Spanish. “Why? Because working people, us as Latinos, we come to work. We have to demand more respect for ourselves as Latinos because us Latinos are the ones that work the most and are the most discriminated against here.” 

As Connecticut is an “at will” state, employers have the right to terminate an employee at any time without a given reason, with the exception of identity-based firings or other discriminatory instances. 

The Yale New Haven Hospital is located on 20 York St.