-"Stressful" doesn't even describe it.
It's -- It's scary.
-What do I do to be able to survive
and not deplete the limited savings that I have?
-I don't know how long they're gonna let us get away
without paying our mortgage.
-It's very hard to see
that we won't be getting the money anymore,
and we don't know when we're gonna come back to work.
-Here in Hawaii, to do anything, we've got to get on a plane.
I should be in Canada right now,
but, of course, the Canadian border's been closed,
so there's no way to get there, so that's not possible.
-We specialize in transporting booths and LCD screens
and high-touch kind of specialty materials to trade shows.
We don't know what it's gonna look like
if or when it does come back.
So, for us, I mean,
our business is basically post-vaccine, post-treatment.
-It never came to my mind that this thing will happen
and it would go for so long.
My wife had two major surgeries,
plus she has to take two types of medicine every single day.
Insurance that we have right now --
if I want to buy it,
it will cost me $1,000 to $1,200 a month.
-I was not eligible for unemployment.
I was shocked that I was not eligible in January, February,
and then COVID hitting, it even made the situation
extremely even more panicked for me,
not knowing what was going to be going.
So, for about a week, I was eligible for a big $131,
$132 a month.
Needless to say, the $600 extra has been a godsend.
-My unemployment was processed slowly but quicker than others.
And it took me days and days of being on the phone all day
to get it done, but I did get it done.
That 600 bucks saved me.
-It's a fraction of my salary,
but it was keeping me afloat just with my basic bills.
-I am probably touching base with 20 to 30 people a week.
-I've applied probably to like 200-plus jobs.
-Changing around this time -- I'm 63 years old --
it's kind of tough.
I can't even retire because I won't get,
again, health insurance.
-My wife and I are here at my parents' place
in Honolulu now.
We lost our apartment a few months back because of all this.
-We don't know what it's gonna look like if
or when it does come back.
Do we just try to figure out something else to do
with our business?
Because maybe trade shows aren't gonna come back.
-My $732 is used up immediately that week.
It's used for food, it's used to pay my heat,
my light, my gas bill, my water bill.
I've tried to do everything I can humanly do to cut back.
I honestly don't know what the law in North Carolina is,
but, you know, do I take a gamble
in not paying my automobile insurance?
-I had a hole in my roof, so it rained,
and my whole kitchen would be like
as if I had an interior rain forest.
So that's, like, a lot of money.
I couldn't get the whole roof done,
so I had to get a patch.
-I'm a union delegate, so no matter what happens,
I think it's in my DNA that I would want to go back in
and make sure that no one gets infected,
even though if I'm at a big risk.
If they call me today and say,
"You're gonna be working one day a week or two days a week,"
I will do that for my insurance and to help my coworkers.
-There were a few options where they had said,
"We want you to come in the office,"
and I was hesitant.
I was very hesitant to even consider it,
because I have asthma.
I'm an at-risk person, and I have kids.
I have older parents.
I had to start applying for jobs like that weeks ago
because I was afraid I'm gonna lose this money,
and if I don't get another job,
I'm not gonna be able to survive very long on unemployment
and what my husband makes alone.
We just won't.
So I had to start opening up that option
and start putting myself at risk
because it's either that or don't pay your rent.
-We want to go back to work.
We are productive members of society,
and we want to go back to work.
-This is where, really,
we need something back from the government.
This is something that we pay taxes.
Going back to what I make in a week when it's busy,
you cannot imagine how much money they take for taxes.
-Is the government here to protect me or provide for me?
You can't just leave people hanging.
If you leave people to their own devices and are forced
to fend for themselves, this isn't gonna go away.
-What happens if everybody maxes
out all their unemployment benefits?
I only have like two more months left.
These are the kinds of questions that I think need
to at least be addressed by Congress or acknowledged
so that we know that people are thinking about them.
-I started working when I was 14.
I worked at McDonald's.
And I'm 99.
999% sure that UI was taken out of my check.
So I've been putting in for 40-plus years.
We're asking for some time, and we're asking for some help
that our government that works for us --
we're asking them to do their jobs
and take care of their constituents.