Worker from China makes case for job
For the past three weeks, Constance has been standing outside the Westinghouse Electric Corporation headquarters in Cranberry, Township holding a sign reading “I just want my JOB back.”
She worked at Westinghouse for nine years and claims she was unfairly fired in 2018. Now, she's demanding to see Westinghouse CEO Jose Gutierrez.
That sort of determination would be remarkable for an American employee fighting to get her job back, but Constance lost her job 7,000 miles away. Since losing her accounting job at the Westinghouse offices in Shanghai, China at the end of last year, she's self-financed this mission: flying to Pittsburgh, putting herself up at a hotel in Cranberry, and braving the cold in hopes her self-assured gamble pays off.
What brought Constance to the Pittsburgh area was an email. She reached out directly to Gutierrez after losing her job, and to her surprise, he responded. His email was short and non-committal, but it led Constance to believe Gutierrez might help her.
However, Constance is facing an uphill battle. She never had a direct contract with Westinghouse, giving her basically no leverage. She was hired through a third-party employer and came to America planning to take advantage of labor rights she believed were protected here, but not in China.
Constance only spoke to Pittsburgh City Paper (CP) on the condition of anonymity, fearing other Chinese businesses would blackball her when she searched for work upon returning home. Constance is a pseudonym, but CP verified her identity through her passport, work ID badge, and with Westinghouse officials. CP held interviews with her using Google Translate, and an extensive phone interview with a Mandarin interpreter.
When she first arrived in Cranberry, Constance walked into Westinghouse headquarters and had a polite meeting with a Westinghouse vice president who sympathized with her predicament. She was hopeful her message would be relayed to the CEO.
Constance patiently waited to hear back, spending her days in a small hotel room at a Quality Inn in Cranberry. For breakfast, she eats a complimentary banana from the lobby and fills the mini-fridge with free apples. She walks across the street every two days to Panda Express and eats a dinner of Kung Pao chicken and fried rice, saving half of it for the next day.
After a couple of weeks without hearing back, she realized the Westinghouse CEO wasn't reaching out, so she started protesting at the company's headquarters for an hour during the morning commute and one hour during the evening commute.
On Jan. 24, Constance says local police confronted her. That's when she decided to start reaching out to the press.
She says she never intended for her story to become a controversy, but decided getting the press involved was necessary to procure a meeting with the CEO. She explained her predicament to CP: she first signed a contract with FESCO, a large Chinese contracting agency. Her salary was just under $2,000 a month (Shanghai's average is $1,135 a month, according to Forbes).
Constance says she started work in 2010 as support of Westinghouse's construction of an AP1000 nuclear reactor. As the project was prolonged, as is common with large projects, Constance's contract was renewed several times, but always through FESCO.
Even so, she says she grew accustomed to feeling like a Westinghouse employee. She studied the Westinghouse employee handbook. She grew close to her co-workers. She even started requesting a direct contract with Westinghouse in 2017. She says she loves Westinghouse as a company.
Westinghouse officials sent this statement to CP: “We are aware that a former Westinghouse contractor from China has been holding signs near our offices. We are aware of her presence, and have met with her to discuss her concerns.”
It's understandable Constance believed labor rights were better in America. She is obsessed with American civil rights. She even brought with her a Chinese book about Martin Luther King Jr.
"If it were a Chinese company, I would have given up,” she says of Westinghouse. “But it is an American company. I have a chance at equal rights.”
But American companies also rely on contract work to avoid hiring direct employees in America. In fact, it's a growing trend.
Constance experienced the reality of labor laws in America, not the idealized version. She is still holding out hope for a meeting with the CEO, but Westinghouse isn't giving any indication that will happen.
“Before I came to America, I was hopeful that I would get a resolution,” says Constance. “Now I am not so sure about that. ... I thought it was different with an American company.”
This article originally appeared in the Pittsburgh City Paper on Feb. 19, 2019.
