(Editor's note: This is the second part in our series that introduces the Clean Up Sodexo workers. Today we're featuring Genevieve Repsher, and the post reports on her experience attending the Sodexo shareholders meeting in Paris, France.)

Hi. My name is Genevieve Repsher and I've worked for Sodexo for 6 years at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania--most recently as a cashier in a busy cafeteria on campus. The reason I came to Sodexo's annual shareholders' meeting is because I am struggling as a single mother to provide the very basic necessities for my 4-year-old son, Jarith. I earn $430 per week and the cost of my health insurance plan through Sodexo just to cover myself is $115. Earning so little makes it very difficult to pay the bills.

Right now I live in a house with my brother and his family. We all try to help each other out, but I'm living paycheck to paycheck. I am unable to pay all of my utilities and am worried that the electricity or the hot water will be turned off any day. I am unable to afford oil to fill our heating tanks, and have to pile clothes and blankets on Jarith to keep him warm at night. I've relied on a credit card to purchase food, and owe more than $4,000, but I haven't been able to make a payment in over a year. I don't have any paid sick days, and when Jarith has a cold or fever I struggle against my will to stay home and care for him or go to work because I can't afford a day without pay.

This morning I had the opportunity to speak with other Sodexo workers from the UK and France, and they all have a union. I need a union too, but when my coworkers and I spoke up about wanting to form a union, our managers started to spread rumors and discourage us--asking everyone 'who started the union talk?' and said that we could even lose our jobs.

My inspiration is my son, Jarith who already knows all of his letters and numbers. It is my dream that he makes it to college--an opportunity that I never had as I started working at 16. But it is only a dream because I don't even know how I can enroll him in preschool when it costs $130 per week.

When I shared my story, I was overcome by the support from the French and English Sodexo workers who jumped up to hug me. Now, I know that when I return home I am not alone, and they will support me every step of the way as Sodexo workers across the globe unite so that in the U.S. we can win sick days, affordable healthcare, and fair wages so we can all provide for our families.