When the coronavirus pandemic took full effect last March, Stephanie Bonin and her husband Keith Arnold were forced to close their restaurant in Denver, Colorado.
They did not know what would happen next, since the federal and state authorities had not yet begun to provide assistance to businesses, and they feared that imminent financial collapse awaited them. They had to temporarily lay off 12 of their 15 employees. Although the dismissed began to receive unemployment benefits, but it did not go to any comparison with their previous earnings, most of which were tips.
After much deliberation, the couple decided on an unusual step. Bonin launched a petition on Change.org demanding that all Americans receive $2,000 a month in financial assistance. In addition to the petition, a video clip was also posted on the site, which collected appeals from people proving that they needed help during the pandemic.
Recently, the number of signatures on the petition has exceeded 3 million and continues to grow. The new variant of the coronavirus, Omicron, has shut down many other small businesses that were still trying to stay afloat. Meanwhile, legislators in Congress are debating the form of additional assistance to small businesses – in particular, restaurants. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, in an interview with CBS television, promised that additional assistance to Americans could be included in the federal government’s funding bill.
But Bonin says help is needed now, urgently, as many families face serious problems, the number of which is only growing. Before Christmas, she and her husband were forced to close their restaurant for a week, as half of the kitchen staff contracted the coronavirus. They lost $30,000 in earnings this week, but paid their employees $9,000 in sick leave. However, the number of paid sick days is limited, and now their employees have taken all the days they are entitled to.
Bonin believes that uncertainty about the future and the never-ending changes in the development of the pandemic are forcing an increasing number of Americans to put their signatures under her petition. “We need confidence, they say. We need something so we can plan our lives from month to month,” adds Bonin.