Gloria and Emilio Estefan Team Up with CVS to Help Their Restaurant and Hotel Employees Find New Jobs

Emilio Estefan and his wife Gloria are doing what they can to help their employees, who are out of jobs due to forced closures during the pandemic, find new jobs after they had to lay off hundreds of workers amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

On Wednesday, the famous couple — who own a conglomerate of restaurants and hotels — announced that they were partnering with CVS to match up to 300 of their workers in South Florida, Orlando and Vero Beach with new employment, according to several reports.

“We’ve all been faced with making very difficult and unfathomable decisions as we navigate our way through this crisis,” Emilio said in the news release, according to Treasure Coast Newspapers. “Gloria and I are doing everything in our power to find opportunities for our employees, and we are very grateful to CVS Health for partnering with our companies.”

Speaking to local ABC affiliate 10 News, the Cuban-American musician explained that after Florida Gov. Ron Desantis ordered restaurants to close in-house service and only allow takeout and deliver on Friday, he and his wife had to make the difficult decision to let go 300 of their employees.

“The hardest thing has been the restaurant business. You lose a lot of the waiters, a lot of the kitchen [staff],” Emilio told the outlet.

“It’s no way we could hold everybody,” he added. “We had so many employees, but at least we kept some of the people working.”

However, Emilio had heard that the pharmacy giant was looking for more employees amid the pandemic after they released a statement on Monday announcing their “plans to immediately fill 50,000 full-time, part-time and temporary roles across the country.”

The Grammy Award-winner said he knew just who to reach out to and that CVS “called right away saying we’re willing to take the help, and I think it’s a message of hope.”

According to Emilio, all 300 of his employees are currently being screened by the company and are expected to be placed into new jobs by the end of the week. The roles include store associates, home delivery drivers, distribution center employees and member/customer service professionals.

“Me and Gloria, we went through a lot in our lives, and we had to ‘Get on Your Feet’ many times in our lives,” he told 10 News. “We’re going to go through rough times, but I believe in the spirit of the country. I believe in America.”

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