Madelyn Garcia lost her mother the same week she found out she was losing her job. Just three days after the funeral shed planned with her siblings, the 50-year-old returned to work at the Toys R Us store she managed in Boynton Beach, Florida. She had to liquidate all its inventory and her 30-year career.

The bedlam of the going-out-of-business sale made it feel more like the holidays than springtime. Garcia was on her feet for 12-hour days, six days a week, with no overtime pay and no future at the company. What kept her going was the possibility of Toys R Us finding a buyer and at least some of the stores being saved. But she also felt a basic sense of commitment to the retailer, even in bankruptcy.

Its the loyalty we had to the company, explained Garcia, a mother of three who started her career at a Toys R Us in New Jersey in 1988. I think we did it for each other, too. We were all going through difficult times not knowing where we would go or how we would manage.

Once the stores fixtures were going out the door, the reality began to set in. Toys R Us creditors rejected any offers to purchase the company. Garcias store closed June 30. There were no jobs and, worst of all, Garcia believed, no severance pay for her employees, many of whom still hadnt found new employers. The sense of commitment, she realized, only went in one direction.

Garcia is now at the center of a battle that could have long-lasting implications for retail workers. She and other Toys R Us veterans have been trying to squeeze severance pay out of the private equity groups that bought the retailer, as well as the investment firms that held its debt.

Their campaign has already yielded results. On Tuesday, two of the companys owners, the private equity groups Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Bain Capital, announced that they would each put $10 million into a financial assistance fund for the workers. The distribution of the money will be overseen by Kenneth Feinberg and Camille Biros, high-profile lawyers known for their experience administering compensation funds. The amount workers receive will be based on their length of tenure at the company.

KKR and Bain called it a unique set of circumstances that called for a unique solution and urged other stakeholders to chip in money.

Still, the Toys R Us workers are demanding a much larger fund, totaling $75 million, to be shared among the laid-off workforce of more than 30,000. They also want to draw public attention to retails looming private-equity problem and make sure all retail workers most of them women, and many living paycheck to paycheck in a largely non-union industry enjoy some basic protections if their companies go under. They have taken their fight to corporate lobbies, Congress and the courts.

I dont think private equity firms should be able to buy a company, load it up with debt, liquidate it and have nothing for the workers, Garcia said. We did all the work in the stores and in the warehouses. We shouldnt walk out empty-handed.

The way these workers see it, Toys R Us wasnt solely a victim of Amazon and the Digital Age.