‘Essential workers’ deserve more

Bill Knight column for 5-28, 29 or 30, 2020

This month had International Workers Day and also the Feast Day for St. Joseph (the worker), both on May 1, a day when Pope Francis said, “Let us pray for all workers … that all would be paid justly and may enjoy the dignity of work and the beauty of rest.

“Work is what makes the person similar to God because with work one is a creator, is capable of creating, of creating many things, including creating a family to keep going,” the Pope continued. “This gives dignity to the human person, the dignity that makes one resemble God – the dignity of labor.”

That dignity sometimes requires workers to assert their rights, and on May 1 a mostly symbolic strike added to actions over the previous month, when “essential workers” started to take their recognition not just seriously, but literally.

Last month, Amazon warehouse workers in New York, autoworkers in Michigan, UPS drivers in Pennsylvania, bus drivers in Alabama, workers at General Electric, the food-delivery service Instacart, and Trader Joe’s, Shipt, Walmart and Whole Foods (owned by Amazon). They all blasted bosses for a lack of masks and gloves and for wages that don’t reflect how indispensable the workers are.

Literally.

Also, between Earth Day and May Day, more than 100 labor and environmental groups together made the connection between medical employees and “essential workers” in an appeal to the White House, according to the Labor Network for Sustainability (LNS).

“The desperate need for [personal protective equipment] goes far beyond health-care workers,” the groups wrote. “Janitors are deep-cleaning buildings, teachers’ aides are delivering meals to children at home, warehouse and manufacturing workers are making and distributing essential goods, home-care providers are caring for the most vulnerable, public-service workers are maintaining essential services, bus operators are taking essential workers to their jobs.”

Signers included the Amalgamated Transit Union, American Federation of Teachers, Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, Service Employees, and UNITE HERE, plus the Rainforest Action Network, Sierra Club and the Sunrise Movement.

The backbone of society is revealed in grocery stores, where workers wear masks and gloves, often behind plexiglass shields, with direction arrows on the floor guiding consumers to avoid getting too close.

Next to health-care providers, they’re not just vital but numerous. There are about 3 million grocery workers alone.

Essential workers are in many sectors: retail, warehousing, delivery, some manufacturing, and food processing. In Illinois, the state also lists as essential people in construction, transportation, utilities, social services, media, gas stations, financial institutions, hardware stores, distance-learning, laundry services, restaurants for eating off-site, critical labor union functions, limited hotels/motels and funeral services.

“The pandemic exposes the reality of ‘essential work’,” said Stephanie Luce, a professor at the City University of New York. “What we really need to do in society to take care of ourselves. We need food and shelter, health care, education and social work. We need recreation, music and arts. We need purpose and we need space and time to pursue our passions.

“Many of the workers who serve our basic needs, such as farmworkers, grocery-store workers, nurses’ aides, home-care workers, delivery workers and EMTs, are not rewarded … leaving them to rely on charity or public services to make ends meet,” she continued. “In a differently organized society we could start first with making sure these kinds of jobs are adequately staffed and those who do them are treated justly.”

Worldwide, millions marked May Day by demonstrating about public health and private hardship, between pestilence and want. In France, Parisians sang from balconies to appeal for masks, insurance and aid; in Greece, protestors in Athens stood six feet apart in a mass protest; in Spain dozens of health-care workers at a field hospital shouted, “We want tests!”, and in Turkey, workers took part in “unauthorized” demonstrations.

“Hopefully the coronavirus recedes soon, but we may be in an economic crisis that lasts for years,” said New York labor organizer and writer Eric Dimbach. “It will be essential to have a full accounting of all the labor-movement strikes, protests and negotiations that made things safer for workers. It’s unlikely that these actions will make it into the official government work-stoppage data. Just as with the Great Depression, we may be at the beginning of a new era. As states move to ‘reopen’ the economy, we may see a new wave of labor unrest.”

As for the modest May Day actions in the USA, some politicians backed workers. U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said, “Front-line workers at large corporations like Amazon and Instacart deserve PPE," she said. “They deserve paid sick leave. They deserve a safe working environment. But many don't have these protections. I stand with those on strike today for safe working conditions.”