By: Elijah Braswell, Staff Writer
We need to provide basic protective equipment to essential workers nationwide during a worldwide pandemic.
This should be common sense, not controversy. Our president has said the situation is “maybe worse than hoarding” during a press conference, implying hospital workers are stealing face masks and gloves. He went on to ask “Are they going out the backdoor?” while questioning the rise in requests from 10,000 facemasks a day to 300,000.
To anyone paying attention to world events (or at this point even local ones) this is a totally plausible change in requested inventory. According to the New York State Department of Health, you should never wear an N95 facemask for more than a day. At over 500,000 healthcare employees in New York City alone, it seems extremely conservative to estimate they need only 300,000 facemasks a day. Yet somehow the most conservative politicians balk at even that number.
According to the New York State Department of Health as of the time of writing over 68 transit-workers have died of COVID-19. According to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), the largest grocery-store related union, over 72 of their employees have died of COVID-19. On the UFCW website they state that 5,322 have tested positive for COVID-19, been hospitalized, or otherwise directly unable to work due to the impact of COVID-19.
UFCW International President Marc Perrone states, “These workers never signed up to be first responders in an emergency, but that is exactly what they are now and they need protections immediately before more lives are needlessly lost. The human cost to America’s food, retail, and commercial workers is real and growing.”
If these workers are truly essential why are they not being protected first? If every essential worker went on strike over these obviously justifiable reasons, society might very well collapse.
Consider the impact if farmhands did not show up for work. If grocery store workers stopped stocking shelves. If delivery drivers simply parked their trucks until the stay-at-home orders are lifted. Yes, they might get fired; but at least they would not have to put their lives at risk just to get near-minimum wages.
This crisis exemplifies the disparity in how our society treats workers. We pay them not based on how necessary or demanded the work is, but rather on the supply of potential workers for the position. This system has never been more unsustainable.
So what can we do about it? We obviously cannot just send all essential workers home. While that would be the safest option, the jobs are still essential and need to be done for us to weather this pandemic. However, we can make sure they are amply rewarded for the risk they are taking; as well as the great service they are doing for society. Hazard pay as well as permanent pay increases should be instated. I believe minimum wage should be raised across the board, but especially in the cases of anyone deemed essential workers. Why should the most essential be paid the least? In what economic or societal system can that possibly work?
We also need to guarantee any essential workers access to basic protective equipment. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are now recommending facemasks for anyone in public. All companies should be required to purchase and distribute these for all essential workers. Gloves too, should be available to all currently working in public places. It is common sense; anyone touching possibly hundreds of products a day during a pandemic should be able to protect their hands from becoming another viral vector. While some states have enacted laws requiring basic protective equipment be given to employees, Missouri has not.
UFCW President David Cook published a public letter to Gov. Mike Parson calling on him to require these protections as part of his ‘stay at home’ order. On Gov. Parson’s website he responded to Cook’s letter with the following: “At this time, Governor Parson will not be amending his ‘Stay Home Missouri’ Order to require shoppers to wear face coverings.” He has not yet acknowledged Cook’s request that employees, too, be given face coverings.
Governments fundamentally exist to protect the essence of our society. If our government is not willing to provide even basic protections for our most essential workers, what is it for? I would like to announce my personal ‘stay at home’ order. If your business is requiring you to work but will not offer you hazard pay or basic protective equipment, stay at home.
Face masks during a pandemic shouldn’t be so hard to wrap around your head.
