Workers manning the frontlines amid worldwide coronavirus lockdowns continue to strike across the United States.
Staff at an Amazon delivery facility in Chicago, Illinois protested Saturday, looking for more protections as they work. Police who broke up the vehicular picket were told they should be ‘ashamed’ of themselves, Patch.com reports.
In Massachusetts 10,000 construction workers plan to strike Monday. ‘Nothing we’ve seen has been able to ensure the safety of our members, or workers at other sites’, Union executive Tom Flynn said.
And in California McDonald’s staff walked out after their colleague contracted the virus – but say bosses did not tell them.
Cook Bartolome Perez told City News Service: ‘We’ve been pleading for protective equipment for more than a month now, but McDonald’s is putting its profits ahead of our health. We don’t want to die for McDonald’s burgers and fries.’
Grocery workers – many in low-wage jobs – are manning the frontlines amid worldwide lockdowns, their work deemed essential to keep food and critical goods flowing.
They are insisting employers pay them more and provide masks, gloves, gowns and access to testing.
Workers take part in a drive-thru ”strike” at a McDonald’s restaurant on Sunday in Los Angeles
The workers are demanding a two-week quarantine period, with full pay for a co-worker who tested positive for COVID-19
In a handful of states – Minnesota and Vermont were the first – have given grocery workers a special classification that allows them to put their children in state-paid child care while they work.
Unions in Colorado, Alaska, Texas and many other states are pressing governors to elevate grocery workers to the status of first responders.
‘The government’s responsibility is to step up in these moments,’ said Sarah Cherin, chief of staff for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union in Seattle, the first U.S. epicenter of COVID-19.
The union, which represents about 23,000 grocery workers and 18,000 health care workers, won early concessions for higher pay.
‘We have always been a group of people who come to work when others stay home,’ Cherin said. ‘Our workers need the same protection others get.’
Whole Foods workers called for a recent ‘sickout’ to demand better conditions, including double pay.
A group of independent contractors for the Instacart grocery delivery service walked out to force more protections.
Some of the biggest employers in the U.S. are responding.
To alliviate the concerns of some their workers Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, said it is rolling out face masks and temperature checks at all its U.S. and European warehouses by next week.
The company has also been in contact with the CEOs of two coronavirus test makers as it considers how to screen its staff and reduce the risk of infection at its warehouses, according to internal meeting notes seen by Reuters.
Worker at the Chicago facility who went on strike over the weekend said they were concerned about a lack of communication when one of their colleagues tested positive for the virus.
One driver said: Two people got confirmed with coronavirus and they never told us it was in the warehouse. The drivers also, we’ve got to go in the warehouse, load our vans and everything.
‘There is no such thing as social distancing [in there] because you’re all up close on each other.’
Kroger, the nation’s largest grocery chain, said it will give all hourly employees a $2-an-hour ‘Hero Bonus’ through April 18. That follows temporary $2 pay bumps by Walmart, Target and others.
Walmart´s raise is just for hourly employees in distribution centers, but it´s also giving bonuses to full- and part-time workers.
Walmart, the nation´s largest private employer, and Target will provide masks and gloves to front-line workers and limit the number of customers in stores.
Walmart is taking the temperatures of its nearly 1.5 million employees when they report to work.
‘Most will see it as a welcome relief,’ Walmart spokesman Dan Bartlett said of the new measures.
But that doesn’t alleviate the fear when shoppers won’t follow the rules, including social distancing.
Jake Pinelli, who works at a ShopRite in Aberdeen, New Jersey, said customers don’t stay 6 feet away from others and typically don’t wear masks or gloves. Staffers have protective gear, but the younger employees often give it to older co-workers or those they know have health conditions.
‘Most of us are terrified,’ Pinelli said. But he stays on because he wants to help.
‘I have not only bills to pay, but it’s the only way right now I feel like I can do anything for my community and help out,’ Pinelli said.
Some have fallen sick.
A view of a Amazon Prime delivery van in Amazon hub, Woodside, a day after protest in Staten Island Borough in New York City amid Coronavirus Pandemic on April 1
The Shaw’s supermarket chain told workers last week at six stores in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont that one of its employees had been diagnosed with COVID-19.
The company reminded workers to wash their hands regularly and stay home if they don’t feel well.
At the Organic Food Depot in Norfolk, Virginia, cash is no longer used. Customers can’t bring reusable bags. Children under 16 are banned.
‘If somebody fell sick in the store, the store is most likely going to shut down,’ manager Jamie Gass said.
Gass, 47, said his wife has asthma, which means she would be more vulnerable to the coronavirus. Yet he feels pride going to a job that helps ensure people get fed in a crisis.
‘Am I scared that I could catch this? Absolutely,’ Gass said. ‘But I´m sure everybody is in that position. I´m just taking as many precautions as I can, so I don´t have to worry as much.’
A group of nurses gather for a strike and a press conference about their lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) outside of Montefiore hospital in the Bronx, New York on April 2
California Medical staff protest at the lack of personal protective equipment. Nurses and Doctors at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center amplified the message from medical staff across the country of the dire need for N95 masks