May 1, 2020
Of the World, Unite! We see them every day when we venture out to buy food or get things delivered while we stay safe from COVID-19 at home: the essential workers who are keeping the city afloat and us alive during this challenging and hazardous time in America.
The UPS guys, the Letter Carriers, the Pharmacy and supermarket teams, the fruit stand people, bus drivers, food delivery folks, and so many others. Many are low wage, no benefits workers whose jobs simply can’t be done from home. Some of them, specifically our Postal Workers, bear the extra burden of an administration hellbent on making their work even harder in this precarious moment by threatening their jobs even as they valiantly serve the public during the National Emergency.
And along with these folks, the lifesavers of EMS and all the NYC hospitals are still toiling away under historically heavy loads that are stretching them to the limit and beyond. Just this week 2 of them – an EMT and an ER doc took their own lives. They won’t show up in the COVID-19 mortality numbers, but make no mistake, they’d almost certainly still be with us otherwise.
The seldom seen death workers toil away largely out of sight under indescribably horrific conditions, amid literal piles of corpses and weeks-long backups to bury or cremate the dead. The prisoners digging graves and filling them on Hart Island are also performing essential work. The staff at nursing homes like Isabella up here where scores of residents have recently passed away are undoubtedly being scarred for life by the essential work they’re doing. The cops from the 34 are still going around, now risking their health and sanity on top of the ever present risk to life and limb their job always entails.
We could go on, but you get the idea. When you see these essential workers doing what they do for us, thank them! Let them know you appreciate and value what they’re doing for us. Verbalize! And if they’re among the underpaid labor pool that barely scrapes by in normal times, tip them generously! How much would it take for YOU to deliver that pizza?
Photo: Amazon Delivery gig workers.