ESSENTIAL WORKERS FEELING ‘LEFT BEHIND’
Were needed during pandemic, but now are the last to get shots
Grocery and other essential workers who have toiled for a year on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic are feeling left behind in the state’s vaccine rollout and say the powers that be are making “value judgments” in prioritizing other groups ahead of them.
Their frustrations have been growing in the days since President Biden essentially forced Gov. Charlie Baker’s hand in opening up vaccine eligibility to teachers ahead of the rest of the essential workers’ group in Massachusetts — which still lacks a definitive start date for access.
“There is a sense of relief that teachers are getting vaccinated. But we also think that the governor needs to understand that exposure is exposure and it goes across the board in many different industries,” said Gabe Camacho, political director for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1445. “It seems that the governor is making value judgments that are beyond the control of anything that makes sense.”
Essential workers — a group that ranges from teachers, to food and agriculture workers, to public health workers, to public transit employees and rideshare drivers — are the next to gain access to potentially life-saving coronavirus vaccines in Massachusetts.
Baker announced he was bumping teachers up this week after Biden challenged states to get at least one shot into the arms of all educators, school staff and child care workers by the end of the month — an announcement the gover
nor said he learned about via tweet.
“We will follow suit with the feds to be consistent,” Baker said in a press conference this past week.
Educators can start signing up for shots on March 11. But the Baker administration has offered no definitive start date for the rest of the essential workers group.
And the governor warned that if the feds don’t boost supply — the state currently receives about 150,000 first doses per week — it could take “about a month” for the roughly 1 million people who will be eligible in Massachusetts to book their first appointments.
Fernando Lemus, president of the UFCW Local 1445, expressed concern about further delays in access for his roughly 8,000 members who he says are exposed to the virus “on a daily basis” stocking shelves and manning checkout counters.
“They were heroes last year. They were heroes when there was a lack of food, when people couldn’t get out of their homes,” said Lemus, who recently battled COVID-19 himself. “I feel like they’ve been forgotten.”
Grocery workers in more than a dozen other states already have access to the shots.
But in Massachusetts, “we are just left behind,” he said.
Transportation workers can get vaccines in New York. But Jim Evers, president of the Boston Carmen’s Union 589 of MBTA workers, continues to be frustrated that the administration has further delayed plans for a T-focused vaccine site in Quincy that would have flexible hours needed to take care of the transit workers.
“It’s discouraging,” Evers said. “We were promised it. It’s a broken promise.”
With the “nightmare” of more crowding looming from the further service cuts announced last week, Evers said the drivers union is thinking about stepping on the gas. He said he’s been talking with lawyers, federal officials and state lawmakers about how to force the administration into moving them up and better enforcing safety precautions.
“I don’t want to go that route, but if my members are going to be pushed back, I might have to push back,” Evers said.