LEADERS TOUT PROPOSALS TO EASE BURDEN FOR ESSENTIAL EMPLOYEES
State, county measures aim to address health, loss of job income
Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez and Board of Supervisors Chairman Nathan Fletcher Wednesday promoted county and state proposals which they say will help essential workers and others disproportionately harmed by the pandemic.
Gonzalez and Fletcher, who are married, joined delivery drivers, senior care workers and custodians in a virtual town meeting to discuss repercussions of the pandemic on jobs and income.
“COVID has shown us so much about our society that a lot of us have known was there, but it showed it in a way that we ought never be able to look away again,” Fletcher said. “And I’m talking in particular about the inequities.”
People of color have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 infections as well as its economic impact.
While Latinos make up 34 per
cent of the county’s population, they represent 54 percent of COVID-19 cases and 44 percent of deaths from the illness, according to county data.
Black and Hispanic people form a higher percentage of the essential workforce, speakers said, and suffered higher rates of job loss and reduced pay during the shutdowns. Those who remained employed often worked for low pay and without adequate health and safety protection, they said.
Fletcher said the County Board of Supervisors will consider hazard pay for county workers and will open a county Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement to ensure compliance with workplace pay and safety standards.
“We thank you, not just with our thanks, but with our actions to make your lives better,” he said.
Gonzalez said her bill, AB 257, would create a state council to establish minimum standards on wages, working hours, and health and safety conditions for fast-food restaurant workers. She introduced the bill on Jan. 15; it is in committee.
“We’ve never really allowed fastfood workers to have a meaningful voice on the job,” she said. “Our fast-food council will do that.”
These plans have drawn critics. San Diego Republican Party Chairwoman Paula Whitsell objected to hazard pay for county workers, saying these employees have kept their jobs and benefits while other workers and business owners have lost income and struggled to pay bills during the pandemic.
She said the money being considered for hazard pay should be spent on businesses and rental assistance.
“We call on Chair Nathan Fletcher and the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to direct these stimulus funds to those who desperately need them, the most unfortunate among us who did not receive a paycheck during 2020,” Whitsell said in a statement. “It’s just not fair to give San Diego County staff a financial windfall.”
Speakers at the town hall said they have faced high risks and financial distress during the pandemic and subsequent shutdowns.
Rachel Randolph, a worker at the county’s Polinsky Children’s Center, which provides residential care for children removed from their homes, said she has tended to children with COVID-19 at the facility. That leaves her and her family vulnerable to infection, and leaves the young residents bewildered by restrictions that prohibit staff from hugging or holding them.
“We as workers haven’t been able to stop going to work and caring for these kids,” she said. “We’re the forgotten individuals just like the kids. Nobody cares that we have to go to work every day regardless of what we bring home.”
Nursing home worker Antonio Poteat said elderly people in centers don’t get the care they need, while nurses and other staff have lacked personal protective equipment to safely do their jobs.
Delivery driver Randi Stokes spoke for the Mobile Workers’ Alliance, which lobbies on behalf of 20,000 drivers for companies such as Uber, Instacart, Postmates and Lyft. Because these drivers are considered “gig workers” or independent contractors, many struggled to get unemployment compensation during the pandemic, Stokes said, and few, if any, receive health insurance, sick pay or other benefits they would need in case of illness.
“While white-collar workers can afford to stay home, we were out on the road, risking exposure,” she said. “Despite being essential, we haven’t been treated that way. I’ve always felt like an essential, expendable worker.”