Essential workers face critical choices during outbreak
While others work from home, they are in virus’s path daily
“I’m taking precautions, but I don’t want to be a carrier passing coronavirus on.” JEFF PERERA UBER DRIVER
Toronto Uber driver Jeff Perera has spent the last few weeks sanitizing door handles, seats and belt buckles each time a passenger exits his car to stop the spread of a novel coronavirus. But he may soon get a break from scrubbing because he's debating drop-ping his driving gig
"I'm taking precautions, but I don't want to be a carrier passing coronavi-rus on," said Perera, who has driven on-and-off for Uber for almost four years, while working as a professional speaker.
"I had this one lawyer I was going to take to Liberty Village to pick up some weed and he's just one of these people who was saying (COVID-19) is all a hoax, it's overblown and it's not that big of a deal. "That was one of my last rides and that made me really angry and I thought I don't know if I can do this."
Such situations are familiar to Perera and fellow drivers, health-care and transit workers, cleaners, couriers and supermarket staff, who have been deemed essential by many provinces. They head into work places while oth-ers have the luxury of toiling away from home.
Their jobs put them in the path of the unruly virus by exposing them to scores of people, who may unknowing-ly be carrying COVID-I9, and surfaces, where experts say it can linger. More than 1,600 Canadians have con-tracted the virus. The latest wave includes a Real Cana-dian Superstore worker in Oshawa, Loblaw president Galen Weston told customers in an email Monday. It's stories like those that have wor-ried the family of Stanley Maranion, a cleaner at Tsawwassen Mills, a shop-ping mall south of downtown Vancou-ver.
"They don't want me to go in, but it's a chance to make money, to pay the bills," he said. When he hops off the bus at the mall, clad in gloves and a mask, he now often finds it empty. Most stores have closed, but a South St. Burger and Dollarama remain open. "I feel better because the mall isn't that busy and with less people going, I feel safer," he said. That emptiness is far from what Thomas Hesse, president of the Unit-ed Food and Commercial Workers Lo-cal 401, hears from the 32,000 workers from companies like Cargill Inc., JBS Canada and Safeway, who the union represents.
He recently encountered a grocery clerk who hauls heavy loads of flour through busy aisles, while fretting about an ill family member in Arizona who can't access health care and fight-ing with his ex-wife over child care because schools are closed. "I talked to one employee whose brother recently received chemother-apy and she lives with her brother," he said. "She's torn about coming to work because there's a risk she might take (the virus) home, exposing her broth-er."
employed The places are where encouraging these workers staff are to wash their hands constantly. Others prod staff to don a mask or gloves, which comes with a new challenge. "We're being as vigilant as possible and trying to make sure that every-thing's on order, but there's shortages (on sanitizer, gloves and masks) all over North America, so we're doing our best," said Devon Almond, the owner of Calgary cleaning company Time to Shine.
Some of his church, dental office, res-taurant and office building clients have slashed or reduced cleanings, but none of his roughly 60 workers have refused work yet
Markham-based Anthony Cappuccio juggles stocking produce at a super-market with working as a restaurant cook.
He isn't worried about catching the virus at work, but wishes shoppers wouldn't cram stores and snatch up more groceries than they need.
We can't keep up with demand be-cause every time we have canned goods, even if you put a limit on it, people are gonna buy it, and with all of our stuff being delayed a bit because of the initial huge rush shopping every-one did, it's more difficult," he said. Grocers like Loblaw Companies Ltd., Sobeys Inc. and Metro Inc. are install-ing shields in front of cashiers, whose pay they recently raised by $2 an hour. Other retailers have stopped custom-ers from dining-in or paying with cash as they keep up with the demands of delivery.
Cappuccio's restaurant job is far qui-eter. He used to work 45 hours a week there and now, he says, he's working maybe 20.
"We laid off most of our staff except for me and three other people just to keep it running, but honestly, I'm standing around ... No one wants take-out food," he said.
He worries about laid-off co-workers, who rely solely on the restaurant to pay bills. Cappuccio, however, counts himself lucky because he lives with his parents and the grocery sector is in demand between Walmart and Lo-blaw looking to immediately hire thousands. Uber driver Perera has been less calm as he mulls whether to park his car.
He's weighed how much he enjoys helping health-care workers get to their jobs with his own situation in-cluding a mother in her 70s and his brother's babies he doesn't want to en-danger.
He doesn't know what he'll do instead, since his speaking work has dried up because COVID -19 has forced the cancellation of events. "I'm debating doing Uber Eats, but there are so many people doing that that I can't see me having much more financial success doing that but I guess its safer," said Perera, who doubts he will qualify for employment insurance or other government support because he is self-employed.
"I wanted to look into Amazon, may-be doing deliveries for them. I just hope I can get something going"