Chanzo: Mtandao wa Kazi kwa Uendelevu
This is the fourth in a series of commentaries on Workers vs. Coronavirus. The previous commentary “I Talk to Workers Every Day – They’re Afraid They’re Going to Die”[1] described how workers are being affected by the pandemic and what their unions are doing about it. This commentary tells how unions asked environmental and other allies to support them in demanding personal protective equipment — and how those allies are responding.
Haikushangaza wakati kikundi cha vyama vya wafanyikazi kilituma barua kwa Rais Donald Trump kumtaka atoe viingilizi na vifaa vingine vya kinga ya kibinafsi (PPE) kwa wafanyikazi wa afya na wafanyikazi wengine wote walio hatarini kwa kufichuliwa na coronavirus.[2]
Haja ya kukata tamaa ya PPE inaenda mbali zaidi ya wafanyikazi wa afya. Majengo ni majengo ya usafishaji wa kina, wasaidizi wa walimu wanapeleka chakula kwa watoto nyumbani, wafanyakazi wa ghala na viwanda wanatengeneza na kusambaza bidhaa muhimu, watoa huduma za nyumbani wanatunza walio hatarini zaidi, wafanyikazi wa huduma ya umma wanadumisha huduma muhimu, waendeshaji mabasi wanachukua. wafanyikazi muhimu kwa kazi zao, wafanyikazi wa mawasiliano ya simu wanaingia majumbani kukarabati huduma muhimu za mtandao, wafanyikazi wa kulea watoto wanatunza watoto wetu na watunza pesa wanachanganua mboga-wote wako katika hatari kubwa ya kuambukizwa coronavirus bila PPE ya kutosha kupunguza udhihirisho.
Lakini majina ya karibu 100 ya mazingira, haki ya mazingira, hali ya hewa, na mashirika mengine yalikuwa yakifanya nini kwenye barua kuhusu viingilizi kwa wanachama wa chama? Jibu linaweza kuwakilisha ukurasa mpya katika historia ya mateso ya ushirikiano na migogoro kati ya harakati za mazingira na kazi iliyopangwa.
The immediate backstory starts with the appeal by Greta Thunberg and other youth climate activists for adults to join the millions participating in the student climate strikers. Environmental groups, climate-concerned trade unionists, and youth climate strikers all began reaching out to each other. The Labor Network for Sustainability (LNS), an organization dedicated to building bridges between organized labor and the environmental movement to join together in a common
struggle for environmental, economic, and social sustainability, began organizing conferences and on-line calls to bring trade unionists into the September 20, 2020 global climate strike. Union participation in the September 20 actions was in fact unprecedented.[3]
At the start of 2020, this effort was expanding to include many more unions and more extensive action for the anticipated 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day. Then came the coronavirus pandemic. Environmentalists and trade unionists looked to the student climate strike organizers to decide what to do. In the face of lockdowns, social distancing, and the constant threat of infection they concluded that holding public actions was out of the question. They called instead for virtual, on-line actions. While unions faced multiplying needs to protect their members from the onslaught of coronavirus, some of them nonetheless made plans to participate in the days of action on-line.
But how should environmental, climate, and climate justice movements be relating to the coronavirus pandemic? LNS didn’t have an answer, but knew that workers on the frontlines of fighting the pandemic faced enormous threats, and decided that one thing it could do was use the bridges that had been built in the climate strikes to let unions tell environmentalists what their members were facing, what their unions were doing about it, and what kind of help they could use.
On March 26, the LNS convened a videoconference in which leaders of the environmental, climate, and climate justice movements heard directly from leaders of seven unions about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their members and what they are doing about it.[4] The convening included leaders from the American Federation of Teachers, Association of Flight Attendants, 1199 Service Employees International Union, United Health Care Workers East, UNITE HERE, Amalgamated Transit Union, United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 21, Washington State, and National Nurses United. While the workers these unions represent are not the only ones affected by the pandemic, their concerns and demands are characteristic of many others.
"Imarisha mahitaji yetu ya PPE!"
While the trade unionists had a variety of requests, the urgent priority was for help getting PPE and getting new PPE produced. Marti Smith, Midwest Director, National Nurses United, told the environmental leaders, what you can do is
amplify our demands for personal protective equipment specifically for respirators in traditional media, on social media, and on social media with members of Congress and the administration. We have multiple social media campaigns running, and we have useful press coverage coming out every day. If you can stand with us however you can, like Ms. Fonda did, that would be wonderful. Without these protections, we will be burying our members. I’m not kidding here. The average age of a nurse is 47 years old, and it will not be long before we are attending funerals.
Most urgently, this involves finding and making available PPE that already exists. Maria Castaneda, the Secretary-Treasurer of 1199 Service Employees International Union, United Healthcare Workers East, said the personal protective equipment for frontline workers is still very much needed.
What I would like us to do together is for us together to collectively ask for the release of the strategic stockpile of PPEs and medical equipment. It’s all in the warehouse, but it needs to be released to the states, to the governors, to the health industry, any industry.
Vifaa vya kinga pia huhifadhiwa katika maeneo mengi ya kibinafsi, na vyama vya wafanyakazi viliomba usaidizi wa kuvipata na kuvitumia. Faye Guenther, Rais wa Umoja wa Wafanyikazi wa Chakula na Biashara wa Mitaa 21 katika jimbo la Washington, ambalo lilipigwa na virusi mapema, alielezea "gari lao kubwa la vifaa vya kinga ya kibinafsi." Mashirika kote nchini "yanasaidia kupata vifaa vya kinga ya kibinafsi hapa kwa Jimbo la Washington." Muungano huo unajaribu "kushirikiana na huduma ya posta, na Stamp Out Hunger," kupata vifaa vya kimsingi vya kinga kutoka kwa gereji za watu, kutoka kwa nyumba za watu, na mikononi mwa wafanyikazi wa afya.
While finding and using existing PPEs is urgent, existing supplies are only a fraction of current and impending need. Also essential is the production of new ventilators and other PPE on a vast scale and on an emergency basis. President Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act, which allows the government to take command of production facilities and use them to meet public needs. But so far he has not used the Act to order the production of the PPEs that are necessary to protect the lives of frontline workers exposed to infection every day. Maria Castaneda says, “We keep hearing about the Defense Production Act.” We need to immediately use the Act to “repurpose to production of PPEs and ventilators” so we can “mass produce this equipment” that is direly needed to respond to the “public health crisis” that is “still surging in many of our communities and states.”
Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, which includes school staff, nurses, and many other workers directly exposed to the virus, emphasized the centrality of PPE.
SEIU, the nurses, the nurses union, all of us are trying to focus on this. We need to scream about this protective equipment because we are killing the people who are supposed to be helping us treat the disease. We need all of us, all of our communities to be out there with a clarion call that we need to protect the frontline providers who are protecting us. They are getting sick.
She added, “I have one member of my union who has already died today. There will be many more but we have to do everything we can and figure out ways to do things in concert.
Wanamazingira: "Njaa kubwa sana kwetu kufanya kazi pamoja"
The first of the environmental leaders to respond was Annie Leonard, executive director of Greenpeace. After saying, “I hope I can do this without crying,” she continued, “I am left with just an incredibly overriding hunger for us to work together and the sense of the collective power that we can have if labor activists and climate and justice and democracy activists stand together.” She proposed specifically that
One immediate campaign that we could all throw down on is the Defense Production Act. The fact that we have the means of making more supplies and are not leveraging those fully, is so vile and unacceptable.
Ken Kimmel wa Muungano wa Wanasayansi Wanaojali alisema, "Sijui jinsi ya kuwashukuru wafanyikazi hawa wote wa afya na wafanyikazi wa usafirishaji na wengine ambao wanaweka maisha yao hatarini kwa jamii. Nina hamu sana kutumia nguvu zozote za UCS kama sauti ya jumuiya ya wanasayansi kujaribu kusaidia hapa kwa njia yoyote tunaweza. Eric Pica wa Friends of the Earth alisema, "Tutakuza maswali ambayo unayo, tunahitaji tu kujua mahali pa kulenga wanachama wetu na mitandao yetu ya kijamii. Ni jambo ambalo tuko tayari kuliweka na kusaidia kuleta matokeo.” Evan Weber wa Harakati ya Jua alisema "Rais Trump ana uwezo wa kutengeneza vinyago hivi, kutengeneza viingilizi hivi na anakaa tu mikononi mwake wakati watu wanakufa." "Tunajisikia nguvu nyingi karibu na hilo" na "tungependa kufanya kazi nawe" ili kufanya kelele nyingi karibu na hilo. "Ikiwa tunaweza kutumia kitendo hicho mnamo 1941 au '42 kuunda ndege 300,000, tunaweza kuwa na uhakika kama kuzimu tunaitumia kutengeneza barakoa nyingi hivi sasa mnamo 2020, na labda mnamo 2022 tunaweza kuitumia kumaliza shida ya hali ya hewa." Lakini hivi sasa "kwa kweli, tunataka sana kuwa katika mshikamano na ninyi nyote na kufanya lolote tuwezalo kufuata uongozi wenu."
Keya Chatterjee wa Mtandao wa Hatua za Hali ya Hewa alihitimisha: Ni wazi kuwa ni muda tu kwetu sote kukusanyika na kusema, "Tengeneza vinyago vya ajabu."
"Tekeleza mamlaka kamili ya serikali mara moja"
One of the first fruits of this collaboration was the letter from unions and environmental, environmental justice, business, and scientific communities to President Trump demanding “immediately exercise the full powers of the government available to you” to
protect workers and confront the coronavirus crisis. It included the following specific demands worked out over the previous days with union leaders:
- Sambaza mara moja vipumuaji na vifaa vingine vya kinga vya kibinafsi vilivyowekwa kwenye Hifadhi ya Kitaifa ya Mkakati.
- Tumia mamlaka yote ya serikali ya shirikisho kupeleka kwa ukali na mapana zaidi Sheria ya Uzalishaji wa Ulinzi, ili kuharakisha utengenezaji wa haraka wa vifaa vipya vya kinga na kuhakikisha kuwa inaelekezwa kwa majimbo kwa usambazaji katika utunzaji wa papo hapo, utunzaji wa nyumbani na mipangilio ya utunzaji wa muda mrefu, na vile vile. viwanda vingine ambavyo wafanyakazi wake wanakabiliwa na hatari ya kufichuliwa kila siku katika sehemu zao za kazi. Tunakuomba ufanye hivi huku ukitekeleza kikamilifu ulinzi wa mazingira na kuhakikisha kwamba jumuiya zilizo karibu na vituo vya kudhibiti uzazi hazikabiliani na vitisho zaidi vya afya ya umma.
- Tambua akiba ya vipumuaji, ikijumuisha N95 na PAPR, na vifaa vingine vya PPE katika tasnia zingine, kama vile ujenzi, na uzigawe upya kwa watoa huduma za afya na wafanyikazi wengine walio mstari wa mbele.
- Mara moja elekeza Wakala wa Usimamizi wa Dharura wa Shirikisho na Idara ya Afya na Huduma za Kibinadamu kuamuru Pentagon mahali pa kupeleka viingilizi 2,000 ambavyo inasema ina hisa zake za kijeshi.
- Elekeza FEMA ifanye kazi moja kwa moja na watengenezaji na wasambazaji ili kununua PPE na vifaa vingine na kuacha kulazimisha mataifa kushindana na serikali ya shirikisho na kila moja. FEMA inapaswa kuanzisha mchakato wa uwazi wa kutenga PPE, viingilizi na vifaa vingine kutoka kwa Hifadhi ya Kitaifa ya Kimkakati kulingana na hitaji la idadi ya serikali.
- Inahitaji Utawala wa Usalama na Afya Kazini kuweka kiwango cha dharura cha muda cha ulinzi wa magonjwa ya kuambukiza na afya kuhusiana na COVID-19 na kuzuia mmomonyoko wowote wa miongozo ya afya na usalama katika serikali ya shirikisho na katika uchumi wote.
What if President Trump refuses these demands – or if he talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk? As Senator Bernie Sanders just wrote, “We cannot rely on Trump. Congress must lead the way in this unprecedented crisis.”[5] The AFL-CIO, SEIU, and other unions are backing Senator Chris Murphy’s Medical Supply Chain Emergency Act ordering the federal government to take over the companies that produce or could produce PPE and commanding them to start turning out ventilators and other protective equipment – just as the government forced American auto companies to turn out planes and tanks in World War II.[6] And if Congress refuses to act? There have been at least 45 walkouts for coronavirus protection already and there is growing talk of a nationwide strike to force the government to act.[7]
It’s time to choose life over death.
[1] Jeremy Brecher, “I Talk to Workers Every Day – They’re Afraid They’re Going to Die,” Labor Network for Sustainability, https://www.labor4sustainability.org/strike/i-talk-to-workers-every-day-theyre-afraid-theyre-going-to-die/
[2] Rebecca Beitsch, “Unions push White House for more protective equipment for essential workers,” Hill, Aprili 9, 2020 https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/492000-unions-push-white-house-for-more-protective-equipment-for-essential-workers For full text of the letter and additional materials on COVID-19 and labor see https://www.labor4sustainability.org/covid19/
[3] See forthcoming “Strike! Jeremy Brecher’s Corner” commentary on union participation in the September 20 climate strike.
[4] Video ya mkutano huo, "Kujenga Msaada kwa Wafanyakazi Katikati ya COVID-19," inapatikana kwenye YouTube kwa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD_zSC3MB70
[5] Bernie Sanders, “We can’t rely on Trump in this unprecedented crisis. Congress must lead the way Guardian, Aprili 8, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/08/we-cant-rely-on-trump-in-this-unprecedented-crisis-congress-must-lead-the-way
[6] H.R.6390 – 116th Congress (2019-2020): To require the President to use authorities under the Defense Production Act of 1950 to require emergency production of medical equipment to address the COVID-19 outbreak.
[7] "Ramani inayoingiliana ya Wimbi la Mgomo wa COVID-19," Ripoti ya Siku ya Malipo https://paydayreport.com/covid-19-strike-wave-interactive-map/
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