Editorial: The COVID-19 pandemic is a crucial moment for working families. Labor must rise to the challenge.

by the Editors

Source: Department of State

COVID-19, or “novel coronavirus,” is—as Mike Davis puts it—the monster at the door.

The virus has turned into a full blown pandemic, sending markets spiralling in the worst economic downturn since the Great Recession. Professional sports leagues have cancelled games and suspended seasons; schools, businesses, and public services are closing en masse. Cordons sanitaire have sprung up globally restricting both domestic and international travel. Its scale is unrivaled in recent memory, save perhaps the HIV/AIDS pandemic, bringing to mind the great pandemics—like the Spanish Flu of 1918—largely eliminated by the rise of modern medicine.

The damage done by the pandemic is already astronomical, even beyond the cases of viral infection. Workers in industries dependent on the movement of people and goods are facing layoffs. Hospitality and service workers—usually represented by UNITE HERE—are particularly hard hit; according to UNITE HERE, workers are facing layoffs and hardships due to COVID-19’s impact. The travel ban on Europe, which will disrupt travel and ground flights for the near future, has already drawn condemnation from the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the union that represents most airline flight attendants. Healthcare workers face the opposite problem as the disease spreads and hospitalizations spike, forced to work long hours and with dwindling supplies of protective gear.

The impact of pandemic is particularly acute in countries, like the United States, with shredded social safety nets and few if any guaranteed rights for workers; after all, the United States is one of the few wealthy countries in the world that does not offer guaranteed paid time off for workers that are sick. For many—especially low-waged hourly workers—that means they either go to work while sick, or they go without pay. Workers get to decide between their health, or making rent—a grim choice. Many are forced to choose the latter.

For many workers, losing even half a day of paid work can wipe out their monthly grocery budget; miss two or three days and utilities and rent or mortgages are at risk. Because of lack of paid sick leave or inadequate paid sick leave, workers (even unionized workers) delay surgery or attend work while sick. Parents that work and can’t take time off to care for sick children send those children to school, rather than keeping them home. All of these issues—ones that are present every single day, causing enormous hardship to working people—are exacerbated by the current crisis.

Meanwhile, Congress is struggling to pass wholly inadequate half-measures crafted by House Democrats that would barely address the scale of the crisis. There’s always money for stock market stimulus, but Congress will only throw half a fraying lifeline to working families.

COVID-19 brings into stark relief the inequalities in our society and in our economy, and how many workers live a heartbeat from disaster. The fact that some elites have tested positive for the virus should not distract from the disproportionate impact felt by working families. In the richest society in human history, we’re faced with the spectacle of workers forced to clock in during a pandemic for fear of losing their homes. Meanwhile, the wealthy are fleeing to their disaster bunkers to ride it out. It’s yet another reminder of how our economy sweats working families so Wall Street can buy their second—or third—yachts.

To fight for a more just society, and to halt the spread of pandemic, unions must aggressively advocate for an expansion of rights at work, especially federally guaranteed paid sick leave. The American Federation of Teachers and UNITE HERE are already doing so; both issued a joint press release calling on emergency measures to stem the spread of COVID-19 and mitigate the impact on working families. The Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO has likewise called for working people to be centered in the debate on how to respond to COVID-19. 

Labor unions have a critical role to play in how society responds to the crisis. Unions can aggressively advocate, bargain, and organize for their own members and ensure that the impact of the pandemic is mitigated. But they can do more than that: unions can provide crucial support like food delivery and mutual aid for members where public services fall short, publicly and aggressively hold institutions like Congress to account in how they respond, and fight for solutions—like mandatory paid sick leave and guaranteed, universal access to healthcare—that prioritize the needs of working people instead of the pocket books of the rich. Fighting for worker-first solutions—ones that encompass the entire working class, and not just union members—is particularly crucial. Not only will an aggressive realignment of society and policy toward working families help stem the tide of pandemic, it will reduce the underlying inequalities highlighted by the present crisis. 

Doing so is not only crucial for our present moment: it is crucial as we move forward into an increasingly uncertain future. Experts have warned that an increasingly interconnected society and a warming planet make the threat of pandemic greater; according to the World Health Organization, increased temperatures could lead to greater instances globally of mosquito-borne diseases like dengue and Zika. The rapid spread of COVID-19 shows the potential for infectious, new diseases—ones to which humans have little to no innate immunity—can defy containment measures in population-dense, globalized society.

Our response matters, and who we prioritize in the response matters: working families, or Wall Street? After all, how we navigate the crisis—whether we prioritize social solidarity and the common good, or not—will shape how we navigate a rocky path forward. 

The editorial represents the viewpoint of a majority of the Editorial Collective.