Guaranteeing Worker Protections in 2021

by Charlie Crawford

Safe and hygienic working conditions. Hazard pay and healthcare assistance. Emergency action plans. Even today, 10 months into the COVID-19 pandemic, these rights which should be given unquestioningly to Maryland’s essential workers are being provided sparsely and irregularly by employers.

According to healthcare union 1199SEIU, these issues are compounded by the fact that the majority of the 300,000 uninsured Marylanders are essential workers who have had no choice but to continue working. These essential workers are thus doubly risked — working in COVID-unsafe conditions with no guarantee that they will receive health care from either their employers or the state if they fall ill. In an article by Maryland Matters, one hospital nurse shared the fear that these situations have put essential workers through: “[Going to work] is like going to war … You either come back alive or you come back in a body bag.”

Considering that workplaces are one of the “top hot spots to contract COVID-19,” according to Ricarra Jones, political director of 1199SEIU, the kind of fear the nurse shared is not at all surprising. Without uniform, mandatory protections for essential workers during this pandemic, frontline workers will be forced to continue risking themselves and fearing for their lives with sparse support from their employers or the state.

This is where the Maryland Essential Worker’s Protection Act steps in. The act would guarantee the rights to safe and hygienic working conditions, hazard pay and healthcare assistance, emergency action plans, universal health and bereavement leave, the right to refuse dangerous work, and free testing and reporting of positive test results for all essential workers in Maryland. By providing a framework for how employers are allowed to treat essential workers, this act would protect the immediate health, safety, and job security of all essential workers in Maryland for the duration of the pandemic and into the future.

Right now, there are several crucial steps we can take to help this bill pass the upcoming legislative session. The first is simple: spreading the word. Right now, 1199SEIU is looking for more stories and words of support from essential workers to use in their media campaigns as proof of why this bill is so important. If you are an essential worker and you are able, we need you — your stories and testimony are what give this bill life and will help us protect you and your coworkers’ rights.

Please feel free to share a story of how you have been affected by COVID-19 in the workplace on the MD Essential Worker’s Protection Act website. If you are not an essential worker, but have people in your life who are, encourage them to do the same. All of these stories drive the campaign and prove that this bill is a necessity for our current crisis and beyond.

Regardless of whether you are an essential worker, have an essential worker in your life, or are just passionate about essential worker’s protection, the best way to stay updated on this bill and continue to support is by signing on here: http://protectmdworkers.org/sign-on/ This will allow you to be notified when there are larger events or actions, like the upcoming Legislative Action Days from February 4th-5th.

Beyond these two actions, the most important thing you can do right now is spread the word about this bill: Contact your MD representatives! In doing so, we can put pressure on lawmakers to see that the public will not turn a blind eye to the treatment of essential workers. Use this website to find your representatives. After that, spread the word on social media to keep your contacts updated! Use this social media toolkit for guidance and template posts.

We need essential worker’s protections. We need rights to safe and healthy working environments. With this kind of support and advocacy for this bill, you are helping strengthen us in the fight for essential worker’s protections, in this current pandemic and well into the future.

Charlie is a member of Sunrise Mvt. Baltimore, Partnership Team