May Day: International Worker's Day

Image Source: The Washington Post
On April 29th, essential workers indulged their creative sides as they created sidewalk chalk street art in Washington D.C.  The message, saying "Protect Amazon Workers", was intended for Jeff Bezos.  The street art was intentionally created directly in front of Bezos' D.C. home.  The piece also included silhouettes of masked workers, meant to represent the workforce that is being put at risk within Amazon's warehouses.  The entire endeavor took protestors about one hour to complete, and around two hours later, someone arrived to wash the mural away.

This demonstration comes just two days before May Day, which many essential workers are using as an opportunity to take action.  Leaders of worker's rights groups have organized numerous walk-outs at online retailers, grocery stores, delivery services and even hospitals for this day.  Some of the companies mentioned in articles include Amazon, Whole Foods, Instacart, FedEx and Target.  Protestors are demanding that the safety of essential workers be taken more seriously.  Examples of some of theses demonstrations include nurses taking to the streets due to lack of protective equipment and independent truckers participating in a 'slow roll' in their rigs to protest low freight rates.  These groups have also urged consumers to refuse to shop at such retailers on this May Day (TODAY!), to show support for these workers.

On the opposite side, some groups are using this day to ask for an end to the stay-at-home orders because they have been out of a job for too long.  These groups claim that this time has done lasting damage to our country's economy as well as ruined the livelihoods of many Americans.

As far as statistics go, there have been more than 1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in our country and 63,000 deaths.  After weeks of being told to stay at home, one fifth of the country is out of work.  It is safe to say that most individuals are feeling pressured, potentially from multiple angles.

I, myself, will be standing with the employees on this.  I will not shop at these retailers today and have been avoiding them during much of this pandemic.  Someone from my household is going to the grocery store for us today and I explicitly told them that I didn't want us to support Whole Foods or Target.  As for you, you can make your own decisions, but I hope that this ordeal exposes the often negative nature of how employees are treated.

When this all started, I made the decision to stay in my state of MA.  We were one of the first states to have a large outbreak and therefore most of our residents had a higher risk of exposure.  I was supposed to travel to be with my family around this time.  I, instead, cancelled my trip because I didn't want to endanger my parents or anyone else I might encounter at an airport who was in a more susceptible population.  I didn't know if I could potentially be a carrier without having any symptoms.  In this moment, I was thinking of others instead of myself.  I urge others to take pause to think about their decisions during this time.  I am among the population without a solid job right now.  I am feeling financial pressure and am having to ask for help from family.  I am beyond grateful that I have this option and am doing my best to take actions that will help this pandemic end as quickly as I can.

-Vicky

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