GREENFIELD — A coalition of labor and community organizations participated in a car rally Friday in support of essential workers.
“Essential workers are on the front lines of the (COVID-19 pandemic) every day, often being asked to work in unsafe and harrowing conditions without the proper PPE (personal protective equipment) needed to keep them and their families safe,” said Rose Bookbinder, co-director for the Pioneer Valley Workers Center.
The car parade — which was organized by a number of local labor organizations, including the Pioneer Valley Workers Center and the Western Massachusetts Area Labor Federation — was the second of three rallies held on the Fridays leading up to May Day (May 1), an international day for recognizing the sacrifices of the working class.
The first of the rallies was held on April 17 in Hampshire County. A third and final rally will take place in Holyoke and Springfield on May 1.
Friday’s car rally began at 2:15 p.m. at Beacon Field, and made its way to Kennametal, Baystate Franklin Medical Center and Stop & Shop.
There were also speakers from the Greenfield farming community at the rally.
Bookbinder, who is also a board member of the Western Massachusetts Area Labor Federation, said the rally recognized nurses, store employees, trade workers and farmers, among a number of others who are considered essential employees at this time.
“We want to lift them up as the heroes they are and recognize that a lot of them are being marauders in a system that isn’t providing them the PPE they deserve and need,” Bookbinder said.
She said nurses are demanding PPE, as well as transparency in their hospitals about what is available to them.
Patty Healey, a nurse at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, said in a statement that hospitals in Massachusetts lack adequate testing, PPE and other necessary supplies.
“The lack of PPE in local ERs prevents adequate COVID-19 testing in our communities, thus obscuring the true volume of potentially infected community members,” Healey said.
Retail workers are asking for hazard pay and for all staff members to be provided with gloves and masks, as well as that all customers be required to wear gloves when they enter a store.
“(Customers) are going to be infecting front-line workers if they’re bringing COVID into the workplace,” Bookbinder said. “We, as customers, have a duty to protect them.”
In general, Bookbinder said they are demanding that businesses and employers slow down the level of production and begin prioritizing staff over the bottom line.
“Right now, those same folks who have been invisible to many of the corporations and our government … have been declared as essential workers,” she said, noting pushback against raising the minimum wage for many of these workers. “These are the workers who feed us, whether they’re growing the food, packing the food or selling the food.”
Bookbinder said the voices people need to hear the most right now are those of employees who have traditionally been undervalued in our communities.
“I really hope that this is the beginning of a new system, a new world that values our front-line and low-wage workers, many of whom are immigrants, and black and brown,” she said. “They’re the people bearing the brunt of the crisis.”
Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 263.