We all know it because we’re the essential workers living through it – the health and safety risks we are facing are absolutely unprecedented to the point where LA County is fast becoming the COVID-19 epicenter.
At our recent Essential Workers online hearing, members shared their experiences and voiced their concerns with each other, and with major legislators like LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, as well as key union leaders like SEIU 721 Chief of Staff Gilda Valdez.
If you missed the hearing, you can view it here.
We also heard from SEIU 721 members like Fiona Henlon, a Registered Nurse with LA County and member of the BU 311 Bargaining Committee, as well as Mike Robinson – a Lyft driver with the Mobile Workers Alliance, who has been on the forefront of rideshare driver unionizing efforts. They joined other essential workers and Labor advocates to testify about the ongoing conditions essential workers face as COVID-19 ravages LA County, especially in communities of color where a greater share of Black and Latino Californians have died of COVID-19 relative to their share of the population.
Watch the hearing now. Learn how we, as essential workers, are fighting with everything we’re got to get what we need to survive this pandemic. And know that we’ll make it through this together because, together, we rise.