Warren joins NYC Council to push for increased protections for essential workers

NEW YORK — Former presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren joined a slate of city officials on Thursday to push increased protections for essential workers on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic.

"If these essential workers are willing to get out there and put their own health at risk — sometimes putting their families' health at risk — then the very least the rest of us can do is make sure that they have some genuine protection,” Warren said during a virtual town hall. “That means both medical protection and it means economic protection.”

The public health crisis has shone a light on the critical role essential workers have played in providing health care, food and accessible transportation to residents while most New Yorkers shelter at home. But union leaders say essential workers have been put at increased risk by not getting enough personal protective equipment or clear guidelines on how to remain safe.

The city has become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, recording close to 20,000 deaths. City agencies have reported 260 deaths, said Laura Feyer, a spokesperson for the de Blasio administration.

Warren joined local lawmakers who are pushing bills to provide paid sick leave, increased pay and whistleblower protections for frontline workers. The Council’s legislative package was inspired by the “Essential Workers Bill of Rights” proposal introduced by Warren and Rep. Ro Khanna, which calls for increased worker protections like child care support and health care security.

“One of the things that this Covid-19 crisis has shown us is truly who are the essential workers in our country and, guess what, it turns out it’s not the investment bankers,” Warren said. “It turns out it’s the doctors and nurses — bless them all — but it’s also the people who are mopping the floors in the hospitals, the people who are making deliveries, the people who are stocking the grocery store shelves.”

Council Member Brad Lander, a sponsor of the local legislation, said the city has to go beyond the daily ritual of thanking essential workers for their services.

“Banging pots and pans is not enough when the delivery worker bringing the meal to your house can’t even take a paid sick day,” said Lander who, like many city officials, endorsed Warren's ill-fated presidential run.

Essential workers who joined the town hall expressed how difficult their working conditions have become since the pandemic began in March.

“I can’t even describe how fast it exploded,” said Elizabeth Frascati, a pharmacy technician for Northwell Staten Island University Hospital. “The hospital tripled, maybe quadrupled, the amount of patients we would normally have. There was so many people on vents that we were running out of medication that we use to keep them sedated so that they don’t cause further damage.”

Frascati said her department wasn’t given personal protective equipment until two weeks ago.

“They wouldn’t give us N95 masks even though we were going into these open units,” she said.

Workers in the so-called gig economy have limited rights because they are considered independent contractors, not employees, said Amara Sanogo, an Uber driver.

“That’s the trick they use to avoid a lot of city or state policies,” he said.

One bill would provide paid sick leave for gig-economy workers like Uber drivers. Another would provide whistleblower protections for employees who speak out about dangerous work conditions, a push that came after some private hospitals threatened termination for speaking out. And the third bill would require bonus pay for frontline workers at large companies, a prospect that has faced opposition from many in the business community.

Mayor Bill de Blasio's office has been generally supportive of the bills, though it expressed concerns about enforcement as well as mandating bonus pay in the private sector.

“When someone signed up to do a job doing deliveries, to do a job taking care of the elderly, they never really saw themselves as a front line soldier in germ warfare,” said Council Majority Leader Laurie Cumbo. “This is really a critical situation and it’s something that people need to be compensated for, for allowing us to stay at home.”