HOLYOKE — When schools and museums announced they were closing to stem the spread of the new coronavirus sweeping the globe, that alarmed Anne Thalheimer.
As an art educator, Thalheimer said she is “the very model of the modern gig economy,” cobbling together part-time jobs to make ends meet. But some of those jobs have now dried up, leaving her without a large portion of her income. Thalheimer also works as a personal care assistant, or PCA, but that job is one that puts people the most at risk for contracting the virus, according to Department of Labor data compiled by The New York Times.
“The PCA gig means I’ll still be able to pay rent, but nothing else,” Thalheimer said Tuesday. “Which is horrifying.”
As the pandemic grows, workers across the country are scrambling. Thousands of local retail, restaurant and other workers have been laid off as businesses shut their doors or reduce services. Countless others have seen work vanish, from musicians to taxi drivers. There are also many who are still heading to work every day, some stepping into harm’s way. For the 29% of the wage and salary workers who are able to do their jobs from home, they are dealing with the challenges of working remotely.
“This is, in every sense of the word, a labor issue,” said Rose Bookbinder, a co-director of the Pioneer Valley Workers Center, which advocates for many local restaurant and farm workers.
The Workers Center, along with other local advocates, held a virtual “worker assembly” on Tuesday evening to address questions including how to file for unemployment, how to organize to get employers to improve worker safety and how to get involved with mutual aid. The center also provided updates about policy changes on the state level.
“The ripple effects are just hard to comprehend,” said Alicia Fleming, an organizer with Massachusetts Jobs with Justice. Fleming said that undocumented workers are particularly vulnerable during this crisis, noting that much of the information public agencies put out about the virus is only in English. “We don’t want undocumented folks to fall through the cracks, and in times of not crisis that happens anyway.”
For Thalheimer and many others in similar positions, lost income has triggered fear about paying bills and buying essentials.
That has led some to call for a range of supportive measures from state and federal government: a halt to evictions, foreclosures, utility shut offs and student loan payments, for example. “I’m really hoping for the people who need it, they can give people a break on rent payments, bill payments, things like that,” said Ryan Pacheco, a produce clerk at Big E’s Supermarket in Easthampton. While he’s grateful to still have a job, he said, his girlfriend, a hairdresser, is out of work.
Already on Monday, a staggering 19,884 unemployment claims were filed in Massachusetts, according to the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development — more than were filed in the entire month of February.
One of those claims came from Jacqueline Heredia, a Holyoke native who works in the housekeeping department at the MGM Springfield casino.
“I’m trying to figure out how these bills are going to get paid, how I’m going to pay my rent,” Heredia said. “I have a whole car payment that I have to pay off, I pay groceries with my work money … It’s impacting my life severely.”
Many others must continue to go to work — particularly those on the front lines of essential services, from health care to grocery store employees. And a good number of those jobs are at the highest risk of exposure to the virus. Health care employees, first responders and service workers such as cashiers and fast-food employees have some of the highest exposure risk, according to the data compilation by the Times.
“I think I’ve more or less come to terms with the fact that I can’t avoid it, and I’m just preparing for the reality that I will eventually get sick,” said Sarah Sadowski, a clerk at Stop & Shop on Lincoln Street in Holyoke.
Sadowski said her store has been packed with customers every day, requiring employees there to deal with hundreds of people. The atmosphere of chaos has been the hardest part of getting through each day, aside from making sure there are enough products out on shelves, she said.
Sadowski said that Stop & Shop has not yet provided additional sick leave so that those with symptoms don’t feel compelled to come to work. Her union, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1445, has sent the company a letter requesting a temporary paid-leave policy that would last the duration of a quarantine period. The union also asked that its members with school-age children be given additional paid time off, given that schools across the region are closed.
“None of our interests are served by forcing sick employees to come into work because of their economic circumstances or the fear of job loss or suspension,” the letter reads.
Other unions are also demanding greater protections for their members and the public at large.
The state’s nurses union, for example, recently sounded the alarm about the lack of personal protective equipment for health care workers. At the 85 facilities where the Massachusetts Nurses Association represents employees, the union is pushing for expanded sick leave. And the MNA has launched a campaign advocating that health systems such as Trinity Health, which operates Providence Behavioral Health Hospital in Holyoke, and Baystate Health, which runs Baystate Medical Center in Springfield among other facilities, stop plans to close in-patient mental health beds across western Massachusetts. Fewer beds in these facilities could mean more mental health patients showing up in emergency departments, the union says.
“These proposed closures would devastate an already strained mental health system,” Cindy Chaplin, a registered nurse at Providence, said in a statement. “Right now, we need to maximize capacity in emergency departments and other hospital units, not decrease services.”
The chaos and confusion sown by COVID-19 has made labor organizing more challenging, said Anais Surkin, the president of United Auto Workers 2322 in Holyoke. Working from home has been difficult, she said while taking occasional breaks to attend to her 13-month-old baby.
“A common theme is a mix of fear and frustration,” Surkin said of her conversation with UAW members, who work in a wide range of industries from health care to education.
Surkin said the union is conducting “impact bargaining” with companies and is pushing for extra hazard pay for those who have to work and possibly expose themselves to the virus. She said some UAW members have to work and are afraid of putting themselves and their families at risk, while others not working are concerned about burning through their paid time off.
Nearly a quarter of U.S. workers don’t receive any paid sick leave, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a bill that would extend paid sick leave to workers stuck at home due to the coronavirus, though the bill has massive loopholes exempting the vast majority of companies.
That proposed paid leave would be covered by a tax credit, but some want to see those payments made directly to employees.
“There should be something that’s paid directly to them through the state or federal government,” said Rich Cooper, the owner of Cooper’s Corner and State Street Fruit Store. He said as a smaller grocer, he can only afford to provide sick leave to a handful of full-time employees. “I’m concerned that employees are going to show up to work when they shouldn’t be.”
That reality has many advocates pointing out that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed gaping holes in the country’s social safety net. “Our current system is showing its cracks right now,” said state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, D-Northampton, a champion for Medicare for All. “It’s unfortunate that it takes a global pandemic to realize that this current system is inaccessible and it’s unaffordable.”
Sabadosa pointed out that many workers struggling to make ends meet already skip out on medical treatment because they can’t afford it. The pandemic is now exacerbating that problem, as well as other issues like food insecurity, income inequality and lack of paid time off, she said.
“This is really just accentuating the problems we knew were there,” she said.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.