Are ‘Essential Workers’ The New Slaves?
Have you noticed? The more essential workers are, the worse they are treated. Like in the meatpacking plants where workers have been dropping like flies from COVID-19. An analysis by the Guardian found that almost half of the corona virus hotspots in the US “originated in meat factories where employees work side by side in cramped conditions.”
Some of those factories were temporarily closed because too many workers were sick, but President Trump ordered them reopened because they are ‘essential.’ Their owners have received bailouts from governments, but their workers have not, and these bailouts often don’t require owners to ensure their workers are receiving virus protections. According to The Intelligencer, some workers wear diapers because they aren’t given time for bathroom breaks. They are crowded together and exhausted, a perfect environment for COVID-19, and no government or employer has lifted a finger to help them.
In the North Carolina legislature, according to the Raleigh News & Observer, “a Buncombe County Democrat proposed an amendment that called for two weeks’ sick pay for infected workers as a requirement for relief funds.” The amendment was shot down by legislators’ “saying that small plants couldn’t afford to meet all the safety criteria.”
