State Sens. Lindsey Williams & Maria Collett: Essential workers need our help now

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage across our state, country and world, every day we wake up to new unsettling statistics. As of this writing, in Pennsylvania alone, there are 25,345 cases of coronavirus, but there are surely hundreds, maybe even thousands more, who have contracted the virus but not yet been tested. Tragically, 584 people have succumbed to covid-19.

Despite all 67 counties in Pennsylvania complying with the Wolf administration’s critical stay-at-home order, we’re still seeing more than 1,000 new confirmed cases every day.

We know these numbers are daunting, but we also know that our communities are resilient, our neighbors are generous, and Pennsylvanians from Pittsburgh to Erie to Scranton to Philly are standing up and doing all that we can to keep each other safe.

And no one is doing more than essential workers across the state who are putting their lives on the line each and every day to do their jobs while their families worry about their safety. Health care workers, grocery store workers, letter carriers, bus drivers, delivery drivers and every other frontline worker need our help and they need it now.

And the truth is, we’re not doing enough to support them.

We, along with some of our colleagues, recently had the honor of participating in a call with hundreds of Pennsylvania’s frontline health care workers. Person after person painted pictures of hospital systems, nursing homes and personal care agencies all over the state unable to institute proper safety procedures, provide personal protective equipment (PPE) and provide adequate staffing support.

These stories leave us outraged. We should not be saddling health care providers working in hospitals, nursing homes, clinics and home health care with the added fears of getting sick or infecting others while performing their essential work, or with the potential financial burden of losing their jobs for taking sick time to care for themselves or their family members.

And now, our colleagues in the Senate passed Senate Bill 613, a proposal to prematurely reopen non-life-sustaining businesses against the advice of medical experts and epidemiologists. This legislation will increase the spread of covid-19 across the commonwealth as we approach the peak of this crisis, putting many more Pennsylvanians, and therefore many more of our frontline workers, at risk.

We all want to return to business as usual. But before we can focus on saving livelihoods, we must focus on saving lives.

Essential workers are placing their lives on the line each day to provide life-saving care to the most vulnerable among us. In return, they must be given the tools and support they need to protect themselves and others. It is our responsibility as lawmakers to ensure that every worker is protected and that every Pennsylvanian is given access to testing and treatment.

We have to learn from this crisis and ensure that our federal, state and local public infrastructure is properly funded to ensure that all essential workers have the protection, flexibility, wages and benefits they need and deserve when the next emergency comes.

But for now, we have to take quick, decisive action, to compensate for the existing lack of planning and preparation. We have moved quickly to introduce the American Working Family Relief Action Plan to provide immediate needed relief for frontline workers.

This act will:

• Provide emergency funding for safety equipment, including personal protective equipment such as N95 masks, and mental health supports for all essential workers.

• Create clear standards for the implementation of containment control plans in health care facilities, including emergency standards and accountability.

• Prioritize frontline workers for covid-19 testing.

• Suspend, or limit, in-person services to the greatest extent possible by shifting to virtual assistance working standards for all essential workers.

• Require cleaning standards for workplaces that remain open during this crisis to meet or exceed state and federal standards for covid-19 prevention.

The actions we take now will have far-reaching implications for the long term health, safety and financial well-being of society. As elected leaders, we accept this responsibility with the utmost gravity and will use every available resource to help our communities not only survive this moment but thrive for years to come.

Lindsey Williams represents District 38; Maria Collett represents District 12. Both are Democrats.