essential workers News

As States Ease Mask Rules, Essential Workers Worry About Safety and Jobs

Leo Carney worries that bigger crowds and mask-less diners could endanger workers at the Biloxi, Mississippi, seafood restaurant where he manages the kitchen. Maribel Cornejo, who earns $9.85 an hour as a McDonald’s cook in Houston, can’t afford to get …

Many Meatpackers, Other Food Workers Still Waiting for Vaccines

COVID-19 vaccines are making their way into the arms of U.S. meat and agriculture workers, but companies and union officials say progress needs to be faster after coronavirus outbreaks idled slaughterhouses and sickened thousands of workers. Vaccinating food workers could …

States Grapple With Determining Who’s Essential, Who’s Not for COVID Vaccine

Companies and industry groups lobbying to get their U.S. workers to the front of the line for COVID vaccination are running into a patchwork of state plans and confusion over who is essential, and who is not. Inoculation against the …

California Governor Pledging to Support Essential Workers

California Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged Friday to do more to protect farm workers, grocery clerks and other essential workers – many of whom are Latino –from the health and economic harms of the coronavirus as the infection spreads through their …

Recovered from COVID-19, Wary First Responders Back on Job

The new coronavirus doesn’t care about a blue uniform or a shiny badge. Police, firefighters, paramedics and corrections officers are just a 911 call away from contracting COVID-19 and spreading it. With N95 masks hanging off their duty belts and …