Can We Salute "Essential Workers"? National Geographic

By Debra Adams Simmons, HISTORY Executive Editor A year ago we didn't appreciate hospital housekeepers or grocery store workers the way we do today. Perhaps some of us took the mail carrier, food delivery driver, or meat packer for granted. Today, we celebrate the people whose work requires them to be on the front lines while so many others work from home. More than 55 million Americans work in jobs that are deemed essential, according to the Economic Policy Institute (pictured above, John Tolbert, a New York City bus driver). Social distancing is not an option for many of these jobs. Many essential workers work for low pay and without protective equipment. Some work anxiously, fearing exposure to the deadly coronavirus. Too many have died after contracting COVID- 19. Led by an amazing cadre of nearly 17 million health professionals, they continued to show up for work during the height of statewide stay-at-home orders in April. These essential workers continue to show up today, mostly without hazard pay or, in the case of many undocumented farmworkers or meat packers providing America’s food, without legal protection. It’s a similar story throughout many parts of the world. These workers have kept on in fields through record temperatures and wildfires (pictured below, a group of farmworkers with H-2 visas in California) and in Midwest packing plants with conditions that have spurred on COVID-19 infection—and death. In the U.S., Labor Day was deemed a holiday in September way back in 1894 to recognize workers, but it took 44 years for strong labor laws to be put into effect to protect them. The crises this year has provided the biggest spotlight in decades on workers—and the dignity of their labor. This recognition is overdue, says Panella Page, whose work as a housekeeper in a Detroit hospital is suddenly vital—and more dangerous. “If the hospital is not cleaned properly, even more people will die,” she tells Nat Geo. It’s scary, she says, to report to work “for your purpose and your passion, to get a paycheck that you don’t know whether you’ll be around to deposit.” On this Labor Day, let’s salute these essential workers, whose remarkable level of commitment comes in a society with an uncertain commitment to them. https://email.nationalgeographic.com/H/2/v40000017469ec55b7a18332f4bbcfb648/63b97fe9-f8c0-427c-87ac-6f5717db4047/HTML

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