Politicians speaking out of both sides of their mouths isn’t exactly news. But doing so at the expense of the front-line workers leading our nation through the COVID-19 pandemic is appalling — even by Washington standards.

Kathryn Lybarger 

There’s been no shortage of praise for the front-line nurses, health care technicians, first-responders, grocery and farm workers, utility workers, postal carriers, meat packers and delivery drivers who have willingly put themselves in harm’s way — often without proper protective equipment or access to testing.

But there has been a shortage of action — especially for the front-line public service workers who are now facing the fiscal fallout of a months-long economic shutdown.

After rubber stamping trillions in stimulus spending — much of it diverted into the pockets of giant corporations that didn’t need help — some national leaders are now suggesting that the well has run dry.

Faced with an election in six months, they’re rushing to open the economy, even in places with rising infections, death and insufficient testing.  In resisting calls to help state and local governments crippled by the pandemic and warning of the need for deep cuts in public services, these national leaders are effectively saying essential workers — mostly middle- and lower-wage hourly workers from the black and brown communities that have faced outsized impacts from this pandemic — are now expendable.

Sadly, such callous disregard for the heroes of COVID-19 is hardly unique to this pandemic.

Over the last few decades, today’s essential workers — whether at Amazon, the U.S. Postal Service or the University of California Medical System — have faced relentless and well-funded attacks on their rights to collectively bargain for things like safe working conditions, a livable wage or basic benefits like sick leave.  As they have worked through this pandemic, many have faced acts of retaliation for raising health and safety issues. Others have had no choice but to work while sick, even as colleagues lost their lives to COVID-19.

This generational assault on essential workers has come from courts, statehouses, Congress, the White House and the ballot box. The Supreme Court’s 2018 Janus decision, so-called “Right to Work” laws and the outsourcing of career jobs to lower-wage contractors have all aimed to make sure today’s essential workers had fewer resources with which to fight for things like paid family leave, personal protective equipment, safe staffing ratios, affordable health care, or a full-time job that doesn’t force them to choose between eviction or starvation.

There are no seven-figure hospital administrators or insurance company executives currently caring for sick COVID-19 patients.  There are no politicians or corporate executives picking produce, working in meat packing plants, transporting goods to market, stocking shelves, or making Instacart deliveries to medically vulnerable neighbors.   And, last I checked, the Koch brothers weren’t delivering mail to your home.

It is sadly ironic that the very first pandemic-era response from Washington was a series of measures to provide workers with temporary paid sick leave, income support, personal protective equipment and access to health treatment.

But the real question is why were these emergency measures necessary?

History will not look kindly on those who chose to leave this nation vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic.  This isn’t just about those who ignored and diminished the threat, or delayed taking actions that could have saved lives.

It’s about those who have sought to deprive essential workers of the basic rights and protections our nation has finally come to value during this crisis.

It is not only our collective responsibility to extend these rights to all workers, but leave no stone unturned to ensure states, municipalities and hospitals have the resources they need to keep the heroes on the front lines of this pandemic off the unemployment line once it passes.

Kathryn Lybarger is the president of AFSCME Local 3299, which represents more than 26,000 service and patient care technical workers at the University of California’s 10 campuses, five medical centers and research laboratories.