By JULIE CUNNINGHAM
(Greenfield, MA) A solidarity car rally and caravan will take place today to raise awareness against unsafe conditions for essential workers in the Greenfield area, specifically a lack of Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE, and inadequate testing locations and supplies for COVID-19. The caravan will meet at Beacon Field at 2:15 and continue to Baystate Franklin, Stop and Shop, and Kennametal.
“The lack of PPE in local ERs prevents adequate COVID-19 testing in our communities, thus obscuring the true volume of potentially infected community members,” said Patty Healey, a nurse at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton.
Food retail workers are also suffering a lack of PPE. The United Food and Commercial Workers, or UFCW, has called for food retail workers to be designated as First Responders, hoping the designation will guarantee these workers access to PPE.
“No worker should have to face the impossible choice between continuing the work they rely on for their economic security and protecting their health and safety. It is critical, perhaps a matter of life and death, that employers meet these minimal and reasonable demands,” said Rose Bookbinder, Co-Director for the Pioneer Valley Workers Center, board member of the Western Mass Area Labor Federation and one of the organizers for the rally.
In addition to PPE, local community hospitals suffer a lack of testing kits and testing sites. “Private urgent care centers such as MedExpress run testing while community hospitals have extremely limited supplies and must make diagnostic decisions over the phone,” said Healey. The Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) and 1199 SEIU, The United Healthcare Workers Union, are local organizations calling on hospitals to meet basic testing and PPE demands.