By Alberto Arroyo and Debra Coyle McFadden
Here in New Jersey, warehouse workers have been classified by the state as essential workers. It’s not hard to understand why.
As COVID-19 spreads, these workers are the ones ensuring that food, cleaning products, medicine, and other vital goods are distributed to millions of people.
But while the state government rightly considers warehouse workers essential, their employers treat them as disposable. That’s wrong and unacceptable, especially during this pandemic. Too many New Jersey residents employed in warehouses are still not given the protection and respect they deserve.
According to news reports and first-hand accounts, COVID-19 is spreading quickly in New Jersey warehouses, because owners and operators of these facilities are not implementing rigorous cleaning measures, health and safety protocols, and other measures.
In warehouses that process orders for Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other companies, workers are angry about the lack of protection and rates of COVID-19 infections and are walking off the job to protest dangerous working conditions. With disgust, they have watched their bosses show more concern about boosting profits than the well-being of workers.
Public support calling these workers brave or heroic for striking won’t help them. Here’s what will: immediate action by the state government to ensure that all warehouse workers are treated as essential by their employers and fully protected as they perform their difficult, demanding jobs under extraordinarily challenging and unprecedented conditions.
To his credit, Gov. Phil Murphy has been a leader in the effort to protect the public during this public health pandemic. He has implemented some good measures to help workers – for example, expanding the state’s Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) and Family Leave Insurance (FLI) programs. He’s also mandated social distancing measures and other safety guidelines for all essential businesses, and prohibited employers from terminating or refusing to reinstate any employee who has or is likely infected with COVID-19.
But more must be done to protect vulnerable warehouse workers.
Through additional executive orders, Governor Murphy should require all warehouses and distribution centers as essential New Jersey businesses to do the following:
- Shut down facilities where any worker has tested positive for 14 days to allow workers to self-quarantine, undertake deep cleaning and sanitization and provide workers with paid leave, testing and treatment;
- Provide all warehouse workers with immediate hourly hazard pay, health insurance and additional paid sick leave;
- Implement and enforce the Center for Disease Control’s, OSHA and New Jersey Department of Health COVID-19 guidelines regarding social distancing, hygiene, housekeeping and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE);
- Explicitly protect COVID-19 whistleblowers from retaliation from employers for sounding the alarm about safety and health policies that endanger them, their co-workers and families;
- Establish Health and Safety committees where employees are empowered to enforce compliance with governmental COVID-19 health and safety standards.
New Jersey needs a clear, uniform set of health and safety standards that all warehouse owners and operators are required to implement. These standards should be enforced aggressively. Employers who fail to follow these standards and leave their workers vulnerable to COVID-19 should face stiff penalties, including steep fines and closure if they refuse to protect their employees.
We’re all in this together, it’s true, but we’re not all impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in the same way. Low-wage workers in warehouses are among the most vulnerable to exposure to COVID-19 and harm to their health. Many of these workers are immigrants struggling to survive and living paycheck to paycheck with little to no benefits.
Long before this pandemic began, it has been well documented that warehouse workers were already experiencing regular exploitation and mistreatment on the job. That’s why the Warehouse Workers Stand Up campaign has been pushing to improve conditions in all warehouses across New Jersey and build support for a code of conduct for responsible employers. But COVID-19 has compounded and magnified the challenges warehouse workers face, making their jobs and lives more precarious.
Warehouse workers can and do stand up for themselves, their families, and communities all the time. But they can’t make warehouses safer, healthier or fairer entirely on their own.
State government must have their back.
Alberto Arroyo is co-manager of the Laundry, Distribution and Food Service Joint Board (LDFS Union), Workers United, SEIU.
Debra Coyle McFadden is executive director of New Jersey Work Environment Council.
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