In Baker’s Reopen Advisory Panel: No Place for Heroes I called for workers to be added to the advisory panel on reopening the state, headed by Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito. That call went nowhere. Let me try again. Lt. Gov. Polito, putting workers on the panel is in your own best interest.
Apparently the absence of workers was brought to the attention of the Lt. Gov., information from the nightly newsletter of Representative Marjorie Decker:
Voices of all will be allowed to provide input? That’s not even crumbs. What are we, Wal-Mart? Organized labor should be knocking down the doors of the executive offices. And if they’re not, why not?
There’s no willingness to place workers on this Captains of Industry panel (no essential workers allowed) so let’s try this: Lt. Gov. Polito, putting workers on the panel is in your own best interest. You own this.
Let me illustrate. One of the most heartbreaking stories I’ve read in this crisis is the superb journalism by the Boston Globe’s Naomi Martin and Hanna Krueger in Years of Understaffing, Mismanagement Set Deadly State for Coronavirus Outbreak at Holyoke Soldier’s Home, Employees Say. Here is just one key paragraph:
Since 2015, employees, union representatives, and former leaders have repeatedly warned the state that the home desperately needed more caregivers and nurses to keep veterans safe. In 2016, top leaders stepped down to protest the state’s lack of support.
The mantra of the Baker administration is that we’ll be guided by the data. So why omit crucial data, the input of workers, from the reopen advisory panel’s work?
In a final and different note, may we all say a prayer or meditate or whatever we do with Governor Baker and Lt. Gov. Polito in our thoughts. The stress and strain are excruciating.
{Full disclosure: as an educator in the UMass system, I am a union member}.