The COVID-19 pandemic is global, but the US has mishandled the novel coronavirus to a unique degree. All of the spin in the world cannot hide the fact that over 200,000 Americans, a fifth of the world’s total, have lost their lives due to COVID-19. This is a failing, to use Dr. Anthony Fauci’s phrase from this past March. Less discussed is one of the causes of that failing—namely, a lack of worker power.
What does a lack of worker power have to do with a public health emergency? Consider this: Just last week, JBS, a $52-billion corporation, was fined a mere $15,615 for the death of eight meatpacking workers at its Colorado facility. This, of course, is just one of countless examples we’ve seen in the past six months of “essential workers” being discarded as inessential when the worst happens.
The above excerpt was originally published in Nonprofit Quarterly.
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