An LNS organizational member, Railroad Workers United, held a Steering Committee meeting in June, where members adopted a Resolution on Essential Workers. These workers, which include railroad workers, are deemed “essential,” meaning society cannot continue to function without them. “Yet despite this fact, and the fact that these workers are routinely referred to as ‘national heroes,'” RWU writes, “they are often overworked and/or underpaid, forced to labor under difficult, dangerous and unsafe conditions.”
An excerpt of RWU Resolution is below:
Whereas, millions of workers – among them front line health care staff, warehouse workers, grocery store workers, meat-packing and food processing workers, farm workers, transit and railroad workers – are all putting their lives on the line every day in service to the nation; and
Whereas, tens of thousands of “essential workers” have been infected by SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) and many have lost their lives; and
Whereas, these workers are considered “Essential” and have been labelled as “National Heroes”; and
Whereas, the vast majority of these workers labor under arduous, demanding, dangerous and exhausting conditions under the best of circumstances during routine times; and