According to a recent Bloomberg article, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union is “stepping in where the government has failed,” running its own coronavirus contact-tracing program for 1.3 million members.
Since the Covid-19 outbreak hit, the union has sent agents into grocery stores, meatpacking plants and food-processing facilities. They talk to workers and comb work schedules to figure out who might have been exposed. Then, they notify the employer’s human resources department and direct workers to free testing sites, some provided by the union.
Marc Perrone, international president of the union, noted the vacuum in government response to the pandemic. “In such disarray, workers must fend for themselves.”