8 THE QUEENS COURIER • MAY 6, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Essential workers in Queens deliver demands to Cuomo
BY DEAN MOSES
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Th e pressure on Governor Andrew
Cuomo to sign the NY Hero Act is
mounting day by day.
Organized by the NY Essential Workers
Coalition, essential workers, activist organizations,
and Teamsters Local 804 rallied
outside of what will be Amazon’s
Queens warehouse on Th ursday, April 29.
Th e action was intended to show solidarity
with Amazon workers who say they
have been mistreated in the workplace
while also pushing for new legislation
that would protect them from growing
ill due to airborne diseases as the
city begins its reopening measures.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on
April 29 that New York City aims
to fully reopen on July 1.
Th e modest gathering erected
parcel boxes with frowns inscribed over
them at the foot of 38-50 21st St. in Long
Island City. Behind this Jenga tower of
boxes, demonstrators gripped banners
and waved signs. Amidst this gaggle of
activists and sympathetic cohorts, workers
who have experienced the woes of the
pandemic in the fi eld, toiling while others
quarantined spoke about their experiences.
According to Jonathan Bailey, cofounder
of Amazonians United, workers
like him has helped big business
earnings skyrocket, while employers
refused to ensure the safety
of those who increased their
profi t margins.
“As an Amazon worker,
I have seen Jeff
Bezos’ net worth
grow by $100 billion
since I have
been working at
Amazon—that is
ridiculous. While that
has happened, we have
had our hazard
pay taken away, hazard pay that we were
given for a few weeks as if that was some
kind of token to keep us complacent.
Th ey do not care about our needs,”
Bailey said.
It is with horror stories like these
and others involving workers contracting
COVID-19 while on the job due
to lack of PPE that has essential workers
everywhere standing in solidarity to
demand the governor sign
the NY Hero Act. Dr.
Michael Del Valle
joined the rally to
make a gut-wrenching
plea to Cuomo,
begging for the bill to
be signed. As a medical
professional he
described chilling
memories
from over
t h e
last year that could have been preventable
if people were properly protected.
“For greater than a year I have seen
essential workers die in my ER. I have
watched the bus driver tearfully phone
his daughter, speaking over the hiss of
an oxygen mask while we put him on a
ventilator he will never wake up from.
I have phoned the mother of the warehouse
worker, explaining to her the tragic
death of her son, and I pray you never
have to experience the haunting wails and
sobs of a mother understanding that she
has outlived her child. Governor Cuomo,
on behalf of the over 6,000 CIR physicians
in New York right now, we call on you to
sign the NY Hero Act right now without
changes. We need you to keep New
Yorkers safe in their workplaces, so they
don’t end up in mine,” said Dr. Del Valle,
an emergency medicine resident at Jacobi
Medical Center in the Bronx.
If signed, the NY Hero Act would
make it illegal for employers not to provide
workers with appropriate PPE and
enforce other safety standards within
the workplace as the pandemic begins to
wind down. And despite vaccine dispersal
being widely available as many hubs begin
to off er walk-in appointments, workers at
the rally made a point to remind the Big
Apple that COVID-19 still exists and as
regulations ease, workers will face greater
risk from the deadly virus.
Schneps Media
reached out to
Amazon and Gov.
Cuomo’s offi ce for
comment.
Photos by Dean Moses
Demonstrators are calling on the governor to sign the NY Hero Act.
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