Essential Not Disposable (2020)

Melanie Cervantes
Digital Graphic , April 2020
Essential workers make sure we can access food to nourish our bodies- they continue to work in in grocery stores stocking shelves, driving supply trucks, filling online orders and at the check out. They put up with stressed out and scared people and often don’t have the protective gear that will keep them safe.

They do these jobs because they have to and deserve our respect and appreciation but the greatest way to show gratitude is through showing solidarity when they organize for the essential compensation they deserve like generous hazard pay, paid leave, benefits and protective equiptment.

At a protest in Boston one worker said “The richest corporation in the history of our planet is refusing to pay its workers more than $2 hour hazard pay and is not providing its employees with adequate protective equipment.” In addition Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, and the wealthiest man in the world is asking consumers to donate to help Amazon employees. He “makes” (nee exploits people to expropriate profit his workforce) about $230,000 a minute. A MINUTE!

Grocery store chains are seeing an uptick in sales and profits but workers, of course aren’t reaping the benefits. Corporations that are seeing record sales are also benefiting but the workers who sell them see nothing from this. Before the pandemic the toilet paper industry was already worth $31 billion… I can’t imagine what it is worth now.
So don’t cross the picket lines when Instacart and Whole Foods/Amazon workers go on strike. Show your solidarity and support essential workers demands! 

I want to thank Raul Alcantar and Maria Poblet for suggesting I provide these graphics in Spanish and for helping with the interpretation. I am open to translating them in other languages if folks want to help me with that.