The Path Forward For Essential Tech Workers

Yashad Kulkarni30min

Speaker 2

00:06

Hey, everyone, thanks so much for joining me here today really, really glad to have you all here. So we are what feels like five years into epic. And it's just, it's just been a nightmare. And I know it's especially been a nightmare for, for essential workers, whether that's those who are working at instacart or driving for Uber or those who are working, and warehouses like Amazon's warehouse like Christian, where you worked and, or regular grocery store workers, it's just been a lot. And I know that toward the beginning of the pandemic, there was a lot of conversation around, just, you know, the importance of getting getting these essential workers, personal protective equipment. And so I'm curious, like, is that what what's the current state of essential workers right now? And I guess, Vanessa kind of passed to you just kind of comparing how it was then versus how it was? How it is now? Sure,

Unknown Speaker

01:04

um,

Speaker 1

01:04

I mean, I think we have a whole hell of a lot less reasons to be unprotected at this point, right. Which is sad, because unfortunately, I think a lot of employers are still failing to provide any kind of meaningful protection to us. I definitely don't feel like I can go into a store and do my job safely, or feel like I'm empowered in my workplace. At this point in the pandemic. There's a little bit I think of optimism around the idea of like, vaccines and like rates dropping, but, you know, we also have entire states that are like lifting mask mandates and doing wild, wild stuff. In my area, we just opened indoor dining again, my sister's a restaurant worker, and I really fear for her safety, and she hasn't been able to get the vaccine. So I mean, I think in a lot of ways, we aren't significantly better off than we were at the beginning. And I think that, you know, we have less excuses for it at this point from our employers.

Speaker 2

02:11

Yeah. And Christian, I mean, you you've been very outspoken about, you know, working at the Amazon warehouse and Staten Island. And, you know, you were ultimately fired for speaking out about about your experiences there. And I'm curious, I mean, I would imagine that you're still in touch with some some workers there, like, do you? Does it sound like things have improved at all? Or does it kind of just seem like,

Speaker 2

02:38

some old? No, absolutely not, you know, coming up on my one year anniversary, since I protested last year, in March, I'm working still at that same facility are having the same issues, they still work as in, they're still working in fear. Workers still feel like the company can be doing a lot more. Well, we were advocating for the beginning was just to have the building closed down and professionally clean, they still refuse to do that, you know, instead, they want to implement all these safety, things that they feel are protecting workers. But we all know, at this Amazon facilities with 1000s of workers that report to work every day, it's impossible to do social distancing them and operate under the scrutiny and under the rates that they want for productivity. So these employees still need to be held accountable. And that's exactly why I continue to advocate and speak up because these issues still exist. Yeah,

Speaker 2

03:37

and obviously, I mean, there's there's a massive human drive happening at one of the warehouses in Bessemer. Alabama, how involved are you? Are you with, with that organizing,

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