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Since 2020, you’ve dutifully risked your life to keep Berkeley running. Now your boss, despite all evidence, is pretending that the pandemic and all related impacts are over.

When convenient, they cheaply and disingenuously claim that you are an ‘essential worker.’ But with three years under your belt, you know their words are hollow rhetoric.

What did they give you in exchange? How far did they go to ensure your safety and economic survival?

You demanded:

• all City ventilation systems be retrofitted with sufficient filters and airflow to trap the virus and keep workers and the community safe; 
• a federal ‘hero pay’ bonus owed as part of the American Rescue Plan Act; 
• predictable and fair work from home policies;
• reliable and free testing;
• high quality masks; 
• sufficient COVID leave;
• an urgent fix to exploding job vacancies;
• cost of living adjustments that keep pace with inflation.

And they said “NO!”

It turns out your management is not so different from those who answer to Wall Street. They too got bailed out by the federal government, and when you asked for your fair share, they said no. Some of them, including the City Manager, received fat raises as high as 28%!

Meanwhile the virus persists, and continues to evolve. City workers suffer from repeated illness, debilitating long-covid, and even death. At least one worker has passed away from COVID yet the City doesn’t want to talk about it.

Your trauma is real.

So is the continued risk as variants become more contagious. It’s not a ‘common cold’ nor flu. Typical adults get the flu twice a decade, while you can catch COVID at least twice a year. There are no known limits to the number of times you can catch it, and repeated infections can lead to serious health issues.

You know, and the bosses know, that everything grinds to a halt without workers:

• Are you OK with Management unilaterally ending the mask mandate in City buildings without proper ventilation?
• Are you OK with the City rescinding COVID leave? What will you do if you catch COVID for the first time or yet again?
• Why did the City fire workers for not taking the vaccine, and then flippantly declare them no longer necessary?
• Is this the first step towards ending work from home ‘privileges’? What will they take from you next?
• How long can you survive without a real cost of living adjustment (effectively negative wages)?

Solidarity means empathy and resolve on behalf of your coworkers even when you don’t share their risks or situation. What are you and your coworkers going to do about it?