Like many DCYF workers in Washington, Taylor Andrews-Garcelon loves her clients but has felt her job get more stressful and dangerous in the last few years.
AFSCME members working for the Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) are hopping busy these days fulfilling a critical mission. They are helping Louisianans survive as the Bayou State’s economy buckles under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic.
Working Washingtonians are grappling with the far-reaching implications of the coronavirus pandemic. We spoke up in support of the governor’s order to stay home and stay healthy, tried to help our kids adapt to the sudden shift in their routines, and fought for the PPE and preventive policies we need to stay safe. Some of us are working the front lines of our state’s fight against the virus, bravely keeping our state going. Others are working long hours on the phone and computer to help folks access public resources like food benefits, unemployment, and health coverage.
As COVID-19 sweeps across our state and nation, public employees at Washington’s institutions for individuals with disabilities are doing everything they can to keep their residents safe.
Andrea Warren, WFSE Local 573 President and an Attendant Counselor, has been working at Lakeland Village in Medical Lake for 26 years. So far, no one at the 24-hour facility has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and Warren and her coworkers are working very hard to prevent its spread.
“There’s no such thing as social distancing,” Warren said of her duties.
Updating wills before heading into work. Extending the lives of single-use masks. Self-isolating from their own families. These are just some of the shameful realities and conditions health care workers on the front lines of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic are facing each day.
Before the announcement early Wednesday of an unprecedented $2 trillion deal to combat the coronavirus pandemic, AFSCME President Lee Saunders and three front-line workers put pressure on federal lawmakers to come through with a robust aid package for state and local governments so they can rebuild decimated public services.
