Press event: Advocates to call on Labor Commissioner Berry, state leaders to take immediate action to protect all essential workers

WHAT: Virtual press event to call on NC Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry and state leaders to take immediate action to protect workers and enforce workplace health and safety laws
WHEN: Friday, September 18, 12:00 p.m.
WHERE: Zoom
WHO: Farmworker Advocacy Network, NC State AFL-CIO, NC Raise Up/Fight for $15 and a Union, and Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI-USA)

RALEIGH (September 16, 2020) – Workers, advocates, religious leaders, and others will gather at a virtual press event on September 18 to call on North Carolina Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry and state leaders to take immediate action to enact an emergency infectious disease standard and to enforce workplace health and safety laws.

Far too many of North Carolina’s essential workers are working in unsafe conditions to keep the state’s economy running in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. These workers, while deemed essential, have been too often forced to work without adequate personal protective equipment, in crowded and poorly ventilated conditions, and without wellness checks.

Speakers at the event will call on the North Carolina Department of Labor to use its power to enact and enforce an emergency infectious disease standard, to improve working conditions, and to save the lives of workers, their families, and their communities. A refusal to move forward with a comprehensive rule is an act of gross negligence that unnecessarily puts the lives of workers and their families at risk. Worker safety should be the NC DOL’s top priority in the midst of this devastating global pandemic.

Speakers will include workers in the farm, processing, and restaurant industries; religious leaders; and advocates.