With the COVID-19 pandemic, celebrating May 1 as International Worker’s Day became particularly important to those who work with the struggling labor force in our community.
The list of essential workers is long. Many, like healthcare workers, first responders, military and law enforcement, have always been recognized as such. But there are others, such as supermarket employees, delivery workers, janitors, and farmworkers especially, who have not.
While those in this latter group have always been essential by the sheer nature of what they do, they have struggled to gain the same respect as the other sectors more commonly acknowledged. Many of these laborers toil in the shadows of an immigration system that drives them underground, even though they contribute economically through labor, consumption, and taxes paid.
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