Credit: (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
File photo: A nurse at work during the early days of the pandemic. As the novel coronavirus began to spread last year, workers in health care, retail, warehouses and in other occupations raised concerns.
Cecelia Gilligan Leto often fields calls from workers concerned for their safety while they do their jobs.
As project director for the New Jersey Work Environment Council, Leto has trained people in workplace safety for years. So, when the novel coronavirus began to spread last year, workers in health care, retail, warehouses and in other occupations turned to her.
“You had this invisible thing come into the workplace; people just didn’t know what to do with it, and there was a lot to learn in the beginning,’’ she said. “COVID was a new hazard, and in February and March those calls kept coming in and the people were fearful, and they were scared.”
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Workers Making COVID Test Kits Exposed to COVID
At Access Bio in New Jersey, mostly Latina immigrant temp workers lacking protections on the job face hazardous conditions.
Illustration by Jandos Rothstein
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. â Late in the afternoon of February 19, more than 50 temporary workers disembarked from 15-passenger vans, bearing signage like âThe Beginning Transportation LLCâ and âEagle Cleaning Services.â Clad in heavy layers of clothing, the workers were about to begin their second shift at the Access Bio plant. The facility specializes in producing test kits for COVID-19, malaria, and dengue fever, part of a global supply chain that includes the World Health Organization, Doctors Without Borders, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, according to the companyâs website.