Working in a pandemic: Navigating communities through a labor crisis

Join us, Friday, May 8, 10-11 am, for the next installment in an ongoing series of conversations, or micro-summits called “CSG East on COVID-19,” or #CSGCOVID19. This session focuses on the challenges faced by workers, particularly “frontline” workers during the COVID-19 crisis.

The pandemic has forced us all to redefine “frontline” workers: it’s not just first responders and medical professionals. It’s also sanitation, infrastructure, grocery store, and mass transit employees who are essential to the basic functions of society, even when it presents dangers to their own health. But there are untold millions of workers who are in other sectors who are forced to work, without paid sick leave or who face threats from employers. One of the main reasons COVID-19 infection and death rates are hitting Black and Brown populations the hardest, for example, is because Black and Brown people typically work in essential industries. What does that landscape look like? How bad is the impact of the pandemic on workers, especially as unemployment rates soar? And, what can policymakers and community stakeholders do? Also: what will the future of work look like?

Panelists:

• Representative Robyn Porter, Connecticut
• Representative Marcus C. Evans, Jr., Illinois
• GS Potter, PhD, Founder, Strategic Institute for Intersectional Policy
• William E. Spriggs, PhD, AFL-CIO

Moderator:

• Charles Ellison, CSG East Fellow; Host of “Reality Check” on WURD radio; Publisher, theBEnote.com

REGISTER TODAY and join us for a 1-hour panel on how leaders can achieve optimal public health crisis communications during the COVID-19 pandemic. Panelists will offer expert insights and guidance.

Registrants will receive a Zoom access link upon registration. Audience members will be able to ask questions by chat. Audience members are encouraged to discuss and share the panel on social media at #CSGCOVID19.

These discussions offer insights, analysis and solutions on numerous challenges communities and governments face as the COVID-19 crisis ensues. These micro-summits are being produced in partnership with the B|E Note. It is a unique convening of state and local policy makers, experts and thinkers concerned about the massive equity gaps exposed and worsened by the global coronavirus pandemic.

Organized by The Council of State Governments Eastern Regional Conference, Council on Communities of Color.