STRINGER: We must protect our frontline workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic

A nurse demonstrates outside the emergency entrance at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx last month. AP Photo/Kathy Willens

By Comptroller Scott Stringer

The heroes in the fight against COVID-19 are our doctors, nurses, bus drivers, grocery and delivery workers, and all those bearing the brunt of this public health crisis — and they disproportionately call the borough of Brooklyn home. As many of us shelter in place, our frontline workers are risking their health and safety every day to keep our entire city safe and running.

Brooklyn has more frontline workers than any other borough — over 292,000 strong. Most are brave women and people of color who work in healthcare—the very New Yorkers serving the sick in this raging battle against the coronavirus.

Simply put: without Brooklyn’s cavalry of frontline workers, we could not wage this fight. But what are we doing to ensure our troops on the ground have all the support they need to save lives and beat back this pandemic?

The fact is that the New Yorkers whom we trust with our health, our nourishment, our loved ones, and our lives are too often ignored, underpaid, and overworked. As they head to work to stock our groceries, deliver our packages, and replenish our pharmacies, they have their own families to care for and their own well-being to protect. We need to have their backs. They need and deserve free health care and child care, safe and reliable transit, financial stability and pathways to opportunity.

We should leave no stone unturned to unleash the full might of our frontline workers — which means ensuring they have adequate protection. It’s past time they receive free protective gear and priority access to COVID-19 testing when symptoms warrant, along with substantial hazard pay and other benefits.

Moreover, we already know these workers disproportionately rely on public transit and travel from the outer reaches of the borough to get to medical facilities across the city. As New York City Transit suffers significant worker shortages during this crisis, it remains crucial for service to be in place to move our essential workers who keep our city going. To maintain transit service, then, we must implement robust safety measures for transit workers, including protective equipment and priority access to COVID-19 testing, and consolidate service along bus lines and train routes where our frontline workers live and work.

And the City shouldn’t stop there. To get to work safely and quickly, we must improve and fortify a range of transit modes for our frontline workers, including walking and cycling. The City should subsidize the purchase of bikes and e-bikes, expand sidewalk and pedestrian spaces, and step-up enforcement of reckless driving in order expand transit alternatives and reduce the strain on our subways and buses.

And finally, given that half of our frontline workers are immigrants and many are undocumented, we need to take steps to tighten the fabric of our social safety net so that undocumented New Yorkers are eligible for state and federal support. At minimum, basic safety net protections must extend to New Yorkers regardless of immigration status, and the City should consider establishing an emergency relief fund in partnership with private partners if we have to take matters into our own hands and circumvent federal restrictions.

In times of crisis, it is important that we come together to serve the hardworking New Yorkers who make this the greatest city in the world. Let’s ensure that the frontline workers in Brooklyn and beyond have all the support they need to take care of their own health and families — just as they take care of us.

Scott Stringer is the comptroller of New York City.