Rep. Fiedler pens letter to Gov. Wolf urging protections for frontline workers

PHILADELPHIA, April 9 – In light of the COVID-19 public health emergency, state Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler, D-Phila., today sent a letter to Gov. Tom Wolf expressing her gratitude for the governor’s swift pandemic mitigation responses and urged him to call on businesses to put in place additional public health strategies to slow the spread of the coronavirus across the commonwealth.

“While grocery stores, pharmacies and other essential businesses remain open to meet the public’s needs, we urgently need a set of health and safety protections to be put in place,” Fiedler said. “We must act boldly and swiftly to protect those working hard to ensure essential service delivery.”

In her letter, which includes more than 42 signatures and is supported by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, Fiedler pointed out that Pennsylvanians working at jobs deemed essential need additional protections while they put themselves at risk to ensure many other Pennsylvanians are provided food, medicine, gas and other necessities.

“Pennsylvania’s essential businesses provide a valuable role in the current Covid-19 pandemic. However, these essential businesses also have a responsibility to keep their workforce safe, their customers safe and our general public safe. A good number of employers are taking this seriously, but there are bad actors that exist in Pennsylvania that are risking the health and safety of our citizens,” Wendell Young, president of UFCW 1776 Keystone, said.

UFCW 1776 Keystone represents workers in multiple sectors including retail grocery, retail pharmacy and food manufacturers. The union represents approximately 35,000 workers across Pennsylvania as well as parts of West Virginia, Ohio and New York, and nearly 12,000 of them in the greater Philadelphia region.

The full letter is available online.