‘Feels like a bad dream.’ Returning to work amid coronavirus proves deadly for some

Robert Washington Jr., 68, was a diabetic cancer survivor who returned to work as a security guard after his casino reopened in Arizona in May, KNXV reported.

Five days after going back to work at the Gila River Casino at Lone Butte, he tested positive for COVID-19, according to KNXV. He was hospitalized and later died on June 11, KTVK reported.

Shawne Jackson, Washington’s daughter, said he was tested before he returned to work, according to KNXV. She said he was fearful of going back as the state’s coronavirus case count continued to rise, KTVK reported.

“It feels like a bad dream that I want to wake up from, but I can’t,” Jackson told KNXV.

Now, Jackson and Washington’s other daughter, Lina Washington, are speaking out and calling on officials to do more to protect workers from the coronavirus, KTVK reported.

“There was no social distancing as he explained to me, there was no active sanitation,” Lina told KTVK. “The arrogance that people think it can’t happen to them. I’m telling you it can because it happened to me. And it didn’t have to happen. I’m at a loss for words that there are politicians and people in power who are allowing people like my dad to die like this.”

The casino said in a statement, “The health and safety of our employees and guests is our main priority which is why we implemented extensive safety measures across our three properties upon reopening” according to KTVK. “... We will continue to work closely with public health officials, our team members and our community to monitor the pandemic to follow and implement recommended safety measures to protect the health and wellbeing of all of our employees and guests.”

Danny Cruz, a bus driver in New York City, began keeping track of how many transit workers in the city died of COVID-19 in April, The Washington Post reported. By mid-May, Cruz had counted 129, according to the newspaper.

“Every time I have to add a name, my heart loses a beat,” Cruz told the Post. “Why is this happening? Why were we not better prepared? How many more members will we have to lose?”

The reopening of social spaces like restaurants and stores has increased passenger traffic and put transit workers at greater risk of becoming infected and potentially dying of COVID-19, the Post reported.

“We run the risk of bringing that virus back into our houses, infecting our children, our wives, our husbands, our parents,” John Samuelsen, president of Transport Union Workers International, told the Post. “We’re not health care professionals, but health care professionals wouldn’t be able to do what they’re doing without transit workers.”

Harry Sentoso went back to work at an Amazon delivery center in California in late March after being laid off as seasonal demand died down, the Los Angeles Times reported. He was part of a hiring wave at Amazon that coincided with outbreaks in at least six warehouses across southern California, according to the Times.

The company started hiring 75,000 more employees in April as demand rose and they began shipping nonessentials to customers again, the Times reported. As of May 20, more than 1,000 Amazon workers across the country had been infected with COVID-19, and Sentoso was the eighth Amazon employee to die of the virus, according to the Times.

A big concern for worker safety advocacy groups is that while the federal government has issued guidelines to employers on how to keep workers healthy and safe, those policies are voluntary and not enforceable, NPR reported.

“They have decided not to issue any specific requirements for employers to keep workers 6 feet apart, to keep workers in masks,” Debbie Berkowitz, a former chief of staff at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, told NPR. “The guidance is voluntary. Employers can comply with it, or they can ignore it.”

The agency has gotten thousands of complaints from workers who are deeply concerned about the health and safety of themselves and their loved one from multiple industries, Berkowitz, who now works with the nonprofit National Employment Law Project, told NPR.

If a worker is concerned about their employer’s compliance with safety procedures, they can file a complaint on OSHA’s website, according to NPR.

“Sometimes that can make all the difference in the world,” Berkowitz told NPR.

This story was originally published June 17, 2020 at 5:19 PM with the headline "‘Feels like a bad dream.’ Returning to work amid coronavirus proves deadly for some."