I hope you, your family, your friends, and your community are doing well and staying strong.

It’s a scary time, so we’ve got to have each other’s backs.

I’m thinking about all of the people who are putting themselves at risk to fight this pandemic and do essential work — including nurses, doctors, other health care professionals, workers at grocery stores, and delivery workers.

And that’s why I wanted to email you about something powerfully important that’s happening right now — workers speaking out and fighting for safe, just working conditions.

Today, Instacart grocery-delivery workers are going on strike to demand basic protective gear like hand sanitizer, soap, and disinfectant wipes, along with paid sick leave and hazard pay.

Tomorrow, Whole Foods workers are calling in sick to call for paid sick leave, hazard pay, funds to cover the costs of coronavirus testing and treatment, commonsense safety measures like adequate sanitization at stores and warehouses, and more.

By fighting for their rights as workers, they’re fighting for workers and families across the country. By fighting for basic safety, they’re helping to stop this crisis.

I support the workers at Instacart and Whole Foods who are in this fight and on the frontlines to keep people fed and at home. And I’ll fight alongside all workers who are fighting for basic protections and basic rights. We can’t let corporate greed cut people’s lives short.

Workers across the country are fighting a righteous fight. Let’s get in the ring and fight alongside them.

When people are on strike, don’t cross the picket line. Shop somewhere else. Shop local. If you can do it safely, offer to pick up groceries for someone who would normally rely on delivery.

Times like these give us an opportunity to show our character and live our values. We can’t all do everything, but we can each do something, and when we take action together, it adds up to a lot.

Here are two quick things you can do right now for the workers at Whole Foods and Instacart:

1. Add your name to the Whole Foods workers’ official petition to say you agree with their demands for a safe workplace and paid leave. And share the petition — over email, social media, everywhere you can — to get the word out.


2. Read this post from the Instacart Shoppers and Gig Workers Collective about their strike — and share it everywhere you can, too.

It’s wrong for Instacart, a multi-billion dollar company, to skimp on providing sanitizer while asking their delivery workers to go in and out of multiple grocery stores a day and touch who-knows-how-many potentially contaminated surfaces.

It’s wrong for Whole Foods, owned by Jeff Bezos (a guy worth almost $120 billion), to force people to go to work even if they’re sick because they can’t afford to miss a week’s pay. Whole Foods even asked workers to “donate” their paid leave — which should be a basic right — to each other.

It’s appalling, but it’s not surprising. It’s the kind of exploitation that happens when the rules of our economy encourage people to be greedy.

And that’s why we need big, structural change to rewrite the rules and put power in the hands of working people, not just billionaires and massive corporations.

We need an economy that works for everyone — not just the rich and powerful.

I’m in this fight all the way, and I’m grateful to fight by your side.

Thanks for being a part of this,

Elizabeth