Right now, we’re seeing Americans stepping up, giving back, and taking care of each other — and that’s especially true when it comes to essential workers on the frontlines of this pandemic.

Doctors, nurses, other health care workers, grocery store and drug store employees, domestic workers, food service workers, government employees, janitorial staff, farm workers, delivery drivers, warehouse workers, transportation workers, child care workers, and other essential workers are putting their health on the line every time they clock in.

But many of them are working in high-risk conditions without appropriate protective equipment, adequate safety standards, or basic job protections. And reports show that these workers may be contracting COVID-19 at a higher rate than the general public.

Essential workers are the backbone of our nation’s response to coronavirus — and we need to have their backs.

Today, alongside Representative Ro Khanna, I’m proposing an Essential Workers Bill of Rights to ensure safe working conditions, fair pay, paid leave, health care security, support for child care, and more.

I need you with me in the fight to get this done. Add your name if you agree: Congress’s next coronavirus relief package must include an Essential Workers Bill of Rights to protect frontline workers during this public health emergency.

Here’s what we’re fighting for:

1. Health and safety protections, including personal protective equipment provided by employers at no cost to workers.


2. Robust premium compensation that provides meaningful compensation for essential work.


3. Protections for collective bargaining agreements.


4. Truly universal paid sick leave and family and medical leave.


5. Protections for whistleblowers. Workers who witness unsafe conditions must be able to openly identify their concerns and have them addressed, without fear of retaliation.


6. An end to worker misclassification that lets employers avoid providing the full suite of benefits and protections available to employees.


7. Health care security. We must use public programs to provide no-cost health care for all, regardless of immigration or insurance status, so that essential workers get the care they need during this crisis.


8. Support for child care to ensure essential workers have access to free, reliable, safe, healthy, and high-quality child care and commit robust funding to help struggling child care providers during this pandemic.


9. Treat workers as experts. Essential workers, and their unions and organizations, must be at the table in developing responses to coronavirus.


10. Hold corporations accountable for protecting workers. Taxpayer dollars that have been handed to corporations should go to help workers, not wealthy CEOs, rich shareholders, or the president’s cronies.

Here’s what it comes down to: We must recognize the critical contribution these essential workers are making to our health and our economy during this crisis.

Every day, essential workers are answering the call to protect the most vulnerable and keep life as we know it moving forward.

Essential workers are fighting for us, so it is our responsibility to fight for them.

Add your name, and together, we’ll demand an Essential Workers Bill of Rights.

We have a long road ahead of us, but I’m confident that if we stand together, fight together, and persist, we will make it through this time of crisis.

Stay safe, and thanks for being a part of this,

Elizabeth