Hi everyone,
Hope you are doing well. Sorry I have not been writing here for nearly a month, I have been adjusting to my new routine post-pandemic. This article will be an opinion and soco-economic analysis piece that will focus on class differences amidst COVID-19 response measures, and a continuation of my COVID-19 series. If you are interested, you can read my previous blog post here, which is the first post of this series. I’ll analyze the situation in Canada and the US by introducing three indicators to help us analyze this topic through the lens of class, and divide it along two dimensions of workers, including white-collar and blue collar workers/labourers among the working poor. Although there are many ways to define this distinction, I categorize white collar workers as knowledge workers who work more with their mind, which Richard Florida defines as the “creative class“, and blue collar workers who work more with their hands and/or typically in the service industry. Of course, there are blurred line, such as doctors who are highly educated but still interact directly with the public, and engineers who do hands-on work, though I will use this broad definition for my analysis. There is also an in- between social class that Alfred Lubrano calls “limbo” for people who grew up with blue collar roots but experience social mobility and now live a white-collar life. If you are interested, you can read more about it here, as Lubrano shares his life growing up in a working-class Italian immigrant family in Brooklyn as the son of a brick-layer, but transitions when he attended an ivy-league university and the subtle nuances he had to learn in an office setting, such as mannerisms and behaviours that upper middle class people are born into.
Edit: I’m glad that I waited until today is publish this blog post, because new labour legislation was approved a couple hours ago in Canada, that essential workers who are part-time/seasonal/contract workers will be eligible for a salary top-up. This is vital because these types of workers do not traditionally get workplace benefits that full-time salaried workers get, so this is wonderful that the federal government is playing a bigger role in ensuring workplace benefits-keep reading my blog post until the end so you know what I’m referring to!
Indicators
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone across all races, genders, and classes, I will focus mainly on class and assert that it has disproportionately affected the working poor. I chose three indicators, including employment, working conditions, and transportation to analyze this issue.
For example, do you still have a job during the pandemic? Or, are you part of the service economy – including retail, education, or the food and hospitality sectors- where eight out of ten Canadians work and have been directly affected with mass layoffs and unemployment. And this is in addition to low-wages and little financial security, even before the pandemic. If you do have a job, that means that you are part of the businesses that are ‘essential services‘ in Canada that are still operating. Or, perhaps you are one of the lucky Canadians who have not been affected because you have an employer who has been able to financially sustain itself during this economic downturn, as well adopt social distancing measures, such as working from home which allows you to keep your job. And lastly, transportation is a component that complements working conditions and class. If you are not able to work from home, that means your options are to commute via public transportation or a private vehicle.
Employment
The first industries affected by unemployment will be the service industry, specifically retail trade and food services and hospitality amounting to more than “six million people… or eight out of ten Canadians…” These are also low-wage jobs with little financial security, which means that these workers in these fields are not only disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, but receive low wages and little financial security as well. This can be demonstrated by how COVID-19 spread in the Vancouver region among private nursing homes. Many care aids are foreign workers from the Philippines who work abroad in developed countries such as Canada to earn money and remit back to their family in Asia. The article mentions that the care-aids were middle-aged Filipinas who were trying to supplement their income by working at different facilities, which promoted the spread of the virus when a worker unknowingly affected a patient at Lynn Valley care center. This demonstrates that people who are more likely to be affected by COVID-19 are front-line workers, especially if they work in the healthcare sector because they are more likely to be exposed to sick patients as they “cleaning the facility, prep and bus meals in the communal dining room, [as well as] feed and bathe residents.” Now, let’s analyze it from a different perspective: they are older, foreign, women, and people of colour, and statistically, tend to have less options which would explain why they have to work harder because of these socio-economic factors tied to lower-income.
Interestingly, this opinion article from Forbes states that low-income workers are working and exposing themselves to risky environments not because of bravery, but out of necessity, because “someone’s got to staff the grocery stores, make the take-out meals, [and] clean the ominous surfaces that could harbor contagion.” In the United States, healthcare coverage is also tied to employment, which is another reason why blue-collar front line workers are choosing to work. They do not have the opportunity to tele-commute, but are willing to forgo self-isolation measures they still need generate income and access healthcare coverage, and may even feel grateful to have a job when others have been laid off. Sadly, the article also mentions that precarious employment is a familiar reality that is not new to them, with situations involving restraints and limited options that more privileged people are now experiencing because of this pandemic. Many of the articles have mentioned that types of jobs that are most vulnerable during this COVID-19 pandemic (including front-line workers) involve interacting with the public, and therefore are most susceptible to be infected.
This means that not only are low-income people more likely to be affected if they are working- if they are no longer working, it was most likely that they first to be laid off, and had little financial security at that, though the authors stopped at extrapolating data and analyzing race and gender. For example, this article from the New York Times explains how restaurants no longer provide table service, which means that servers no longer have a job. 42-year old Sandra Martinez, a waitress who worked at a Colombian restaurant, explains how this concerns her, because she “worried about the bills, the car, [and] the rent” while she cares for her 11-year old daughter, Nicole.
Working conditions
Now, after separating those who still have jobs and those who do not, let’s analyze working conditions- are you a front-line worker interacting directly with the publicly, or are you able to work from home?
Knowledge workers are for the most part, white collar workers who work with their minds and create information, and often have the option to do their work from home. From my original definition above, blue collar workers (for the most part) work with their hands and physical labour is typically a part of their job, which means that they cannot self-isolate and therefore, are more likely to be infected by COVID-19.
Another dimension I mentioned above would be the precarious nature of labour. Is this a permanent job, or is it a contract? This phenomena has become a part of our lexicon as the “gig economy” , where workers may work side by side doing the same type of job but the contractor may not be considered as part of the company (and therefore, access to the same benefits), such as securing employment through a temp agency. Interestingly, there is a new union called “Gig Workers Collective” started by activists Vanessa Bain and Sarah Clarke that acts as a collective agency for temp workers. For example, Betty works at company ABC on a contract, but does not get to access ABC’s union. George works at company DAB and is in a similar position. Although they work for different companies, both would be able to join this non-profit and get access to help, such as securing better pay and working conditions. Gig Workers Collective was also instrumental in the Instacart strike last December, when personal shoppers (the people who do your online groceries) demanded safer working conditions and protective equipment, like hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes. Although everyone in a given population is susceptible to being infected by COVID-19, it would be the most vulnerable who are more likely to work in unstable and unsafe work environments because they have less options, and unfortunately, are not valued the same as someone who has more resources and privilege.
Transportation
And lastly transportation is a component that complements working conditions and class. If you are not able to work from home, that means you are most likely commuting via public transportation because your wages are not able to afford a private vehicle. If you are working from home, you are safe and not interacting with the public-and you still have generating income. In this case, a private car to commute, but a personal privilege that others (who may need to commute) cannot enjoy. As this opinion piece from Forbes proclaims, “there is no safe transportation unless it’s your own.”
After taking those three indicators, this means that the most vulnerable of the working poor that are still employed would be: (1) employed, but (2) front-line worker interacting with public (3) using public transportation to commute
More Analysis
That means that people that have the most favourable conditions for those still working and less likely to contract COVID-19 would be (1) employed (2) telecommuting and (3) access to private vehicle. You are safe. This is almost like a board game where a series of life circumstances and decisions are beneficial or detrimental, and either allow you to fully adhere to the social distancing measures completely. This is not to disregard the other dimension of unemployment and along types of workers (white collar vs blue collar). I would argue that they are suffering more because of unemployment and financial insecurity, never mind working conditions and transportation. Though still- among the two groups in the unemployed category, I argue that blue collar workers are still disproportionately affected because white collar workers may have more marketable skills that allow them to access the job market after this pandemic is over, are more likely to be paid more (and if they were smart, using their disposable income to save for a rainy day instead of spending more), and are employed in sectors that are more stable. And even if that sector is not stable, it would still affect white collar and blue collar workers differently. I copied my diagram from above, so I can illustrate how I visualized my concepts:
This pandemic gave some people the opportunity to prepare, such as stockpiling on household goods, but it did not give people across the board to prepare on other aspects. For example, the choice to upgrade the skills and education (which would allow them access to better jobs), to save up money (especially if they had a low-wage job), acquire resources such as a private vehicle (again, especially if they had a low-wage job). More protection for front-line workers because they are keeping the hospitals and grocery stores operating during this pandemic. I would include more protection for gig economy workers- because may not have access to a union in their workplace (because they are not considered a part of the company), I think that government should consider legislation to protect workers, such as sick leave, because it is unlikely that businesses would be that altruistic if profit is the bottom line, which means the onus is on the public sector to act and create workforce conditions beneficial for the working poor (this is what I was referring to in my introduction, in the “edit” section).
Conclusion
Many of my friends fall into this category (you know who you are), which is part of the reason why I decided to write this article to demonstrate how lucky some of us are, but in different ways. Some of us may have grown up with privilege, and never knew struggle, whereas some of us did, but are now used to more comfortable surroundings and forget the tough times in their past that are still the present for many others. Perhaps some of us have a job where we can tele-commute, or their own car, or even family in the same city that they can call on for help- I would classify those as privileges all in their own rights. If you have these privileges, I am not saying that you should feel ashamed for them; You did not choose to be born in a privileged family any more than someone who was born in a lower-income family. I hope this blog post is gentle reminder to be grateful for what you have, and that you may have more than others to help you through during these tough times, and that a little compassion for those suffering offers a more holistic understanding of this world.
Talk to you soon,
Guest
P.S look for the next post on Alberta’s oil and gas sector during COVID-19
