Teachers' Unions and COVID-19: Time to Step Up

Details: Published on Friday, 24 April 2020 01:24; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2070 ... April 24, 2020
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Teachers’ Unions and COVID-19: Time to Step Up

Dudley Paul

It has been crystal clear from the beginning that the COVID-19 pandemic is far more than a medical crisis. The federal government alone is hurrying to send over $100-billion out its doors to prop up businesses, but also to support people who desperately need money to get through the economic crisis entangled with the pandemic. Everywhere, we’re coming to realize that market fundamentals like price competition and just-in-time supply chains don’t work when entire countries can’t get the ventilators, proper masks, gowns, gloves and other equipment they need to ensure the safety of front-line workers who face people who may be carrying the COVID-19 virus.

It’s reassuring that individuals and companies are stepping in to produce face-shield and ventilator parts on 3-D printers or to retool production lines to make hand sanitizer. However, given all we know and have learned about epidemics over the past generation, something is fundamentally wrong when we find ourselves short of supplies in the first place.

It’s been... a little more than a month since governments declared an emergency and shut down schools, most stores, playgrounds and other so-called ‘non-essential’ spaces. We’re getting their message: "Wash your hands, don’t gather in groups, stay at home..." Given the circumstances, such policy underscores the point that we won’t get through the medical crisis if we don’t take individual responsibility to ameliorate the problems.