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To: Oregon Governor Kate Brown

Prioritize Frontline Essential Workers for COVID Vaccine

"Frontline workers and all adults 16 and older with underlying health conditions will be eligible for vaccine appointments starting April 5."
https://www.opb.org/article/2021/03/26/oregon-accelerates-covid-19-vaccine-distribution/

Put essential workers who have not had the option of working from home and are forced to interact with many people per day on the COVID vaccine distribution schedule under Group 1 of Phase 1B.

Añade los trabajadores esenciales que no pudieron trabajar en casa y deben interactuar con muchas personas por día al programa de distribución de la vacuna COVID en el Grupo 1 de la Fase 1B.

Why is this important?

For the last year, essential workers - such as grocery store clerks, bus drivers, and people in food service - have been working through a pandemic to ensure that families can continue to eat and stay alive. We are truly public servants, risking infection from the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its mutations in service of the general public. Workers can’t control other people, such as those we interact with daily who do not take this pandemic seriously.

We are tired of putting on a friendly tone to ask customers, coworkers, and managers to please pull their masks over their noses. We are exhausted from going to work day after day, not knowing if today might be the day we bring home the virus that could kill us or our family members.

Our field is diverse; we are Black, disabled, immigrant, indigenous, Latinx, parents, students, working class. The federal government’s National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness calls for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. We urge you to listen to experts who say that essential workers should be vaccinated now. Consider our sacrifices over the past year, and commit to repaying us by prioritizing us for the vaccine.

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Updates

2021-04-05 12:26:48 -0400

Petition is successful with 796 signatures

2021-02-25 19:59:14 -0500

500 signatures reached

2021-02-20 20:43:03 -0500

Workers at New Seasons Market had been urging management to advocate for staff since the end of January, when Governor Kate Brown made the decision to open schools and vaccinate school workers instead of those who had been working with the public for almost a year of the COVID pandemic. On February 16, after this petition launched and received 100 signatures, the CEO sent the governor a letter reminding her that grocery workers have been on the frontlines since day 1 and requesting the “highest priority level possible for vaccination”. Thank you for your help putting pressure on New Seasons management to take a stand for their workers!

This fight is bigger than one grocery store, and in order to get the governor’s attention please keep sharing the petition using the hashtag #VaccinesNowOR. Want to do even more to help? Tell your boss about New Season’s advocacy. Suggest that they, too, stand up for their employees by writing a letter to Kate Brown.

2021-02-10 23:30:27 -0500

100 signatures reached

2021-02-09 14:24:29 -0500

50 signatures reached

2021-02-08 15:39:53 -0500

25 signatures reached

2021-02-07 15:27:10 -0500

10 signatures reached