Janell, an extraordinary baker from Louisville, has the recipe for ensuring the security and well-being of essential workers like her sister, a nurse, who has been on the front lines of the coronavirus fight since day one. What’s the key ingredient? Unions!

“We have so many amazing essential workers in this country! My sister is a nurse and is helping to make sure people are getting the care they need. There are many days that she worked late and missed dinner with her family because she was taking care of someone’s loved one!

She doesn’t know if she is coming into contact with someone that has Covid and if she will bring it back to her family – but she still does her job every day to make sure people are healthy. And now many essential workers could be laid off because of budget cuts.

We need our federal government to step up to the challenge of keeping our services and the workers who provide them, funded.

Unions are also great to help protect these essential workers, especially in economically disadvantaged communities. They help protect jobs – and also protect other important things like shift differentials, benefits, insurance, etc.”