Sunday on MSNBC’s “AM Joy,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) called on the public to follow its “gut feeling” on coronavirus pandemic matters.
She also said workers should organize at the workplace and “push back against” reopening the economy.
Tlaib said, “One thing I admire about the governor is I know she’s listening to the health experts, the doctors, they are the ones leading the policy to talk about loosening up. I’m not sure how they made that decision. I know this much. Many of our folks, and I tell you — my 13 district strong residents. If you are afraid to go to work, do not go to work.”
She continued, “I know this is hard, but you have every right to make sure your life is put first and to fight back. I don’t care if it’s labor organizing this late in the game or if it’s demanding that your life is not treated as if it’s disposable, but I want you not to be afraid to go to work. You should not at all ever feel like—I don’t care if it’s a president, I don’t care who it is that tells you, we need you to go back and we need you to start back with the economy and everything. Your life is much more important. I always tell my residents when they call, you know, they’re shake making us do this, making us do that. Do you feel safe? If you don’t feel safe, you don’t have to go to work.”
She continued, “I urge a lot of my neighbors and other folks that have called me and reached out to me and said, I don’t feel safe, I want you to organize with your other coworkers and demand your life is put first, and your health is put first. I would push back no matter what these decisions and other folks on the task forces being put together, your gut feeling, follow that. It’s probably much more credible than what you might see coming out of various administrations.”
She added, “Many of my folks in an Amazon warehouse, do you know how many folks call me telling me they’re not practicing what they need to be doing at Amazon. They were giving people one piece of wipe until we fought to get more. Those are the things we need to organize and push back against. It’s impossible because this is a working class. These are folks — they don’t work in small cubicles or have their own offices and can telework. These are real folks on the ground, what I call front-line workers, that cannot do what the CDC is asking them to do. But the CEO’s and corporations and those folks keep pushing against that. That’s where I say, organize at workplace, push back against it, your life matters.”
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