The lack of non-public protective devices and a language barrier that prevented staff from communicating their considerations to their employers Fears of retaliation for the functionality of the paintings that have made health workers feel they want to return to paintings before they are ready.
These are the situations faced by 50 crab meat collectors on Maryland’s east coast who, according to the Dorchester Department of Health, COVID-19 this summer.
The outbreaks, which sent an employee to the hospital but did not result in deaths, occurred between an organization of others with unique vulnerabilities and few redress strategies, according to employee rights advocates.
Most of those cases, 40 of them, happened at Russell Hall Seafood in Fishing Creek, and for at least one woman there, falling with COVID-19 was a forced selection between improving and maintaining her work.
Staff, many of whom are Mexican citizens and mostly women, work legally in the United States. The H-2B visa program allows U. S. corporations to rent foreign personnel for non-agricultural transitional work; Maryland’s crab harvesting industry has relied on H-2B staff since the program was launched in the early 1990s.
Detailed interviews with advocates from the nonprofit Migrant Rights Center and a Russell Hall Seafood worker revealed a number of disorders that may have contributed to the epidemic and made recovery difficult.
BACKGROUND: Limited protections make migrants vulnerable to coronavirus, fears
The pandemic has long stood out with the system, said Sulma Guzmán, director of policy and legislative adviser to hom.
A woman who works as a crab picker at Russell Hall Seafood on Hoopers Island spoke to Delmarva Now and the Daily Times on the condition that we keep her identity confidential to compromise her work.
When he first contracted the virus, along with 40 other people at work, in July, he had all the characteristic symptoms: fever, chills, strong cough. Although they disappeared after two weeks, he still feels bad.
“I’m actually hurting my bones,” said the Spanish-speaking woman through a translator. “I feel weak. Sometimes I like, but I don’t really have an appetite, and when I like, I feel nauseous. “
The total society blocked for two weeks, with remote positive instances and all others quarantined. When the two weeks passed, everyone said he was in a position to repaint, and they did, despite the reservations.
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“At first, when the boss arrived and told us that we had to go back to work, I felt nervous, I’m afraid, because what if someone else was in poor health, and we had to put ourselves in poor health. Once again? But we have to do what the boss says, ” says the woman.
“Workers will be invited to relax, comply with production or display to paint,” he said.
Several calls and messages left over the course of a week were returned to Harry Phillips, owner of Russell Hall Seafood.
For migrant workers, maintaining their seasonal position in the United States, even when faced with dangers such as traveling abroad or a pandemic, is paramount, Guzman said.
“The concern about retaliation is huge,” Guzman said. “It’s something we’ve noticed at all times in protecting the rights of painters: the worry of complaining, the very concern of making a consultation in the paintings, because you can’t lose your job, your source of income, your ability to help your family. And now we see it even more. “
Initially, the spread of COVID-19 and the difficulty of locating foreigners threatened to close the doors of many seafood processors this summer.
Now, with some services operating at reduced capacity, seafood services face the same realities as others in the food industry, where processors paint nearby.
BACKGROUND: For the fishing industry, Harris requests reassignment of unused H-2B visas
MDP has been in constant communication with crab pickers and has tried to provide them with ever-changing pandemic data, Guzman said.
The Dorchester County Department of Health also distributed general information about COVID-19 to crab processing corporations in the months leading up to the outbreaks, said Angela Grove, director of the physical education program.
But the county’s first awareness was not carried out on the ground; the data given to employers, who were guilty of transmitting it to their staff, Grove said.
There was no genuine social est estre at Russell Hall before the outbreak, the woman said. Workers were told to disinfect their hands with an aggregate of water and bleach, and were first told to wear masks, but were only given a disposable mask. to use, he said.
When reports of workers with COVID-19 symptoms spread, county workers, in addition to some Spanish speakers, visited a number of seafood companies to perform on-site and supply cleaning products and thermometers. Russell Hall workers won the effects of their tests three days later.
The woman we spoke to was quarantined in a space with three other women, two in each room. Sick women drank large amounts of Pedialyte tea and cinnamon with honey; The Dorchester Department of Health coordinated with a Mexican grocery store in Cambridge to receive grocery delivery.
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Available CDC knowledge means that others with mild to moderate COVID-19 remain infectious no more than 10 days after the onset of symptoms, while others with more severe cases remain infectious no more than 20 days after symptoms appear.
However, the fact that Russell Hall’s painters repainted without re-conducting the COVID-19 test is a cause for concern, the woman said.
The county does not require reverification, Grove said. The CDC is not proposing a re-check within 3 months for other people who have already been diagnosed with symptomatic COVID-19, as a user who has recovered from COVID-19 possibly would have. low virus levels in your frame up to 3 months after diagnosis and would possibly continue to test positive even if they do not transmit COVID-19.
However, staff may have simply sought the evidence on their own, as the Dorchester Department of Health offers normal opportunities for testing in parts of the county, Grove said. It is not known if the staff were informed that their selection would be re-made.
Although the county check scale included Spanish-speaking experts, not being able to talk to their boss for themselves meant staff might not express their considerations fluently or get answers to their questions, the woman said.
“Even before we were given bad health at COVID, if there had been anyone who spoke Spanish (and English), I would have talked to that user about masks,” she said. “I think I would also have asked about the social distances between the staff and would probably have asked about other things as well. “
HOM advocates argue that the disorders of migrant staff tend to stem from the fact that the formula leaves much to the discretion of employers.
Employers not only start the facility, but are also the only resource for staff to move to and from a doctor, due to the remote location of the facilities. The nearest city, Cambridge, is about 40 minutes away.
Instead, HOM would like to see stricter state and federal legislation for speaking staff and require seafood corporations to provide secure foundations. Although CDC has a particular set of rules for seafood processors, the recommendations are not directly applicable through the law.
“The industry as a whole can simply gain advantages from enhanced protections,” said María Perales Sánchez, campaign and political communications coordinator at MDP. “We don’t see it as a challenge reserved for Russell Hall. . . it’s systemic. “
The CDM keeps in touch with crab meat collectors so that they are aware of data on the pandemic and its rights as personnel in the United States, and has provided them with personal protective equipment.
As a result of the pandemic, employee awareness has become more difficult, Guzman said. While in the past they may have been able to catch an employee at the grocery store, there are now fewer opportunities and the group’s ability to succeed in new staff has been particularly small.
This is not necessary, CDM argues.
“Whether state or federal, (legislators) have a duty to ensure that their citizens have access to fitness and protection measures or guidelines,” Guzmron said. “If we are in fact ‘in this whole’, how can we make sure that staff can move on to paintings safely, how can we make sure that the structure sites (employers, corporations) have the resources, the data they want for their staff?
You can contact Julia Rentsch, environmental journalist, at jrentsch@delmarvanow. com.