(BUFFALO, NEW YORK) – In order to send an urgent message to the Trump Administration, Communications Workers of America (CWA) area Hospital and Medical Facility Health Care Workers circled Buffalo’s Niagara Square in their vehicles Thursday (April 2nd) to call for more Professional Protection Equipment (PPE) for those Front-Line Workers battling COVID-19.

The more than concerned Health Care Workers maintained required social distancing by remaining in their vehicles while a group of several Health Care Providers stood in Niagara Square, holding signs that read: We’re Doing Our Jobs, Please Do Yours - Get Us The Protection We Need!; We Risk Our Lives To Save Yours - Get Us PPE; PPE Saves Lives; Protect Our Lives So We Can Save Yours; Bandanas Aren’t PPE. We Need Real Protection; We Need PPE & We Need It Now; and We’re Doing Our Jobs. Please Do Yours - Get Us The Protection We Need.

CWA District One Organizer Theresa Shaffer, who told WNYLaborToday.com before the Rally For PPE event that a local stockpile of PPEs that will “only last another ten days,” said: “A lot of Health Care Workers ‘are struggling to get’ PPEs.  It’s a ‘very serious’ problem.  We all want to know ‘who is going to take care of this?’”

The idea to have CWA Health Care Workers drive around Niagara Square in their vehicles came out of Social Media, where many have posted videos of people slowly driving past the homes of those who were celebrating birthdays, but who had to stay inside and could not interact with friends and family because they had quarantined themselves due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

The Downtown Buffalo PPE event was broadcast live via Facebook on CWA District One’s Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/CWADistrict1).

The rally involved Buffalo-area CWA Locals, as well as a number of Activists from Local Unions, who joined in calling for the Trump Administration to use the full power of the recently-activated Defense Production Act (DPA) and instruct manufacturers across the country to switch over their production lines in order to create the PPEs that Health Care Givers so desperately need - right now.

“A lot of Health Care Workers ‘are scared.’  They’re ‘scared’ to go to work.  They’re ‘scared they’re bringing Covid-19 back home to their families when they return from work.’  They ‘don’t want to infect them.’  It’s a ‘very scary’ time, but these Workers are ‘very special people’ (who are extremely dedicated to doing their jobs and helping people),” Schaffer told WNYLaborToday.com.

On another note, CWA Organizer Shaffer told WNYLaborToday.com that her office was fielding a number of calls from Non-Union Health Care Workers who wanted to find out how they can Unionize their workplaces in light of what they are dealing with as they too stand on the front lines of the Coronavirus battle.

“We’re getting calls ‘on a daily basis - so many leads’ from Non-Union Health Care Workers ‘who want to Unionize,’” Shaffer told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper. 

“Can you ‘imagine, being without a Union to stand up for you, trying to figure all this out - alone?,’” she asked aloud.

WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: Several of the photos that appear with this Labor News Report are screenshots from the Rally For PPE event that were captured on a computer screen during the live Facebook coverage.  Others are courtesy of Western New York Union Activists who posted them on Social Media.