After recent reporting on the state of Illinois’ initial vaccination plans, we call on the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) to prioritize essential low-wage workers in key industries that are driving COVID-19 transmission. This includes food production, manufacturing, warehousing, restaurant, janitorial service, and care economy sectors.

As the first shipments of the vaccine arrive in Illinois, we call on IDPH to develop an equitable vaccination plan that prioritizes Illinois temporary workers and low wage workers, populations that are 2.5 times more likely to be Black and Latino than the overall workforce. As a coalition of worker centers across the Chicagoland area, Raise the Floor Alliance (RTF) is well positioned to assist IDPH in developing an equitable & strategic vaccine deployment plan that takes into account the realities of temporary and low wage workers across the state who, like our worker members, have kept the country running during this pandemic without the luxury of being able to work from home!

Factories, warehouses, and distribution centers across Illinois are at the top of the list for COVID-19 outbreaks. Effective vaccine deployment is undermined by structural impediments in heavily “temped-out” industries where layers of subcontracting allow employers to easily shirk responsibility and pass off liability. Of the 650,000 workers in Illinois’ temporary staffing industry, it’s estimated that 85% of this workforce are people of color, mostly Black and Latino--communities that have been hardest hit by the pandemic. Without deliberate planning, those who already find themselves in a “race to the bottom” will be among the last in line for a vaccine. These workers’ priority access to the vaccine could mean the difference between life and death!