We Need To Use The National Defense Production Act NOW.
President Donald Trump
Nurses and other CWA-represented healthcare workers are on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis. As hospitalizations soar, our facilities are suffering from criminal shortages of N95 respirators, surgical masks, protective gowns, latex gloves and other protective equipment. There is a desperate shortage of ventilators, tests, and healthcare staff. This is wartime, but we're going to battle with no ammo, and our lives are literally in danger.
President Trump has the power to make a difference but has failed to do what needs to be done to keep workers and patients safe. Through the National Defense Production Act (NDPA) the President can mandate the immediate production of all the personal protective equipment, tests, and ventilators we need to respond to the crisis and protect healthcare workers — but so far he's refused to do so.
Instead, President Trump has announced vague and confusing intentions to “leverage” manufacturers into producing an insufficient amount of supplies. Enough is enough. We have no time for political games — we need action and leadership NOW. Sign the petition to tell President Trump that he must use the Full Force of the Defense Production Act Now!
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To:
President Donald Trump
From:
[Your Name]
Nurses and other CWA-represented health care workers are on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis. This is wartime, but they are going to war with no ammo, and their lives are literally in danger. As COVID-19 related hospitalizations soar, hospitals and other health care institutions suffer from criminal shortages of N95 respirators, surgical masks, protective gowns, latex gloves and other protective equipment. There is a desperate shortage of ventilators.
Our health care institutions are woefully unprepared for this crisis, not through their own fault, and health care workers and their families will die if things don’t change. American lives are in our healthcare worker’s hands.
President Trump, you have the power to make a difference. But you have failed to act. Why?
As President, you can invoke the National Defense Production Act (NDPA), which allows you to order U.S. manufacturers to produce the goods desperately needed to meet the crisis. In World War II, the government overnight switched the auto industry into the “Arsenal for Democracy,” changing from production of passenger cars to tanks, jeeps, and military aircraft.
We need that response now. We need that leadership now. You’ve said the private sector is stepping up when it comes to supplying protective equipment. We see no evidence of that. We can’t wait for the profiteering private sector to figure out their money-making opportunities.
We need you to do EVERYTHING in your power to ensure that front-line health care workers have everything they need to do their jobs and be safe. Put aside politics, put aside ideology, put aside your damn hotels. Do what is best for America. Invoke the Defense Production Act now and get America producing what is needed for frontline health care workers. Anything short of that is the moral equivalent of a war crime.
God willing, we will get through the immediate short-term crisis. But to return the economy to something approaching normal in a reasonable amount of time, the need for personal protective equipment will likely increase. America will likely need the American manufacturing sector to make testing kits and masks in much greater numbers. This will only happen by invoking the NDPA and putting American manufacturers to work keeping us safe until treatments and vaccines are widely available.