It’s been one year since the COVID-19 pandemic started. In that time, nearly half a million lives have been lost, including essential workers, who put their health and lives on the line in order to keep our country running. President Biden and his administration have taken critical steps to provide greater federal support and coordination to combat the pandemic, but we must do better.

Essential workers are still on the frontlines every single day and far too many do not have priority access to lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines. States and localities have a patchwork approach to testing and vaccination, which is confusing and often inequitable.

Essential Workers need their own protected category and must be prioritized in the ongoing rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.

That's why joining together and calling on President Biden to provide essential workers with the access to COVID-19 vaccines, as well as other essential benefits and rights including:

• Use all available federal powers and tools to prioritize vaccines for essential workers, ensure essential workers can access the vaccine, and encourage uniformity in vaccine distribution efforts;
• Ensure that the Defense Protection Act is being used to the fullest extent possible to produce COVID-19 vaccines;
• Robustly protect essential workers seeking a vaccine, or blowing the whistle on companies obstructing their access to the vaccine from retaliation, or seeking to enforce other COVID-19-related protections, including removing the threat of immigration-based retaliation by providing immigration protections to workers seeking to enforce their rights;
• Ensure worker engagement and representation on the COVID-19 Response Team and other decision-making bodies where rules, guidance and laws are being made about access to the vaccine.

Please sign the petition and urge President Biden to take crucial steps to protecting essential workers across the country.