‘They worked until they couldn’t breathe’: Laboring in world's worst air quality

On Wednesday, smoke and soot from wildfires in Canada descended on New York, turning the city’s air quality into the worst of any metropolitan area in the world and pushing hundreds of thousands to don protective masks or stay in their homes. 

Millions of New Yorkers, though, still had to go to work, and those working out in the elements, such as first responders and delivery workers, faced the brunt of the pollution and worked through nausea, eye and nose irritation, sore throats and breathing troubles. 

“When you're out here for a long time, you start having headaches and you can’t really breathe,” Gustavo Ajche, an app-based delivery worker told The Chief Wednesday afternoon. "But we have to work." Ajche traveled throughout the city making food deliveries on his bike Tuesday and Wednesday and said that many other delivery workers he ran into, some of whom deliver on motorcycles, were suffering as well. 

“We try to do our best and wear the mask,” said Ajche, the co-founder of Los Deliveristas Unidos, which represents tens of thousands of app-based delivery workers. “We are here, and we will keep going.” Ajche and others at LDU helped delivery workers obtain masks and guided them to subway stations and firehouses where the city was distributing protective gear Thursday. 

‘Sick and feeling ill’ 

When thousands of unionized UPS package car drivers arrived at their workplaces Wednesday morning ready to drive their routes, management made no mention of contingency plans for the impending fallout from the Canadian forest fires and workers went out without any masks. By the afternoon, hundreds of workers were dealing with nausea and trouble breathing, workers told The Chief, and at least one UPS worker shut off his truck and checked himself into a hospital after experiencing chest pains. 

“They worked until they couldn’t breathe," Sean McGovern, a UPS package car driver and shop steward, said of his friend and coworker who went to the hospital. "I thought it was insane that we were required to work at all because every person I talked to, and I talked to dozens of people, said they were sick and feeling ill, but the company didn’t say anything about it.” 

Fearful that the company wouldn’t provide workers with masks the following day, organizers with Teamsters Local 804, the union representing UPS workers in New York, traveled to Mount Vernon early in the morning to pick up more than 4,400 KN95 masks members of the local then distributed outside a Brooklyn UPS facility before Thursday’s morning shift. Anthony Rosario, the organizer and UPS worker who got the masks, said that activists in the Democratic Socialists of America helped connect him with Bill Taubner of the mask distribution company Bona Fide Masks, who was more than happy to provide the UPS Teamsters with protective equipment.  

“We’re always happy to help and if they need more we’re here” said Taubner, whose company donated more than 20,000 masks this week to community groups, homeless shelters and essential workers in the path of the wildfire smoke. "We appreciate the fact that there's a company out there that actually cares for essential workers and knows of the work that UPS drivers are doing and thought of us enough to donate thousands of masks,” said Rosario, who plans to get more masks from Taubner on Friday.  

UPS did provide workers with surgical masks Thursday, and offered higher-quality N95 respirators to employees that signed a waiver, which many drivers were hesitant to do. “The wellbeing and safety of UPSers is our number one priority,” a UPS spokesperson said in a statement.  “We are working on a variety of immediate actions. This includes the speedy distribution of masks for our employees in affected areas.”  

FDNY limits first responder’s outdoor exposure 

Anthony Almojera, a paramedic and vice president of the Uniformed EMS Officers Union, said that the weather was “definitely affecting people’s breathing.” But, he added, he and other paramedics were for the most part able to effectively respond to calls and help New Yorkers in distress. Almojera said that his members were able to obtain masks and respirators.  

For the Bravest, it was also mostly business as usual, said Andy Ansbro, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association. “We know how to operate in an environment like this,” Ansbro said of his members. Due to the wood-burning origin of the smoke that descended on the city, Ansbro said he wasn’t too worried about his members suffering from long-term health issues, as many have and still do from the aftermath of 9/11. 

By 3 p.m. Wednesday, the FDNY, after hosting a medal ceremony in the morning, nonetheless canceled all outdoor activities and events and was advising firefighters, EMTs and paramedics to take shelter inside stations until it was time to respond to emergency calls. The order was still in place as of Thursday evening and Almojera said that EMS workers normally stationed on streets have been holed up inside stations in between emergency calls.  

The city has singled out several firehouses across the five boroughs as mask distribution points. An FDNY spokesperson said the department was constantly updating its guidance for its first responders.

dfreeman@thechiefleader.com