Staying home is a privilege
We want to share with you the situation of the workers, men and women, that sustain the city food system. The working class, who faces serious economic and health security limitations, while keep working on the streets struggling for their daily sustenance, and whose contribution is essential to enable the quarantine in the homes of thousands of people in different cities of the country.
Within the popular markets and the network of city markets, workers have faced difficulties in accessing information for the management and containment of the health emergency, no clear guidelines have been defined to implement security protocols, the alternatives for popular labor are not inclusive since they do not take into account the particularities of their line of work or the importance of it in the city's food supply chain. We don`t want to imagine what will happen to the San Roque market or the Wholesale market, pillars in food distribution given the lack of attention to them. These markets supply 70% of the population through neighborhood stores, grocery stores, small markets, etc., which is why, we call on the authorities: @COE Secretaria Nacional De Gestion De Riesgos, Gobierno Central y Municipio de Quito, to establish a contingency plan that allows them to continue their work given the challenges they are facing with # covid-19, so the market network does not collapse.
The Asociación de Estibadores Mixtos Mercado San Roque calls urgently for channeling aid and resources in an organized way. We are more than 800 loaders, shellers, fenders in the San Roque market, not counting the merchants who promptly request attention. This crisis is not of the middle class, popular, or elite sectors, it belongs to everyone, however, its impact manifests in very diverse levels of complexity for some sectors of society that are most vulnerable. Together we can emerge from this pandemic, alive and with dignity, we need to create bonds of solidarity, recognize the work that thousands of people do for the common good.
This video has been made collectively, original idea by: CoopDocs Cooperativa Audiovisual in co-production with Asociación de Estibadores Mixtos Mercado San Roque
