Texas Restaurant Workers Still Aren’t Vaccine Eligible As State Reopening Looms | Eater Austin

"On March 8, service-industry workers and allied groups gathered outside the state government’s seat in Austin to protest an order that, beginning March 10, would lift statewide mask mandates, capacity limits, and social distancing rules. Organized by groups including the Restaurant Organizing Project, the Texas Service Industry Coalition, the Amplified Sound Coalition, the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee, and Austin Mutual Aid, the rally centered on fears about being forced to work without COVID protections while still largely ineligible for vaccination; organizers demanded the governor delay full reopening until 70 percent of essential workers are vaccinated (noting that roughly 91 percent of Texans had not yet been vaccinated). Speakers such as Crystal Maher and Jeannette Gregor described workers’ precarious conditions—low wages, lack of insurance, multigenerational households, and disproportionate impacts on minorities—and highlighted specific concerns like enforcing workplace rules amid anti-mask confrontations, the threat posed by St. Patrick’s Day crowds, and the financial fallout from the cancellation of South by Southwest. Protesters wore masks labeled “expendable” to express feeling sacrified by policy; rally speakers also raised issues around vaccine access, unemployment eligibility for workers who quit for safety reasons, and broader demands for hazard pay, dignity, and investment in frontline workers." - Nadia Chaudhury