California Wine Country ‘essential’ workers take center stage in the coronavirus pandemic

2020 review, 2021 preview

As the “year like no other” draws to a close, the Business Journal examined how the coronavirus pandemic has been impacting “essential” and “nonessential” businesses differently, looking specifically at these areas of the economy:

• Wine business

• Restaurants

• Hotels

• Health care

• Banking and finance

• Job market

And we also explored how the massive Walbridge, Hennessey and Glass wildfires not only worsened the woes of businesses already reeling from pandemic shutdowns and virus-wary customers but also added to the backlog of burned North Bay properties still needing to be rebuilt since the 2017 blazes.

A picture can be worth a thousand words, or tears.

“We fight forward in Paul’s honor,” said an emotional Sara Nelson when asked during a virtual conference about the picture behind her of Paul Frishkorn.

The American Airlines worker was the first flight attendant to die of COVID-19 in March, and his death became very personal to the International Flight Attendants Association president.

Flight attendants, nurses, cannabis dealers, bank tellers, janitors, grocery store clerks, protective gear makers and funeral home operators hold titles that fly under the radar, but the heroism of these frontline workers deemed essential marked an important turn of events in 2020.

Cleaning up our mess

Take the work of janitors, for instance.

As the virus was starting to spread, these workers answered the call and added new disinfecting protocols to their duties, while their salaries, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports barely reach $25,000 a year.

At the time, Leesa Pavlos, the business development manager for Optima Building Services in Santa Rosa, shared with the Business Journal that she could tell her workers were “nervous.”

Health care in crisis mode

No other industry saw the devastation of the coronavirus outbreak more than the medical profession.

Day in and day out, health care workers have worked around the clock to help the sick and dying to the brink of exhaustion.

While labeling 2020 as “eye-popping,” North Bay public health nurse Nancy Martin was pulled from her department to work temporarily in a disease control unit and found a “huge vulnerability” in these often-steely group of professionals.

“I believe this year cracked the system,” she said, addressing health care workers seen breaking down.

As she enters 2021, Martin hopes public health — with its focus on prevention — will gain the respect similar to her medical counterparts who come into the picture “after the fact.” Another aim involves providing more help to the disenfranchised and minorities, which have experienced proportionately higher case numbers.

Beyond the more notable at-risk employees such as health care workers, janitors weren’t the only frontline staffers who expressed concern.

Retailer and grocery store clerks fought hard to stay safe on a daily basis, even amid a dissention among anti-mask advocates.

“Grocery workers have gone above and beyond to provide uninterrupted essential services to their communities. We consider them to be our ‘supermarket superheroes,’” National Grocers Association spokesman Jim Dudlicek said.

Moreover, the jobs of grocery store clerks would have been much harder without the manufacturers of protective equipment.

Blake Miremont, who runs Architectural Plastics in Petaluma, took his company into overdrive to make acrylic barriers considered essential for processing plants and supermarkets. The North Bay manufacturer also produced thousands of plastic shields worn in many types of workplaces.

“We just caught up with the demand a month ago,” Miremont said. “It was a great feeling that we all shared that we were doing something to help in these dire times.”

For the coming year, Miremont predicts the call for such products won’t subside.

“On a psychological level, I think people will be more conscious of germs even after 2021,” he said.

One big grave reality

In some respects, the director of Lafferty & Smith funeral home in Santa Rosa hopes the public will cross over into 2021 without gracing his essential business in large numbers.

In 2020, an industry that defines itself as being resilient found difficult times. Social distancing guidelines dictated the nature of memorial services or lack thereof.

“We’re normally at the bottom of everybody’s train of thought,” Smith said. “But our big change is we were not able to do services like we usually do. I feel sorry for all the families who lost loved ones.”

Consequently, the pandemic altered the natural course of life’s ultimate journey. Services that were delayed in 2020 were postponed to 2021. Now it’s unclear whether they will resume in the coming year.

“We’ll see in the next six months,” Smith said.

2020 review, 2021 preview

As the “year like no other” draws to a close, the Business Journal examined how the coronavirus pandemic has been impacting “essential” and “nonessential” businesses differently, looking specifically at these areas of the economy:

• Wine business

• Restaurants

• Hotels

• Health care

• Banking and finance

• Job market

And we also explored how the massive Walbridge, Hennessey and Glass wildfires not only worsened the woes of businesses already reeling from pandemic shutdowns and virus-wary customers but also added to the backlog of burned North Bay properties still needing to be rebuilt since the 2017 blazes.

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