People Post is a space for opinion pieces, letters to the editor and guest submissions from members of the Long Beach community. The following is an op-ed submitted by Víctor Sánchez , director of the Long Beach Coalition for Good Jobs and a Healthy Community, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Long Beach Post.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that we are all interconnected. It’s going to take standing together by staying home and taking necessary precautions to get through this public health crisis. While we do what we can to stay safe, support our frontline healthcare workers, and mourn those we have lost, we must fight like hell for the living. That especially includes Long Beach workers who’ve lost their jobs, and workers in grocery and drug retail as well as food delivery drivers who have become first-line responders during this crisis.

The Long Beach City Council must take decisive, bold and straightforward action. We cannot afford worker protection policies that exempt large businesses or other swaths of the local economy whose workers are impacted. Now is the time for Long Beach to lead.

Alongside hundreds of individuals who have signed our petition and sent letters, the #HealthyLB Coalition is calling on City Council to enact the following:

Paid sick leave—Efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19 are undermined when workers have no choice but to leave their homes and go to work when they are sick. The city must enact paid sick benefits for businesses with over 500 employees nationally. This will cover the workers Congress left behind in the CARES Act and give Long Beach workers a chance to stay healthy.

Worker retention and recall—This pandemic is unprecedented for all workers. According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), California is on track to lose 1,609,975 jobs by summer, with high concentrations in leisure, hospitality and retail. The city must act to make sure laid-off workers can return to their previous jobs when things calm down and business returns. Giving former employees a right of return to their old jobs will speed the transition back to a functioning labor market and lessen the damage to the city’s economy. The same goes for employees whose place of work went bankrupt or has been bought out by new owners; workers at those places should not lose their jobs. The more stability we can offer workers, the more stable our economy will be when we get out of this.

Retail grocery, drugstore and food delivery platform protections—Essential workers must be guaranteed a safe working environment. The grocery, drugstore and food delivery workers risking their lives on the frontline of this crisis must at the very least be provided with personal protective equipment and sanitary supplies. Food delivery drivers must be trained to make no-contact deliveries. All essential workers must be able to take time off without negative repercussions if they have changing childcare needs, immediate family members or household illness, or COVID-19 related symptoms, exposure or complications.

The challenge we face is unprecedented. The mayor and City Council have an opportunity to do right by the workers whose lives have been impacted by this public health crisis. Let’s show the country that the “Long Beach Way” includes standing up for all workers—without exemptions or exceptions.

To learn more about #HealthyLB, please visit http://healthylb.org/. To send a letter to the Mayor and City Council, click here.