The COVID-19 pandemic made clear to us in Barbados that workers, whom we overlooked and regarded as not terribly important in the grand scheme of things, proved to be among our most vital resource.It dawned on many citizens who were driving their fancy cars and filling up their grocery carts, that the lowly gas station attendants or the supermarket cashiers or small farmers growing bananas and sweet potatoes, were key to the proper functioning of services that we take for granted.The nursery attendants looking after our preschoolers, teachers in the classrooms preparing our children for their futures, and public service transportation drivers who helped to keep us connected, all played a significant role over the two years of this pandemic.There was also a set of workers who suffered tremendously as a result of the fallout from COVID, not because their jobs were not of value. In fact, tourism workers are the ones who have helped to preserve this economy’s fragile golden egg for decades.
