Victoria’s second coronavirus wave has revealed a stark pattern. Outbreaks have occurred in meatworks in Gelong, in Melbourne’s north and southwest, and across the state. Clusters have emerged in food and liquor warehouses servicing major retailers, among cleaners and security guards and, tragically, in residential aged-care facilities across the state. Schools and hospitals, particularly in lower-income suburbs, have also been hit.

COVID-19 has exploited existing weakness, taking hold in workplaces where precariousness, labor hire, and casual work are endemic. Where workers lack sick leave, where union power is low, or where employers rely disproportionately on hyperexploited migrant labor, the second wave has made headway. Many of these employers failed to provide workers with safe working conditions or adequate PPE (personal protective equipment). Some refused to reorganize rosters or the shop floor to minimize exposure between shifts.

These employers were already obsessed with maximizing profit and productivity — it’s little wonder their workplaces have been the main vector of transmission in Victoria’s second wave of the coronavirus. By disregarding workers’ health — and that of their families and communities — these employers have reduced labor to the status of just another objective factor of production, like equipment or raw materials. This is why COVID-19 has become a “plague of the working classes.”