March 26, 2021 — Sitting behind a plastic barrier, a masked volunteer with Centro Comuntario de Trabajadores (CCT) helped two seafood processing workers register for the COVID-19 vaccine Monday afternoon. In another room, two more workers signed a form to be helped next.
On Monday, fishing industry workers — many of whom go out to sea for lengthy stretches and with ever-changing schedules — became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in Massachusetts.
According to a report from the New Bedford Port Authority, more than 6,200 people worked directly in the harbor’s commercial fishing and seafood processing industry in 2018.
Adrian Ventura, executive director of CCT, said through interpreter Lisa Knauer that their goal is to register 25 seafood processing workers per day for the vaccine.
Ventura and a representative from Fishing Partnership, a nonprofit dedicated to the health and safety of commercial fishermen, said the biggest challenge to getting the thousands of fishing industry workers vaccinated will likely be one of logistics.