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Worker Rights

Pivot To Mass Struggle: A Lesson From Ferguson

May 21, 2020 By Ashton Rome, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
Like the financial meltdown of 2007–08, the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression and a period of political radicalization, this period will dawn a new epoch in struggle. The transition to a new period of struggle is always difficult due in part to the changes needed to adjust to a new political situation and orient to new developments. The process of adjustment will involve discussion and debate within and amongst activist, labor, service groups, and others on the current situation, studying past struggles to discover insights that could provide guidance for activists today and deepening an understanding of capitalism and nature political struggle.

Survey Of Nurses Proves Widespread Disregard For Nurse And Patient Safety

May 21, 2020 National Nurses United. , , ,
National Nurses United (NNU) released data from its new nationwide survey of nearly 23,000 nurses, revealing that dangerous health care workplace conditions have become the norm since COVID-19 struck the United States, which nurses say shows a complete disregard for worker and public health on the part of health care employers and the government. The main way nurses and patients are put at risk is through lack of optimal personal protective equipment (PPE). “Months into the pandemic, the virus continues to threaten communities across the country, and more than 100 nurses have died of COVID-19. This new survey shows that nurses are still fighting today for optimal personal protective equipment (PPE), fighting to get tested, and fighting for their own lives, and their patients’ lives,” said NNU Executive Director Bonnie Castillo, RN.

COVID-19 Deaths Among Nurses: US 91, Canada 0. Why?

May 13, 2020 By Mark Gruenberg, People's World. , , ,
There’s a yawning gap between the number of U.S. nurses the viral pandemic has killed so far in the U.S. and the number of Canadian nurses killed. The count as of May 11: U.S. 91, Canada, 0. That prompted National Nurses United President Zunei Cortez, RN, of California and her Canadian counterpart, Linda Silas, RN, to meet each other via Zoom on May 11, with hundreds of nurses from both nations listening in, to discuss why. And it all comes down to the fact, both agreed, that Canada’s nationalized health system, despite a large hole involving nursing homes, puts people – patients and practitioners – before profits, while the U.S. is the other way around.

Following Mexico’s Worker Strikes, The US Steps In To Keep Border Factories Open

May 12, 2020 By David Bacon, Truthout. , , , ,
In Washington, D.C., President Trump is trying his best to reopen closed meatpacking plants, as packinghouse workers catch the COVID-19 virus and die. In Tijuana, Mexico, where workers are dying in mostly U.S.-owned factories (known as maquiladoras) that produce and export goods to the U.S., the Baja California state governor, a former California Republican Party stalwart, is doing the same thing. Jaime Bonilla Valdez rode into the governorship in 2018 on the coattails of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. And at first, as a leading member of López Obrador’s MORENA Party, he was a strong voice calling for the factories on the border to suspend production. López Obrador himself was criticized for not acting rapidly enough against the pandemic. But in late March, in the face of Mexico’s rising COVID-19 death toll, he finally declared a State of Health Emergency.

Prison Labor Replaces Striking Garbage Workers In New Orleans

May 10, 2020 Mike Elk, Payday Report. , , ,
On Wednesday, dozens of garbage workers, employed by the temp service People Ready, went on strike, demanding proper safety equipment.  The workers, who make only $10.25 an hour are also demanding hazard pay and paid sick leave.  “$10.25 to pick up trash – come on now. It’s contaminated now with coronavirus,” strike leader Gregory Woods told Payday Report this week.  After striking, the workers were fired en-masse earlier this week However, many workers had hoped that the city would find a resolution to hire the back. Now, the city has found new workers to replace the striking workers, prison labor from nearby Livingston Parish. 

We’re Fighting COVID, Budget Cuts And ‘Murderous Racial Inequalities’

May 7, 2020 Danny Katch, The Indypendent. , , ,
Sean Petty is a pediatric emergency room nurse at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx and the southern regional director for the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA). In mid-March, he spoke to The Indypendent’s Danny Katch about how the coming coronavirus spike would overwhelm a public hospital system that had been decimated by budget cuts and closures. The subsequent weeks proved his predictions correct. The official virus death toll in New York City is over 18,000 as of this writing, a number that includes dozens of health care workers.  But Petty and his fellow nurses have also organized themselves into powerful political actors who have leveraged their moral authority to demand more personal protective equipment (PPE) and other resources from local and national officials.

Across Class Lines: Amazon Tech Workers Join Warehouse Workers In Protests

May 2, 2020 Bryce Covert, Progress.org. , , ,
At first, Gerald Bryson didn’t take the coronavirus all that seriously. But then, people he knew started dying. “People I’ve known all my life, big healthy men three times my size, are dead,” he said. “This thing is real.” He assumed that Amazon, his employer, would take the necessary measures to keep him and his fellow Staten Island warehouse workers safe. Instead, safety precautions “were almost nonexistent,” Bryson said. “When the virus first hit, Amazon didn’t move into gear. We were still doing the same things we were doing on a normal day, crowded.” Eventually, Amazon informed his warehouse that a number of employees had tested positive. The company didn’t release any of the names, however, so it was impossible for Bryson to know whether he’d been exposed to the people who were sick. It scared him.

Philly Unions Are Calling For A Citywide Essential Worker Bill Of Rights

May 1, 2020 Juliana Feliciano Reyes, Philadelphia Inquirer. , , ,
As workers grow increasingly desperate in the face of life-threatening conditions, Philadelphia labor leaders have come together to say the city must do more to protect employees deemed essential during the coronavirus pandemic. Officials representing more than 30 union locals and worker groups called Monday for Mayor Jim Kenney to make testing available for all essential workers and prevent employers from firing employees who stay home if they feel sick. The effort, led by UPS workers’ Teamsters Local 623 and the worker group One Pennsylvania, is the first attempt at uniting the city’s labor movement to get better protection for workers during the pandemic. “Workers were called upon to deliver us through this crisis,” the union leaders wrote in a letter to Kenney.

Amazon Will Not Change Without A Union

April 28, 2020 Hamilton Nolan, In These Times. , ,
Since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, Jeff Bezos has gotten $24 billion richer. Amazon’s stock price has risen more than 40% since mid-March. This explosive creation of corporate wealth has coincided with an unprecedented level of labor activism against Amazon, including multiple well-publicized workplace walkouts, protests, and a growing drumbeat of negative PR about the company’s handling of the pandemic, particularly regarding the workplace safety of warehouse workers. There has never been as much coordinated labor action against Amazon. And Amazon has never been more successful. If the goal is to truly change Amazon, it’s time to make the strategy sharper. Yes, Amazon is a behemoth. It is not just a trillion-dollar company run by the world’s richest man; it is a machine that is slowly eradicating the traditional retail industry in America and changing the entire landscape of work.

Amazon Workers Walk Out Over COVID-19 Outbreak

April 26, 2020 Atwood Center, Facebook. , , , ,
Breaking: 50+ workers WALKED OUT at the Shakopee Amazon warehouse overnight after management revealed two more cases of COVID-19 and unjustly fired another worker leader. Faiza Osman has been a dedicated worker at Amazon for nearly three years, and was terminated for staying home with her two children during the pandemic. Amazon leadership had informed workers to stay home if they felt that they needed the time off, yet they fired Osman evidently for doing what she was allowed to do. This followed the firing of multiple Amazon leaders at the Shakopee warehouse. Workers believe that Amazon is using its six-foot social distancing policy to retaliate against workers. Amazon recently announced it would take away unlimited unpaid time off effective May 1st.

Peru: Unions Protest Against Government’s Economic Measures

April 23, 2020 Telesur English. , , ,
Labor Unions in Peru are protesting against a new economic measure from the government that seeks to cease work until the COVID-19 pandemic dissipates. Peruvian President, Martin Vizcarra, announced on April 12 the implementation of the measure as his administration faces the COVID-19 impact. The “perfect suspension” states that those who are unable to work because of the virus can stop working for up to 90 days, but their employers are not required to pay them for the time they are unemployed. Despite the economic issues, workers remain under contract with consequent obligations. According to Geronimo Lopez, General Chief of Peruvian Unions, "This government does not respect the space of social dialogue; we the workers are taking on and carrying this crisis of the COVID-19. In the face of this, we are going to take action to fight, a nationwide demonstration".

Largest Strike Yet, Amazon Workers Call In Sick

April 22, 2020 Julia Conley, Commondreams. , , ,
Hundreds of Amazon workers from across the U.S. on Tuesday called in sick to demand better safety standards at the ecommerce giant's warehouses in the largest coordinated action at the company since the coronavirus pandemic began. The labor rights groups United for Respect, New York Communities for Change, and Make the Road New York organized the action. More than 300 employees joined the strike and refused to work. More than 75 Amazon employees have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, in recent weeks as workers have sounded alarms about a lack of transparency and safety protocols at the company's 110 U.S. warehouses. Athena, a coalition of groups dedicated to fighting injustices at Amazon, called on Americans to demonstrate solidarity with the striking employees, who work in at least 50 of the company's facilities throughout the country.

Immigrant Meatpackers Fightback Against Intimidation And Death Traps

April 20, 2020 Mike Elk, Pay Day Report. , , , ,
As COVID-19 ravages communities across the U.S., many experts agree that meatpacking plants, where employees work shoulder-to-shoulder, are the next ground zero for the spread of COVID-19. In several rural communities with sudden COVID-19 spikes, many residents say that the meatpacking plants that surround the city and employ several thousand area residents are responsible for accelerating the spread of COVID-19.  Albany, Ga., rocked by COVID-19, has seen more than 30 people die from the virus. For a city of only 70,000, Albany has the fourth-highest per capita rate of COVID-19 cases, with 659 cases for every 100,000 people. The town is ringed by a series of a half-dozen meatpacking plants, where thousands of workers are employed in meatpacking. 

No Evil Foods Is Evil To Workers

April 20, 2020 Joe Atkins, Labor South. , , ,
No Evil Foods on the outskirts of Asheville, North Carolina, takes pride in being a very cool and hip company.  On its web site, it proclaims the following: “No Evil Foods makes meat from nothin’ but plants. We are makers driven to help hungry mouths everywhere recognize the connection between food, kindness to self and others, and environmental impact.”   This is a company with a leftist schtick. Among its vegan meat products are Comrade Cluck and the chorizo-like El Zapatista. Its owners like to call themselves “revolutionary leaders”.   Well, comrades, Emiliano would not be very happy with No Evil Foods if he were around today. With the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic threatening its dozens of employees much like it’s threatening all of us, No Evil Foods has insisted that, as a food operation, it is an essential service to its paying customers, and its workers must continue producing.

Waffle House Puts Profits Over People In The COVID Era

April 16, 2020 Liberation Staff Asheville, Liberation News. , , ,
Waffle House, like many struggling industries across the country, has chosen to place the burden of its lost profits on the shoulders of those who keep it running every day of the year. COVID-19 has brought opportunity again and again for corporate entities and long-standing business empires to ravage the pockets of their workers, those whose labor has lined corporate pockets for generations. The capitalist class has, not unexpectedly, proven itself unwilling to place human lives over profit-hoarding and welfare for the rich. The Party for Socialism and Liberation’s own Jason Carroll reports directly from the front lines of this struggle, bringing to light the unconscionable disregard Waffle House has shown for its workers in this crisis, and long before.  
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