As Goodyear began phasing out a tire plant in Alabama and shifting operations to a cheaper facility in Mexico a few years ago, Jeremy Hughes worried about the loss of his livelihood and the impact on his hometown. Hughes also worried about the future of America. Sooner or later, he realized, the decline of U.S. …
Why Rebuilding America’s Manufacturing Muscle Is Essential Read More »
SACRAMENTO — California state lawmakers unleashed their frustrations about the state’s unemployment system Thursday, demanding answers from an agency director about the problems their jobless constituents have endured trying to access the financial lifeline during the pandemic. “We’ve never heard the type of suffering people are experiencing right now,” said Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco). …
California lawmakers blast ‘atrocious’ UI system overloaded with 4.9M claims Read More »
A month after easing lockdown restrictions, the state is still seeing a steady stream of unemployment claims, economic data shows. Georgia’s early move to start easing stay-at-home restrictions nearly a month ago has done little to stem the state’s flood of unemployment claims — illustrating how hard it is to bring jobs back while consumers …
Reopening reality check: Georgia’s jobs aren’t flooding back Read More »
At a time of record unemployment, Cintya Medina feels lucky to have a job at the Barnes & Noble warehouse in Monroe, N.J.—but she does not want a job that puts her in danger. When Medina and her coworkers learned of several confirmed Covid-19 cases at the warehouse, they organized a protest on April 7 to demand …
A total of 38.6 million workers have now applied for unemployment assistance over the past nine weeks. Another 2.4 million workers filed new unemployment claims last week, DOL reported, suggesting that the economic pain from the coronavirus is continuing even as states begin to allow businesses to reopen. The coronavirus has forced nearly 39 million …
Unemployment claims rise by 2.4 million as states try to open for business Read More »
When the independent news site Tennessee Holler tweeted a letter from Kroger to an employee, clawing back $461.60 in “overpaid” emergency pay and even threatening “further collection efforts,” outrage ensued. As it should. But the good news is, Kroger quickly paid attention to that outrage and backed off. “We’ve instructed our payroll department to directly inform the small number …
The U.S. president recently ordered meatpacking employees back into workplaces plagued by coronavirus. He did not order the employers to make their slaughterhouses safe. GOP-proposed legislation exempts employers from lawsuits by employees sickened or killed by coronavirus infections at workplaces. The GOP is mostly silent about requiring employers to maintain safe or healthy workplaces. Employers across the …
Capitalism vs. Safety, Health: An Old Story Again Read More »
Since this article was written, apple packinghouse workers at two more companies have joined the strike: at Hansen Fruit and Columbia Reach. Six worksites in Yakima County have now seen production shut down. The county has the highest rate of COVID-19 cases on the West Coast. The strikes are women-led, multigenerational, and multiracial, according to …
“The reason we all work at nonprofits is because we support the mission of the nonprofits,” says Kayla Blado, who works at the Economic Policy Institute. It makes sense. Like many fields that involve doing something good for the world, nonprofit work tends to come with low pay and long hours. But now, more than …
A Quiet Frenzy of Union Organizing Has Gripped the Nonprofit World Read More »
Calling people “gig” workers is a subtle trap. “Gig” can sound anywhere from upbeat to just a mundane description. The truth is the “gig” economy is just another way of exploiting people and it’s a dream for all capitalists to have a pool of workers who can be used and abused at the beckon call …
Madeline Messa is a 3L at Syracuse University College of Law. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. With her legal research and writing for Workplace Fairness, she strives to equip people with the information they need to be their own best advocate.
