What everyone’s thinking about this week: Should workers still be required to wear masks on the job? When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suddenly updated its guidance last week to allow fully vaccinated Americans to gather without masks indoors and outdoors, even if some in their group are unvaccinated, the agency created confusion about …
Washington, DC—Following is a statement from Rebecca Dixon, executive director of the National Employment Law Project: “NELP applauds the introduction of the Safe Line Speeds in COVID-19 Act, championed by Senator Cory Booker and Representative Rosa DeLauro, which would protect the health and safety of meatpacking workers by suspending and prohibiting any line speed increases …
Six people are dead after a liquid nitrogen leak at a Georgia poultry plant and 11 others were hospitalized, with at least three in critical condition. Two of the people killed were Mexican citizens, and those injured included at least four firefighters. “When leaked into the air, liquid nitrogen vaporizes into an odorless gas that’s capable …
Six dead in Georgia poultry plant liquid nitrogen leak, this week in the war on workers Read More »
States are increasingly bypassing the federal government and imposing their own rules to protect workers from the coronavirus, creating a patchwork of regulations that could serve as a blueprint for new national standards promised by President-elect Joe Biden. Oregon last month began requiring employers to supply masks, develop infection control plans and notify staff of …
States become worker safety watchdogs as pandemic worsens Read More »
We’re back with Season Four of Working People! In this urgent episode, we talk with Dr. Amir Atabeygi, a physician at MultiCare Indigo Urgent Care in Thurston County, Washington. On November 23, amid a terrifying surge in COVID-19 cases around the country, Dr. Atabeygi joins his fellow physicians, physician assistants, and advanced registered nurse practitioners on the picket line as …
As Covid Surges, Doctors Are Striking Against “Retail Health” Read More »
We’re heading into Thanksgiving week, and we’re hearing a lot of discussion of how people are—or aren’t—staying safe, from solitary living to plans for large gatherings and everything in between. We also need to be talking about how this holiday season kicks off after 35 straight weeks of a million or more people applying for unemployment insurance, …
This is sickening. We’ve known that the meatpacking industry has acted with callous disregard for its workers’ lives in the coronavirus pandemic, keeping them on the job in unsafe conditions. But according to a lawsuit by the family of the late Isidro Fernandez, it’s worse than that. At the Tyson pork processing plant where Fernandez worked in Iowa, …
Lawsuit over meatpacking worker’s COVID-19 death alleges truly grotesque abuses Read More »
In April, despite his fever, a meatpacking worker continued to carve neck bones out of pig carcasses at a JBS plant in Iowa. Two weeks later, he would test positive for COVID-19. But in the meantime, he said, he kept clocking in because of a punitive attendance system widely used in meatpacking plants: the point system. Under the policy, workers …
Meatpacking Workers Say Attendance Policies Force Them to Work With Covid-19 Symptoms Read More »
The U.S. workplace will look much different with Joe Biden in the Oval Office — with some significant changes possible even if Republicans maintain a majority in the Senate. “Biden, who won the endorsement of almost every major union in the country, has made labor reform a fundamental part of his program and is widely expected to name at least …
What the workplace will look like under a Biden White House Read More »
With Joe Biden about to enter the Oval Office, the American workplace is going to look much different. The former vice president and U.S. senator has four decades of relationships with union leaders behind him, setting him up to potentially be the most labor-friendly president the U.S. has ever had. Biden, who won the endorsement of almost …
What a Biden victory will mean for the American workforce Read More »
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.
