coronavirus

Striking McDonald’s Workers Say Their Lives Are More Essential Than Fast Food

Leave a Comment / Strike, workplace safety / By max cyril

The fast food industry has long insulated itself from organized labor by building a legal wall between the parent company and the individual franchised stores. That imaginary separation is being tested by the reality of the coronavirus pandemic, as McDonald’s workers across the country have held strikes and walked out, unwilling to risk their lives …

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Social distancing complaints at city businesses flood 311

Leave a Comment / Infectious Disease, Uncategorized, workplace safety / By max cyril

The few commercial establishments still operating in New York City saw more than 1,500 complaints of inadequate social distancing in a single week, as officials struggle to keep residents of the most densely populated big city in America away from each other. Even with Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo closing nonessential businesses …

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Four grocery workers have died of COVID-19 in recent weeks and dozens more have tested positive

Leave a Comment / workplace safety / By max cyril

Grocery workers have become some of the most essential workers of the coronavirus crisis—making clear that we’ve relied on them all along. But it’s also a dangerous job, exposing workers to hundreds of customers a day, often without adequate protective gear. The terrible, predictable result is that grocery workers are starting to die of the …

Four grocery workers have died of COVID-19 in recent weeks and dozens more have tested positive Read More »

Hospital Food Workers and Janitors Are Stuck In a “Death Trap”

Leave a Comment / Essential Worker, Infectious Disease / By max cyril

The hospital where Kim Smith works is supposed to be a “safe haven,” says the patient care technician at Northwestern Memorial in Chicago. But now she feels it has become a “death trap.” Like the nurses and doctors nationwide who are risking their lives to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Smith says she’s glad to help …

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Is Building Missiles ‘Essential’? The U.S. Government Thinks So.

Leave a Comment / Essential Worker / By max cyril

On March 19, after the novel coronavirus had spread to all 50 states, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)—the branch of Homeland Security that oversees critical infrastructure—released a list of which sectors of the economy employ “the essential workers needed to maintain the services and functions Americans depend on daily.” The list includes mostly obvious essentials …

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Millions of People Can’t Pay Rent Tomorrow. Here’s How Some Are Organizing.

Leave a Comment / unemployment / By max cyril

As April 1 looms and the first rent payment since the start of the coronavirus pandemic becomes due, countless people wonder how they’ll be able to afford to pay. Since the start of the coronavirus crisis, millions have had their hours cut, been furloughed, or laid off. A whopping 3.3 million have applied for unemployment …

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Coronavirus is endangering the postal service when we need vote by mail. Congress needs to act now

Leave a Comment / Health & Safety, Infectious Disease / By max cyril

Congress is failing the U.S. Postal Service, again, and with it, the nation. USPS warned recently that it could run out of money to operate by June because of the massive fall in the level of mail being sent during coronavirus business closures. Democrats tried to include money in the recent stimulus, but the only help that ended up in …

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Why COVID-19 Will Strain the Safety Net for Homeless Vets to the Breaking Point

Fatalistic Grocery Workers Demand Hazard Pay, Saying “Infection Is Inevitable”

1 Comment / Health & Safety, Infectious Disease / By max cyril

Grocery store employees find themselves the subject of widespread public acclaim for continuing to work during the coronavirus crisis. But front-line workers at grocery chains across the country say they want something more tangible than congratulations: hazard pay. And they are winning it with spontaneous organizing campaigns forged in the crucible of a national crisis. …

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‘Now, I’m Unemployed’: How Coronavirus Killed Off the Capitol Hill Internship

Leave a Comment / Unpaid Interns / By max cyril

They thought they were getting their foot in the door for a career in politics. Now, their internships have abruptly ended — and their ambitions are on hold. Congress’ frenzied effort to respond to the coronavirus crisis has been one of the most furious sessions of lawmaking in history. Just days after a congressional staffer …

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