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essential workers

How Americans Can Help the Frontline Workers Battling COVID-19

Leave a Comment / Essential Worker / By

Chad Longpre Shepersky repeatedly took COVID-19 tests—and waited on pins and needles for results each time—during a coronavirus outbreak at Guardian Angels Health and Rehabilitation Center in Hibbing, Minnesota. Longpre Shepersky, a certified nursing assistant (CNA), never contracted the virus. But he watched in agony as dozens of his patients and coworkers fell ill and …

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‘We went from being essential to being sacrificial, all for the sake of the bottom line’

1 Comment / Essential Worker, Pandemic / By

How much rage have you got left after four years of Donald Trump and nine months of coronavirus pandemic? Please set aside some to direct at the United States’ largest retail companies for their treatment of their workers. A Brookings Institution report shows how 13 of the nation’s 20 largest retail chains, with a combined …

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What the workplace will look like under a Biden White House

Leave a Comment / Department of Labor, Health & Safety, MinimumWage, union mobilizing / By

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 …

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Pandemic on course to overwhelm U.S. health system before Biden takes office

Leave a Comment / Essential Worker, health care, Health Care Workers, Pandemic / By

The United States’ surging coronavirus outbreak is on pace to hit nearly 1 million new cases a week by the end of the year — a scenario that could overwhelm health systems across much of the country and further complicatePresident-elect Joe Biden’s attempts to coordinate a response. Biden, who is naming his own coronavirus task …

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This Amazon Grocery Runner Has Risked Her Job to Fight for Better Safety Measures

Leave a Comment / OSHA, productivity, Public Campaign, Uncategorized, Workplace Conditions, workplace ethics, workplace safety / By

This arti­cle is part of a series on Ama­zon work­ers pro­duced in part­ner­ship with the Eco­nom­ic Hard­ship Report­ing Project. Courte­nay Brown spends her day mak­ing gro­cery runs for oth­ers in a foot­ball-field-sized maze of nar­row aisles and refrig­er­at­ed enclaves. At the Ama­zon Fresh unit in a Newark, New Jer­sey ful­fill­ment cen­ter, she works on the out­bound ship dock, help­ing …

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Amazon Expects Its Employees to Operate Like Fast-Moving Machines. This Amazon Picker Is Fighting Back.

Leave a Comment / accountability, bosses, Capitalism, Essential Worker, productivity, Uncategorized / By

For Sean Carlisle (a pseu­do­nym) a 32-year-old grad­u­ate stu­dent and native of California’s Inland Empire, the last three years at his local Ama­zon ful­fill­ment cen­ter have been an edu­ca­tion. As a stu­dent of urban plan­ning, he stud­ies how built envi­ron­ments shape a community’s behav­ior. As a pick­er, he packs items at a break­neck pace amid stacks of inven­to­ry and snaking …

Amazon Expects Its Employees to Operate Like Fast-Moving Machines. This Amazon Picker Is Fighting Back. Read More »

Meet the Warehouse Worker Who Took On Amazon Over Inhumane Conditions and Harassment

2 Comments / Essential Worker, Exploitation, Harassment, Health & Safety, Worker Protection, Workplace Conditions / By

Hibaq Mohamed has worked for Ama­zon near­ly as long as she’s been in the Unit­ed States. In 2016, the twen­ty-some­thing Soma­li immi­grant land­ed in Min­neso­ta by way of a refugee camp, join­ing one of the largest East African com­mu­ni­ties in the coun­try. She soon joined the legion of work­ers who fuel the state’s main Ama­zon facil­i­ty, the …

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OSHA Is Failing Essential Workers. Why Not Let Them Sue Their Bosses?

2 Comments / Essential Worker, OSHA / By

Since the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States early this year, frontline workers in sectors deemed “essential” have staged hundreds of strikes, sickouts and other job actions to protest unsafe working conditions. At hospitals, warehouses, meat processing plants, fast-food restaurants, transport and delivery services, and retail and grocery stores, workers have demanded their employers do …

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Trump Administration Quietly Adds Foreign Arms Sale to List of “Essential Work”

Leave a Comment / Essential Worker / By

Buried on the 18th page of a recently updated federal government memo defining which workers are critical during the Covid-19 pandemic is a new category of essential workers: defense industry personnel employed in foreign arms sales.  The memo, issued April 17, is a revised version of statements issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and …

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Being an “Essential Worker” Won’t Save You From Deportation

Leave a Comment / Essential Worker, Undocumented Employees / By

Legions of undocumented immigrants in the United States carry letters signed by their employers stating that President Donald Trump’s administration considers them essential workers amid the pandemic. While these letters exempt them from being arrested by local agents for violating stay-at-home orders, these workers could still be detained and deported by federal authorities. José (a …

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Madeline Messa

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.

  • “New York, NY”