Wednesday, April 1, 2020
'The Strike Wave Is in Full Swing': Amazon, Whole Foods Workers Walk Off Job to Protest Unjust and Unsafe Labor Practices
"One of the best ways to thank essential workers is to support the fight to improve their lives."
by
Julia Conley, staff writer
22 Comments
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/30/strike-wave-full-swing-amazon-whole-foods-workers-walk-job-protest-unjust-and-unsafe
Labor rights advocates on Monday urged the public to show support and solidarity with Amazon employees who walked off the job at a Staten Island warehouse following what the workers said was an unacceptable response by the company to at least one case of coronavirus at the facility.
Employees at the warehouse, known as JFK8, walked off the job around 12:30 pm Monday, days after at least one case of coronavirus was reported at the facility. Christian Smalls, an employee who is organizing the strike, told CNN the number of employees who have tested positive for the coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, is actually between five and seven, though the company has only acknowledged one infection.
The workers are demanding that Amazon shut the warehouse down and ensure it is sanitized before requiring employees to work again.
"We're not asking for much," Smalls said. "We're asking the building to be closed and sanitized, and for us to be paid [during that process]."
By ignoring the threat of transmission to other workers, tweeted the grassroots group New York Communities for Change, "Amazon is putting profits over safety."
Amazon is allowing contract workers to apply for sick pay if they test positive for the coronavirus or need to self-quarantine due to exposure, but the company is not providing them with paid sick leave as a matter of policy. Employees who are able to get tested are required to report for work while they wait for their results—a process which can take days and thus could be exposing the warehouse's 5,000 workers, and anyone they interact with outside of work, to COVID-19.
Amazon facilities have quickly become "breeding grounds for this pandemic," Smalls said. As of Monday, the virus has infected more than 144,000 people in the U.S.—the most of any country in the world—including more than 60,000 in New York State.
"We know we're not alone at JFK8 and that conditions are similar in Amazon facilities everywhere," Phillip Ruiz, a warehouse employee, told New York Communities for Change. "Amazon's actions do not match their statements that they are prioritizing our health or the health of the public."
The JFK8 strike comes days after workers at an Amazon facility in Queens refused to work their night shift after a fellow employee tested positive. The action also coincided with a strike Monday by gig workers for the grocery delivery app Instacart who are demanding hazard pay, supplies including hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes, and paid sick leave for workers with health issues which could make the coronavirus more dangerous to them.
Advocates on social media urged consumers to support the Instacart and Amazon workers.
"The richest man in the world can't even provide basic protection for his workers during this pandemic crisis because it hurts his bottom line," tweeted New York Assembly member Ron T. Kim of Amazon's multi-billionaire CEO, Jeff Bezos. "I stand in solidarity with Amazon workers."
Vice on Monday reported that employees of Whole Foods—which is owned by Amazon—plan to call in sick Tuesday to demand paid sick leave for all workers who have to quarantine during the pandemic, free coronavirus testing for employees, and hazard pay.
"The strike wave is in full swing," tweeted Lauren Kaori Gurley of Vice.
Whole Foods has kept stores in a number of cities open even after reports that employees in the stores have tested positive for the coronavirus. The supermarket chain is offering paid sick leave only to workers who test positive for the respiratory illness, Vice reported—a policy which, as with Amazon, could expose many workers and shoppers to the virus.
"My doctor asked me to quarantine for two weeks and I haven't been able to get paid time off," one anonymous worker told Vice. "Whole Foods said we wouldn't get it unless we got a positive test. There are a lot of people in my situation who aren't receiving time off. It's hard to imagine that those who couldn't afford to do so would stay home. Whole Foods says if you're feeling better, you should come to work."
'Seize It': Progressives Urge Philadelphia City Govt. to Take Hahnemann Hospital After Owner Demands $1 Million a Month in Rent
"The city should reopen Hahnemann hospital immediately," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
by
Eoin Higgins, staff writer
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/30/seize-it-progressives-urge-philadelphia-city-govt-take-hahnemann-hospital-after
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday joined a rising chorus of progressives demanding the city of Philadelphia seize the shuttered 500-bed Hahnemann hospital from its owner, investment banker Joel Freedman, and reopen the facility to handle the coming peak infections of the coronavirus in the city.
"The city should reopen Hahnemann hospital immediately," Sanders said in a tweet Monday at midday.
Sanders, who supported efforts to stop the hospital's closure in July 2019, including rallying with the facility's supporters, was one of a growing number of advocates calling for the city to take matters into its own hands after Freedman refused to lease the building to the city for less than $1 million a month.
"Seize it," tweeted progressive radio host Benjamin Dixon.
On Sunday, Freedman's mansion in Philadelphia had "Joel Kills" and "Free Hahnemann" spray painted on its side.
Philadelphians were not sympathetic.
The push for using eminent domain to take the hospital and put it back online despite Freedman's demands gained a fan in normally-skepitcal-of-such-actions Esquire journalist Charlie Pierce.
"I am generally not a fan of eminent domain," Pierce wrote Monday, "but if there is a clearer case for it than this one, especially at this moment in time, I don't know what it would be."
'Abolish For-Profit Health Insurance': Analysis Warns Companies Could Hike Premiums by 40% Amid Pandemic
"Corporate-run health insurance isn't about saving lives. It's about making as much money as possible. With Medicare for All we can finally put an end to this international disgrace," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/30/abolish-profit-health-insurance-analysis-warns-companies-could-hike-premiums-40-amid
A new analysis warning that U.S. health insurance companies could hike already exorbitant premiums by 40 percent or more next year amid the coronavirus pandemic was received by Medicare for All advocates as further confirmation that America's healthcare system—driven first and foremost by the profit motive—is ill-equipped to provide necessary care for all, particularly in a time of nationwide crisis.
The research conducted by Covered California, the state insurance marketplace created under the Affordable Care Act, found (pdf) that "if carriers must recoup 2020 costs, price for the same level of costs next year, and protect their solvency, 2021 premium increases to individuals and employers from COVID-19 alone could range from 4 percent to more than 40 percent."
The health and economic impacts of the coronavirus outbreak are "potentially staggering," the analysis states, and could result in even more "consumers and employers no longer being able to afford coverage, leading to employer groups dropping coverage or individuals deciding to go uninsured."
More than 80 million people in the U.S. are currently uninsured or underinsured, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, and millions more are losing their employer-provided insurance as the jobless rate spikes due to the coronavirus crisis.
"The impact of COVID-19 will be significant, and... absent federal action, consumers, employers, and our entire healthcare system may be facing unforeseen costs that could exceed $251 billion," Peter V. Lee, executive director of Covered California said in a statement. "Consumers will feel these costs through higher out-of-pocket expenses and premiums, as well as the potential of employers dropping coverage or shifting more costs to employees."
"These increased costs could mean that many of the 170 million Americans in the commercial market may lose their coverage and go without needed care as we battle a global health crisis," Lee added. "These are not 'insurer' costs—these are costs directly borne by individual Americans."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), whose Medicare for All proposal would virtually eliminate private insurance in the U.S., tweeted in response to the Covered California study that "America's for-profit insurance industry is not compatible with healthcare as a human right."
"Now is not the time for greed," said Sanders, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. "Now is the time for Medicare for All."
The new research comes as the coronavirus crisis continues to expose systemic flaws in America's fragmented and dysfunctional healthcare system. The Guardian reported last Thursday that as the virus has spread rapidly across the U.S., "private health insurance companies have lagged behind: making incremental changes to plans even as health providers seek to change course."
"They're doing healthcare to make money, not to take care of people," Dr. Judd Hollander, emergency medicine physician and associate dean at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, told The Guardian.
Last week, a 17-year-old boy in Los Angeles County died from complications believed to have been caused by COVID-19 after he was denied treatment at an urgent care center. The reason: he was uninsured.
"He didn't have insurance, so they did not treat him," said R. Rex Parris, the mayor of Lancaster, California.
'Insulting' Frontline Health Workers, Trump—Without Evidence—Accuses Hospital Staff in New York of Stealing Protective Gear
"This man is a serious danger to the health and safety of every health care worker in the nation."
by
Eoin Higgins, staff writer
68 Comments
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/30/insulting-frontline-health-workers-trump-without-evidence-accuses-hospital-staff-new
President Donald Trump on Sunday suggested that nurses and doctors in New York, the area in the U.S. hardest-hit thus far by the coronavirus outbreak, are stealing and selling facemasks and other protective gear meant to keep them safe as they handle an unprecedented influx of patients sick with the disease spreading across the country.
"Where are the masks going, are they going out the backdoor?" Trump said, implying that healthcare workers were smuggling personal proteective equipment (PPE) out of hospitals for resale on the black market.
"There's something going on. I don't think it's hoarding. I think it's maybe worse than hoarding," the president added, telling the assembled reporters to look into it.
CNN journalist Daniel Dale said the remarks were both "vague and evidenceless."
Trump made the comments "without providing evidence" of alleged thefts or other criminality during a Sunday afternoon press conference on his administration's handling of the coronavirus where the president announced that social distancing would be recommended through at least April 30—a reversal of an earlier pledge to have the country "back to work" by Easter. The president's suggestion that healthcare workers are stealing PPE came in response to a question on how the White House has handled requests from state and local officials for more protective gear as hospitals run out.
"That's just insensitive and it's unhelpful," New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio replied Monday.
According to Vox, the shortage of PPE could limit the number of healthcare workers who are available to manage the crisis just as it peaks:
Health care professionals and experts say we now have a shortage of masks, gowns, gloves, and other personal protective equipment (PPE) for doctors, nurses, and other medical staff. In this environment, health care workers worry they might get sick—perhaps forcing them to take up a hospital bed that would otherwise go to someone else—or die. Privately, some say they may not be able to show up to work at all under these conditions.
The situation not only threatens health care workers' well-being, it could limit US health care capacity even as experts warn we need to scale up to confront the rise in coronavirus cases.
The administration's response to the coronavirus has come under criticism as a failed and lethargic reaction to what is already one of the worst health crises in modern memory.
As HuffPost reported:
Hospitals and medical professionals have for weeks warned that stockpiles of medical supplies would not last throughout the pandemic. States have been bidding against each other to get equipment; doctors have resorted to reusing masks in some areas; and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention went so far as to tell health care providers to use homemade gear like bandanas or scarves "if necessary."
"Given the chance to prepare hospitals and health-care workers for the expected influx of covid-19 patients, the Trump administration did not take action to build up supplies of the vital equipment experts knew would be needed," medical historian Deborah Levine wrote Monday for the Washington Post. "Indeed, the administration has so far refused to use the Defense Production Act, or DPA, to ramp up production of even fairly basic but essential medical supplies, despite many urgent calls to do so."
As Common Dreams has reported, the lack of PPE available for healthcare workers has led nurses and doctors to feel they are being "sent to battle with no armor" as they plead with government officials to help with providing the lifesaving equipment.
In an opinion piece for Common Dreams Monday, Dr. Sanjeev K. Sriram called on the president to use his authority under the Defense Production Act (DPA) to ramp up the manufacturing of PPE and other needed medical equipment:
What this public health crisis demands exceeds whatever corporate charity can deliver. What health care workers need right now is not goodwill, but willpower. We need the president to use the Defense Production Act to its fullest capability. So far, Trump has used the DPA to force one company (General Motors) to make one product (ventilators). Based on reports, it also sounds like Trump invoked the DPA as a punishment toward GM and its CEO Mary Barra, with whom he has long-standing sexist animosity.
The reaction to the president's comments shifting blame for the lack of equipment onto those who are desperate for relief was swift and harsh.
"Has anyone pointed out that this man is a serious danger to the health and safety of every health care worker in the nation?" wondered National Nurses United communications director Charles Idelson.
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Monday rejected the president's comments as "insulting" to healthcare workers on the frontlines of the pandemic.
"They are showing up to work, not sure they'll have the personal protective gear, they're risking their lives, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that, and then they're going home and potentially exposing their families to this," said Gupta. "To suggest they're hoarding it, stealing it, taking out the back door, I think that was the rest of that quote, I think that is insulting."
After Repeatedly Downplaying Threat, Trump Now Says Keeping US Coronavirus Deaths to 100,000 Would Be a 'Good Job'
"There really are no words for this level of insensitivity and inhumanity. A serial killer would be jealous."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
74 Comments
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/30/after-repeatedly-downplaying-threat-trump-now-says-keeping-us-coronavirus-deaths
Just over a month after proclaiming that the number of coronavirus cases in the United States would soon "be down to close to zero," President Donald Trump said during a press briefing on the White House lawn Sunday that limiting U.S. deaths from the pandemic to between 100,000 and 200,000 people would mean his administration and the country as a whole did "a very good job."
Speaking as the death toll from the novel coronavirus climbed above 2,300 in the U.S.—which has the most confirmed cases of the virus in the world—Trump cited recent research warning that 2.2 million people in the U.S. could die from COVID-19 if the nation's government and population take no action to mitigate the threat.
"You're talking about 2.2 million deaths, 2.2 million people from this," the president said. "And so, if we can hold that down, as we're saying, to 100,000—that's a horrible number—maybe even less, but to 100,000, so we have between 100- and 200,000, we all together have done a very good job."
Watch:
Critics condemned Trump's remarks as remarkably cruel and callous, particularly coming from someone who has repeatedly downplayed the threat of the virus—at one point suggesting it was a "new hoax" perpetrated by the Democratic Party—and urged Americans to get back to work despite warnings from medical professionals.
"There really are no words for this level of insensitivity and inhumanity. A serial killer would be jealous," said Charles Idelson of National Nurses United in response to Trump's comments.
Others reacted with similar alarm and disgust:
Trump announced Sunday that the White House is extending federal social distancing guidelines to at least April 30, a retreat from the president's insistence last week that the country could be "rarin' to go" by Easter—April 12.
Noting the president's rapidly shifting goalposts, CNN reporter Daniel Dale tweeted late Sunday, "Trump has come a long way from the 15-cases-but-we're-going-down-to-zero."
As Sanders Demands End to Iran Sanctions to Save Lives Amid Coronavirus Pandemic, Biden Says He Needs 'More Information'
"Iran is facing a catastrophic toll from the coronavirus pandemic," said Sanders. "U.S. sanctions should not be contributing to this humanitarian disaster."
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/30/sanders-demands-end-iran-sanctions-save-lives-amid-coronavirus-pandemic-biden-says
After Sen. Bernie Sanders and other progressive lawmakers last week called on the Trump administration to end its economic warfare against Iran amid the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden on Sunday refused to commit to even temporarily lifting U.S. sanctions on Iran that are severely restricting the country's access to essential medical supplies.
"There's a lot of speculation from my foreign policy team that they're in real trouble and they're lying," said Biden. "But I would need more information to make that judgement. I don't have the national security information available.""I don't have enough information about the situation in Iran right now," said Biden, the former vice president under the Obama administration, which negotiated the Iran nuclear accord that President Donald Trump scrapped in 2018.
Watch:
The dire situation in Iran has been international news for weeks and the public outcry over U.S. sanctions has been coming from human rights groups as well as Biden's fellow Democrats.
Biden's remarks on Sunday came a week after more than dozen members of Congress—including Sanders, Biden's remaining 2020 Democratic presidential rival—sent letters to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin demanding that the White House immediately lift sanctions on Iran as the nation attempts to combat one of the largest coronavirus outbreaks in the world.
"Rather than continue to pile on sanctions in the Iranian people's hour of need, we urge you to substantially suspend sanctions on Iran in a humanitarian gesture to the Iranian people to better enable them to fight the virus," reads a letter signed by Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and six other members of Congress.
The letter was sent days after Pompeo announced that the Trump administration is imposing more sanctions on Iran in an effort to "deprive the regime of critical income from its petrochemical industry and further Iran's economic and diplomatic isolation."
The U.S. reimposed sweeping sanctions on Iran in 2018 after Trump violated the Iran nuclear deal, effectively killing a signature foreign policy achievement of the Obama administration. On the campaign trail, Biden has condemned Trump's decision to withdraw from the agreement and vowed to return to the negotiating table with Iran if elected president.
The Washington Post reported Sunday that U.S. sanctions against Iran—where the coronavirus has officially infected more than 41,000 people and killed nearly 2,800—"have limited Tehran's ability to finance and purchase essential items from abroad, including drugs as well as the raw materials and equipment needed to manufacture medicines domestically."
"There is no logic to these sanctions," tweeted Sina Toossi, senior research analyst with the National Iranian American Council. "They're cruel and unusual punishment, full stop."
An anonymous employee of a major Iranian pharmaceutical company told the Post that "the sanctions have definitely made the import and production processes longer and more expensive."
"Some suppliers are afraid and not willing to work with us anymore," the person said. "The sanctions have reduced Iran's capacity to control the outbreak."
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