Sunday, April 5, 2020
As Global COVID-19 Cases Top One Million, UN Adopts Resolution Urging 'Intensified International Cooperation'
The resolution passed as the U.N. chief declared that "now is the time to redouble our efforts to build more inclusive and sustainable economies and societies."
by
Jessica Corbett, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/03/global-covid-19-cases-top-one-million-un-adopts-resolution-urging-intensified
The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday evening approved its first resolution on the global coronavirus outbreak, calling for "intensified international cooperation to contain, mitigate, and defeat the pandemic" that has now killed over 55,000 people and infected more than one million worldwide.
The COVID-19 outbreak is a "threat to human health, safety, and well-being," the resolution states, recognizing "the unprecedented effects of the pandemic, including the severe disruption to societies and economies, as well as to global travel and commerce, and the devastating impact on the livelihood of people."The resolution (pdf), titled "Global Solidarity to Fight the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)," encourages all countries to tackle the crisis by "exchanging information, scientific knowledge, and best practices, and by applying the relevant guidelines recommended by the World Health Organization," a specialized U.N. agency.
"The poorest and most vulnerable are the hardest hit by the pandemic," warns the document, "and that the impact of the crisis will reverse hard-won development gains and hamper progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals."
The resolution "emphasizes the need for full respect for human rights, and stresses that there is no place for any form of discrimination, racism, and xenophobia in the response to the pandemic." It also recognizes the efforts of frontline workers and governments to address the crisis.
Sponsored by Ghana, Indonesia, Liechtenstein, Norway, Singapore, and Switzerland, the approved resolution was formally backed by 188 of the U.N. body's 193 members.
In response to the virus outbreak, the General Assembly has temporarily shifted to a "silence procedure" for passing resolutions; rather than meeting and voting to adopt a resolution by a majority or consensus, resolutions now pass as long as none of the member nations object before set deadlines.
The General Assembly declined to pass a rival coronavirus resolution sponsored by Russia. The New York Times reported that "diplomats said the European Union, United Kingdom, United States, and Ukraine objected to the Russian draft, which was co-sponsored by Central African Republic, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela."
In addition to calling for a global response to the coronavirus "based on unity, solidarity, and renewed multilateral cooperation," the approved resolution "calls upon the United Nations system, under the leadership of the secretary-general, to work with all relevant actors in order to mobilize a coordinated global response to the pandemic and its adverse social, economic, and financial impact on all societies."
The resolution was adopted mere hours after U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres published an op-ed about the pandemic in the Guardian, arguing that "we are still far away from having a coordinated, articulated global response that meets the unprecedented magnitude of what we are facing."
Guterres outlined a three-point call to action "based on science, solidarity, and smart policies":
Suppress transmission of the coronavirus;
Tackle the devastating social and economic dimensions of the crisis; and
Recover better.
The U.N. chief also highlighted the importance of "aggressive and early testing and contact tracing, complemented by quarantines, treatment, and measures to keep first responders safe, combined with measures to restrict movement and contact."
"The virus is spreading like wildfire, and is likely to move swiftly into the global south, where health systems face constraints, people are more vulnerable, and millions live in densely populated slums or crowded settlements for refugees and internally displaced persons," he warned. "Clearly, we must fight the virus for all of humanity, with a focus on people, especially the most affected: women, older people, youth, low-wage workers, small and medium enterprises, the informal sector, and vulnerable groups."
Regarding long-term recovery efforts, Guterres wrote that "we simply cannot return to where we were before COVID-19 struck, with societies unnecessarily vulnerable to crisis. The pandemic has reminded us, in the starkest way possible, of the price we pay for weaknesses in health systems, social protections, and public services. It has underscored and exacerbated inequalities."
"Now is the time to redouble our efforts to build more inclusive and sustainable economies and societies that are more resilient in the face of pandemics, climate change, and other global challenges," he added. "The recovery must lead to a different economy. Our roadmap remains the 2030 agenda and Sustainable Development Goals."
Under Cover of Pandemic, Trump's NLRB Moves to Make Unionizing 'Nearly Impossible for Workers'
"The Trump NLRB takes this moment to publish a rule that will make it harder both for workers to unionize and to keep unions they have. Shameful does not even begin to describe this."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/03/under-cover-pandemic-trumps-nlrb-moves-make-unionizing-nearly-impossible-workers
The National Labor Relations Board finalized a rule this week that critics warn could make unionizing "nearly impossible for workers" at a moment when employees across the nation are fighting for stronger protections against the coronavirus pandemic.
The proposed rule change from the board—which is controlled by three appointees of President Donald Trump—was published in the Federal Register on April 1. The new rule would eliminate the NLRB's "blocking charge policy," which permits the delay of union election results if the employer is accused of unlawful coercion or other unfair labor practices.
Opponents of the new rule said the changes could empower employees to illegally manipulate union election results and allow a minority of workers to decertify a union that a majority of workers voted to form.The proposal would also allow employees to file for decertification of a union in as few as 45 days after the union is voluntarily recognized by an employer. Under the new rule, a petition for decertification could be filed if just 30% of employees in a bargaining unit support the move.
The rule is set to take effect on May 31 after a 60-day public comment period.
Heidi Shierholz, labor economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), called the rule change "unbelievable."
"The Trump NLRB takes this moment to publish a rule that will make it harder both for workers to unionize and to keep unions they have," tweeted Shierholz. "Shameful does not even begin to describe this."
Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, said in a statement that "the board is effectively sealing off any viable path to unionization at a time when workers need a voice on the job more than ever."
"Donald Trump's caustic hostility to collective bargaining has manifested itself in the most anti-worker NLRB in America's history," said Trumka. "The labor movement will fight these actions with everything we have."
The proposed rule comes as grocery store employees and other workers deemed essential amid the coronavirus outbreak are walking off the job and holding "sick outs" to protest unsanitary workplaces and lack of protective gear.
The new rule marks the second time in less than a month that the Trump administration has advanced a union-busting proposal.
Last month, as Common Dreams reported, unions accused Trump of exploiting the coronavirus crisis to attack organized labor after the Federal Labor Relations Authority issued a rule proposal that would allow federal employees to cancel union dues at any time after a year of membership, rather than in the annual 15-day window established under current law.
In a blog post on Tuesday responding to the NLRB proposal, EPI government affairs director Celine McNicholas wrote that "it is unconscionable that the agency responsible for ensuring workers have the right to a voice in the workplace has denied them the ability to exercise these rights."
"Today and in the coming weeks, many workers will walk off the job over concerns for their health and safety in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic," McNicholas wrote. "These workers are risking their lives to deliver services that have been deemed essential to our nation."
"At the very least," said McNicholas, "we should demand that the federal agency responsible for ensuring these workers have the rights to a union and collective bargaining use our taxpayer dollars to conduct union elections for workers who want representation, as opposed to issuing rules that make it harder for workers to have a voice on the job."
"I Don't Have an Option": Facing Critical Ventilator Shortage, Cuomo Orders Seizure of Excess Equipment From Private Companies and Hospitals
"It's not that we're going to leave any health care facility without adequate equipment, but they don't need excess equipment."
by
Julia Conley, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/03/i-dont-have-option-facing-critical-ventilator-shortage-cuomo-orders-seizure-excess
Facing what he claims is a shortage of ventilators which will leave New York State without the life-saving equipment in less than a week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday he would sign an executive order allowing the state to seize ventilators from private companies and hospitals that aren't using them in order to treat coronavirus patients in hard-hit areas.
Cuomo said he would direct the National Guard to take ventilators and personal protective equipment (PPE) from private companies as well as hospitals without large numbers of coronavirus cases. The entities will either have the equipment returned to them or will be reimbursed, the governor said.
"I understand they don't want to give up their ventilators, ventilators are expensive pieces of equipment," Cuomo told the press. "But I don't have an option. And I'm not going to get into a situation where we know we are running out of ventilators and we have people dying because there are no ventilators."
At press time, more than 102,000 people in New York State had tested positive for the coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19. More than 2,900 people have died of the virus in the state, including at least 1,562 in New York City.
Cuomo estimated that after the order is carried out, "several hundred" excess ventilators could be made available to the hospitals which need them. Earlier on Friday, the governor warned that he expected the state to run out of available ventilators within six days.
"It's not that we're going to leave any health care facility without adequate equipment, but they don't need excess equipment," Cuomo said.
President Donald Trump has been excorciated by critics in recent weeks for calling on state governments to "try getting" ventilators and other supplies themselves, calling hospitals that are pleading for more equipment insatiable "complainers," and seizing states' orders while they were en route from the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS). The president has yet to invoke the Defense Production Act on a wide scale to order the production of new ventilators, despite comments suggesting he would.
On Thursday, Trump's senior advisor and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, suggested that states are misusing the SNS by requesting equipment from it, saying the stockpile is not meant to provide states with supplies even though it is taxpayer-funded.
Journalist Daniel Dale on Friday pointed out that the SNS website was changed after Kushner's statement.
A description of the program which previously said the stockpile is available "when state, local, tribal, are territorial responders request assistance to support their response efforts" now reads, "Many states have products stockpiled, as well"—reflecting Kushner's earlier statement.
In New York on Friday, Republican lawmakers in the state criticized Cuomo's executive order as an overreach. One reporter at the governor's press conference asked Cuomo if he was concerned that private companies would take legal action against him over the move.
"If they want to sue me for borrowing their excess ventilators to save lives, let them sue me," Cuomo said.
"It's Not Like We Have a Massive Recession or Worse," Says Trump After 10 Million Lost Their Jobs in Two Weeks
"It's artificial because we turned it off," Trump said of the economic crisis, a distinction that makes no difference to the millions who have lost their jobs and their health insurance.
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
72 Comments
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/03/its-not-we-have-massive-recession-or-worse-says-trump-after-10-million-lost-their
During a Coronavirus Task Force briefing late Thursday following news that 10 million Americans filed jobless claims over just a two-week period last month, President Donald Trump downplayed the intensifying economic downturn as "an artificial closing" and insisted that businesses like restaurants will be "bigger and better" than before once the COVID-19 crisis subsides.
"It's not like we have a massive recession or worse. It's artificial because we turned it off," Trump said, drawing a distinction that makes no difference to those who have lost their jobs—as well as employer-provided health insurance—or seen their hours drastically cut due to the crisis.
"Oh thank God, for a second I thought I was actually unemployed and not just artificially unemployed," one Twitter user quipped in response to the president's comments.
Amid widespread criticism that the federal government's economic stimulus and relief efforts have been far too slow and inadequate, Trump said "we will probably do more."
Watch:
The president's remarks came after the Labor Department announced Thursday morning that 6.6 million Americans filed jobless claims last week, a record-breaking figure that economists warned could portend an unprecedented depression.
"This kind of upending of the labor market in such a short time is unheard of," wrote Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute. "Given the incredible deterioration of the labor market in a matter of weeks, federal policymakers will absolutely need to come back and provide more desperately needed relief, and more support for the recovery once the lockdown is over."
Wisconsin Governor Finally Moves to Postpone State's Primary Elections, Shift to Vote-by-Mail
[BERNIE CAN STILL GET THE NOMINATION. WE NEED TO POSTPONE PRIMARIES A LITTLE LONGER.]
Fifteen states in recent weeks have delayed their primary elections in light of the coronavirus pandemic, but Wisconsin has yet to do so.
by
Julia Conley, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/03/wisconsin-governor-finally-moves-postpone-states-primary-elections-shift-vote-mail
After facing mounting pressure—including calls from public health officials, voting rights advocates, and presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders—Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers finally on Friday called on the state's Republican-led legislature to hold a special session Saturday afternoon to take up legislation that would delay the state's Democratic primary and a number of state and local elections set to take place Tuesday, April 7.
The legislation Evers wants lawmakers to consider would allow an all-mail election, following the lead of 15 states which have postponed voting in the Democratic primary due to the coronavirus pandemic, which had spread to more than 258,000 Americans at press time.
The state would be ordered to send mail-in ballots to every voter who hasn't already requested one by May 19, and voters would have until May 26 to return their ballots.
Republican state lawmakers are insisting the election go forward as planned. In addition to the Democratic primary, Wisconsin voters are set to cast ballots in several local elections and a state Supreme Court race. A victory for current Justice Daniel Kelly would preserve a 5-2 conservative majority on the court. As President Donald Trump suggested earlier this week, low turnout due to the pandemic could help secure Kelly's seat.
As The Nation's journalist John Nichols wrote, influential Democrats in Wisconsin have largely been united against the GOP's refusal to delay the election—especially after Evers on March 25 followed the advice of public health officials and issued a stay-at-home order for the state to keep residents from gathering in groups and risking spreading the coronavirus.
The state party, a number of mayors, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and voting rights groups all called on Evers and the state legislature to halt in-person voting to protect Wisconsin residents—but Sanders' opponent in the Democratic presidential primary, former Vice President Joe Biden, has not joined the call.
Evers' reluctance to act has thrown the impending election into disarray in recent weeks, with more than 100 precincts reporting they don't have enough poll workers to staff voting locations and Milwaukee announcing it plans to use only five polling places instead of the usual 180, increasing the likelihood of dangerous crowds on Election Day.
This week, U.S. Judge William Conley ordered the state to extend the deadline to request an absentee ballot by one day and to allow voters until April 14 to return them, but said it was not within his power to delay the election.
Conley harshly criticized lawmakers and Evers on Thursday for their refusal to take action.
"The Wisconsin State Legislature and governor apparently are hoping...that the efforts of the [Wisconsin Election Commission] administrator, her staff, the municipalities and poll workers, as well as voters willing to ignore the obvious risk to themselves and others of proceeding with in-person voting, will thread the needle to produce a reasonable voter turnout and no increase in the dissemination of COVID-19," Conley said.
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