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By Eoin Higgins, Comomndreams.
May 11, 2020
| RESIST!
https://popularresistance.org/row-upon-row-of-empty-shoes-outside-white-house/
Nurses Honor Covid-19’S Frontline Victims.
“Who will care for our patients when we get sick?”
National Nurses United held a vigil in front of President Donald Trump’s White House on Thursday, a remembrance for 88 nurses—represented by solemn rows of empty whites shoes—who have died so far from the coronavirus as the pandemic continues to rage across the U.S. amid the president’s continued mismanagement.
“Who will care for our patients when we get sick?” tweeted NNU executive director Bonnie Castillo.
Bonnie Castillo@NNUBonnie
During a heartbreaking White House protest on #NursesWeek, RNs left empty shoes to represent nurse lives lost to #COVID19.
Who will care for our patients when we get sick? Take action at http://ProtectNurses.org
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The demonstrators used 88 empty pairs of shoes to represent the fallen nurses in what Castillo termed a “moving and powerful protest.”
“It’s a matter of life and death,” she said.
NBC News
✔@NBCNews
Nurses from National Nurses United protest for PPE in front of the White House with 88 pairs of shoes representing each nurse who has died from coronavirus.
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As Common Dreams has reported, pleas from healthcare workers for personal protective equipment (PPE) and aid have largely gone unanswered as the outbreak continues to spread around the nation.
In a press release issued Thursday, NNU demanded that Congress and the White House prioritize frontline workers in the next stage of coronavirus legislation.
“The next Covid-19 relief package is being discussed and finalized, and we are demanding that senators include critical protections to keep nurses safe in the bill,” the group said.
Watch video of the demonstration:
NowThis
✔@nowthisnews
HAPPENING NOW: Nurses are outside the White House decrying PPE shortages & reading the names of 88 nurses who have died from COVID-19. The RNs, from @NationalNurses, are also placing down a symbolic pair of shoes for each nurse who was lost. https://www.pscp.tv/w/cYK6MDE4NzQ0MHwxZFJLWlFaZGFRbXhC5jQsraGopf3MAMuaMn-AV3_KjwyWQDk-o4gzZ-nSqz0= …
Nowthis @nowthisnews
HAPPENING NOW: Nurses are outside the White House decrying PPE shortages & reading the names of 88 nurses who have died from COVID-19. The RNs, from @NationalNurses, are also placing down a symbolic...pscp.tv
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By Cliff Willmeng, RN, Popular Resistance.
May 11, 2020
| ORGANIZE!
https://popularresistance.org/its-bigger-than-scrubs-my-termination-from-united-hospital-er/
St. Paul, MN – During the course of my May 8, 2020, shift, I was brought into two meetings with managers of United Hospital’s Emergency Room and two representatives from its Human Relations department. By the end of the second meeting, I was informed that I was terminated from employment for the following reason, as stated by United Hospital:
“Cliff’s conduct on April 24, 2020 violated the Hospital policies and expectations, including the Respectful Workplace policy and the Code of Conduct. Cliff’s conduct on May 8, 2020 violated Hospital policy and expectations regarding uniforms and hospital scrubs, as well as his duty to follow the directions of his leader. Each incident constitutes an independent ground warranting termination of employment. As such, Cliff’s employment is being terminated effective immediately”.
Moving beyond the talking points of Allina Health, let me provide some context. For months, working conditions, patient safety, public health, and the rights of union members have been degraded and placed at risk by Allina hospital administration’s policies, behavior, and egregious lack of preparation for a global pandemic. This is not a matter of opinion or perspective but documented fact, evidenced by hundreds of OSHA complaints, failing infection protocols, communications of frontline healthcare workers, and hospital administration’s ongoing acts of intimidation, harassment, and threats to our professional standing.
Hospital administrators placed profits and executive compensation over protection of employees, year after year. The resulting failure and disorganization have pushed workplace safety, nursing practice, public health, and our rights as workers to a breaking point.
Frontline workers in disparate industries, workplaces, and healthcare settings are not tolerating these developments, and United Hospital is no exception. On a national scale, we rank and file workers are beginning to stand up for ourselves and reject the catastrophic role of management and the executive class. As we reject the decisions and power of our superiors in this life-and-death scenario, we are being harassed and punished to remind us both who is in command and what actions they are willing to take to subject us to that command, no matter how costly or dangerous to us or to the public.
I reported workplace safety concerns to United Hospital because I believed the hospital was violating the law and our union contract. I reported my concerns on behalf of myself, my family, my coworkers, and the community. When I was harassed and retaliated against for reporting these concerns, I was fired. Workers throughout the hospital are experiencing the same type of daily managerial harassment, threats, and abuse that I did. It’s a paradigm that sets power against morality and the fundamental rights of frontline workers and the public we serve.
I am a union steward. This means that I am a frontline RN with the additional role of defending our union contract and the principles and practices it articulates. I do not get paid for being a steward, yet it’s a role that I have played in three unions and two industries in my lifetime. Among my responsibilities as a steward is looking out for the health care safety of my coworkers and patients. For the last two months, I have carried out that role by advocating for protective measures designed for the safety of both patients and public. I have called attention to specific and general policies and practices that risk the lives of many. I have sent ongoing communications and concerns to management. I have filed complaints with OSHA, which is currently in the process of an investigation of United Hospital. I have reached out to United’s Emergency Room (ER) Manager and Director as well as the hospital’s Chief Nursing Officer (CNO), President Sarah Criger, and Allina CEO Penny Wheeler to reporting unsafe work and nursing practice, and a state of ongoing intimidation of staff. I’ve been met with silence, misdirection, or outright hostility.
The more forceful my advocacy for patient and workplace safety, the more aggressive hospital management has become with me. They have called me unannounced at my home and lied about the potential for disciplinary action against me. They have shadowed me and my coworkers as we perform patient care in working conditions that are nothing short of life-threatening. They have confronted me on the ER floor and told me that I could not “conduct union activity” when I am speaking with my coworkers about union rights. They have persecuted me for basic infection prevention measures and punished me with discipline for pointing out ongoing workplace harassment conducted by hospital management. They have made credible threats to my career, which is what my family relies on for basic income and for access to the medical care that we need. On Friday, May 8, 2020, they made good on those threats and fired me from my position at United Hospital ER.
Allina has issued a response to my firing that accurately states, “Allina’s employees are the foundation of our organization. Without them we would not be able to serve the health care needs of our communities.” But it purposely misrepresents my termination by writing that I was, “…violating(ing) hospital policies designed to protect our patients and staff.” Nothing could be further from the truth at this late stage of a global crisis exacerbated by corporate disorganization and mismanagement. This level of arrogance and casual disregard for the experience of frontline workers and the public we serve is something I have never experienced in over 35 years in the US workforce. Allina is not taking all available actions to protect frontline workers, patients, and the community.
For these and additional reasons, I have continued to organize with frontline workers in United Hospital and the greater public. I am being represented by my personal attorney, Amanda Cefalu, and the Minnesota Nurses Association. I have filed grievances about my treatment with Allina Health and will be filing additional charges of Unfair Labor Practices for myself and my coworkers. I was notified and have made administrators at United Hospital aware that my case has been referred to the discrimination unit of the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry.
As I have suggested, this is bigger than scrubs.
I would like to close by restating unequivocally my loyalty to my coworkers, to the people we serve, and to the working class people that are the fundamental force of all humanity. Our task, contrary to the corporate coercion so desperate to keep us in a state of subjugation, is to organize, envision, and struggle, and to craft our own power during this moment of global crisis. If we do it correctly, we have the potential to build healthcare that is powered by people and that opens more doors and potential than this statement has time to address. This goal will inform our actions and intentions from this point on.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/05/12/euro-m12.html
By Will Morrow
12 May 2020
Governments across Europe lifted confinement measures yesterday, reopening schools and businesses and returning millions of workers across the continent to their workplaces as the deadly coronavirus continued to spread. The end to lockdown is proceeding even as new reports emerge of an uptick in cases in areas where its spread had been brought under control and lockdown restrictions had since been eased.
In France, where roughly 2,800 people remain under ventilation in hospitals and where 70 people died in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of dead to 26,380, the eight-week lockdown that began on March 17 ended yesterday. Schools reopened for the youngest students, and non-essential businesses resumed, with the hospitality sector restricted to running take-out services.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel ordered an end to the lockdown last Wednesday, with schools and businesses reopening. Restaurants have already begun dine-in service in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Non-essential businesses also opened in Austria, and final-year students had already returned to school last week.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivered a national televised address on Sunday evening, calling for construction and manufacturing workers and others who cannot work from home to return to work. Yesterday, data from the UK Office of National Statistics showed that construction and other low-skilled elementary workers were among the most likely to die from the disease, with a mortality rate of 21.4 per 100,000 people as of April 20, along with social caring workers and machine operators.
Johnson also called for schools to prepare to reopen, declaring that all students should be in school for at least one month before summer. The UK’s coronavirus official, vastly underestimated death toll grew by another 268 yesterday to 32,065, with almost 4,000 new reported cases.
Belgium, which has the highest per capita death rate from the coronavirus in the world, with more than 53,000 confirmed cases and 8,707 deaths out of a population of just over 11 million people, reopened schools and stores yesterday. In Italy, where statistical analysis of the national mortality rate indicates that the real coronavirus death toll is more than 50,000, all non-essential businesses have been reopened since last Monday.
In Spain, people living in many areas of the country have been allowed to go to restaurants, visit family members and attend gatherings of up to 10 people since yesterday. The Socialist Party and pseudo-left Podemos government is implementing an end to confinement even as the country’s military predicts that its policies will lead to a second wave of the virus in the country where it has already killed 26,744 people.
In Denmark, secondary schools are due to open next week, while shopping centres opened yesterday. In Norway, all classes resumed today after classes had already been opened for those aged 6–10. Schools will reopen on May 14 in Finland. Final-year school students already returned last week in the Netherlands. All stores opened in Greece yesterday.
The mass return to work underway across Europe is in line with the criminal policy being pursued by the Trump administration in the United States. It is being carried out hand-in-glove with the trade unions in every country, who are enforcing the return to work and suppressing any struggle by workers against the deconfinement.
The European ruling class, like its American counterparts, is not seeking to carry out a struggle against the spread of the coronavirus. Its policies are driven by the requirement to force workers back into their workplace, regardless of the risk to their lives and those of their loved ones, to continue pumping out profits.
The reopening of classrooms, exposing children, teachers and their families to the disease, underscores the criminality of this policy. Children are being sent to school so that their parents can be freed to work, while scientists continue to issue warnings that schools function as propagation vectors for virus transmission and that children may develop a rare and potentially fatal syndrome, Kawasaki Disease, as a result of the coronavirus.
Even as the return to work is underway, evidence is already emerging that it is leading to a renewed uptick in cases. In Germany, where a systematic campaign has been underway in the media and by the political establishment to minimise the danger of the virus, the Robert Koch Institute reported yesterday that the virus reproduction rate had increased above unity, indicating exponential spread.
In France, two new clusters were detected over the weekend, in Dordogne and Vienne. The cluster in Vienne, in central France, occurred at a school because the teachers had had to come into the building to make preparations for the return of students. The French education minister Olivier Blanquer nonetheless declared in an interview with the Journal de Dimanche the same day that every child in France should be in school at least one day this month.
The criminal character of the ruling class’ policy is epitomized by the Macron administration. For weeks, it declared that it would only order an end to confinement once it had sufficient capacity to conduct mass testing and contact tracing to contain the spread of the virus. It estimated this would mean at least 700,000 tests per week, which it declared would be ready by the time deconfinement was ordered. The director of health Jérôme Salomon had included daily test numbers as part of the government’s briefing.
As the deconfinement deadline approached, this promise was quietly dropped. While the government provides no central tally of the number of tests in the country, an analysis published by the investigative wing of Radio France published yesterday, which tabulated various local sources, concluded that approximately 149,000 tests were conducted in the week from April 27 to May 3, less than a quarter of the government’s supposed required threshold for a deconfinement.
In other words, the deconfinement had nothing to do with satisfying the conditions for a preconceived scientific plan for the combating the virus, but was determined by the government’s economic policy, with a suitable lying pretext invented, and then dropped when even this façade could not be maintained.
From the outset of the pandemic, the European ruling class, like its counterparts internationally, has responded to the pandemic not as a healthcare emergency, but as a market event. It has been engaged not in a fight to save lives, but to protect corporate profits.
While national governments have initiated multi-hundred-billion-euro bailout packages for large corporations, the European Central Bank voted in March to carry out a 750 billion euro asset-purchasing program throughout 2020, buying bonds from both corporations and national governments in order to prop up share markets. The asset purchases have since been raised to 1.1 trillion euros. While the corporate and financial elite has been protected from any losses to their wealth, hundreds of billions of euros in worthless assets are being transferred directly from the books of corporations and banks on to the ledgers of central banks, for which the ruling class will seek to make the working class pay through brutal austerity against its jobs and living conditions.
The lifting of lockdowns across Europe signifies that the ruling class is carrying out policies that will, and that it knows will, lead to the deaths of tens or even hundreds of thousands of people.
