Republicans are doing their best to push people off of unemployment, with governors reopening states so that the most vulnerable workers are forced back into unsafe workplaces. But the Economic Policy Institute’s Josh Bivens and Heidi Shierholz write that the extra $600 in unemployment insurance has been the best economic response to coronavirus—and it needs to be extended.
“Money spent on continuing crucial unemployment insurance provisions will help avoid a prolonged period of high unemployment that will do far more serious and persistent damage to the economy,” they write. “In the last six weeks, close to 30 million workers have applied for unemployment insurance. It’s worth noting as a point of comparison that those 30 million workers would need to be provided an extra $1,400 per week for a year to match the fiscal size of the 2017 tax cuts aimed at corporations and the rich.”
● Congress must include worker protections in the next coronavirus relief bill.
● Uber and Lyft owe California $413 million in unemployment taxes, study shows. That’s one state (big state, sure, but still one) and one type of payment Uber and Lyft have been dodging.
● Democratic senators want to know if Amazon retaliated against whistleblowers. (Yes, but expect an email from a PR person explaining that the whistleblowers just happened to break rules that made it totally legit to fire them—as is somehow always the case when worker activists are fired right after speaking out.)
● Read what New York subway conductor and author Sujatha Gidla had to say as she got ready to return to work after recovering from COVID-19.
● Also read as a Smithfield worker explains why they're suing:
Public officials started talking about what people should be doing to stay safe: maintain distance, use protective equipment, wash our hands regularly, and sanitize the spaces and equipment we come in contact with. But, as my lawsuit says, maintaining distance is almost impossible in our plant. On a regular day, we work shoulder-to-shoulder for hours and only get two 15-minute breaks a day and a half-hour for lunch. We wear the same gloves and masks all day unless they rip, and we don’t have time to wash our hands regularly. The cafeterias and hallways are crowded, and so is the area where we clock in. Most people only wear masks when they’re working on the line, not when they’re in the rest of the plant. The company has started doing temperature checks on workers, but a crowded line forms to get checked.
● Fascinating piece: The vet techs nursing your puppies say they're poorly compensated and scared of getting sick.
● These workers packed lip gloss and Pandora charm bracelets. They were labeled "essential" but didn't feel safe. More important journalism from ProPublica.
● Nice job, Ohio Democrats:
● The long-neglected online labor organizing space is getting more crowded.
● The "women's work" of the pandemic.