Congress needs to pass $1 trillion in aid to local and state governments slammed by coronavirus. Why $1 trillion? Because, the Economic Policy Institute explains, “Each dollar in state and local spending cuts triggers a multiplier effect as governments end contracts with local businesses and public-sector employees see income drops and, in turn, pull back on their consumption spending.” Without federal assistance, that is projected to translate to 5.3 million lost jobs by the end of 2021.
If the federal government passes $500 billion in state and local assistance, there would still be 2.6 million jobs lost. Check out how many jobs your state stands to lose.
● "You can rebuild a post office, but not a life." That’s the view Minneapolis postal workers took as they marched from their burned workplace to a memorial site for George Floyd.
● Boston’s Four Seasons hotel laid off nearly 200 workers due to the coronavirus economy—and used the national emergency caused by the virus to short them on severance pay. Boston's elite is up in arms about the mistreatment of workers who’ve served them for years at the hotel’s Bristol Lounge.
● Paraprofessional educators in Somerville, Massachusetts, won a 25% raise in their new contract. That’ll take them to a $25,000 starting salary. Organizers say that a petition to defund the police helped them win their new contract, since it drew attention to school underfunding.
● Court rejects bid for OSHA COVID-19 emergency standard.
● A new study finds online charter schools performing poorly. This should probably also give pause to anyone who’s looking at the last few months and thinking maybe more education can be shifted online even after the coronavirus crisis ends.
● There’s a major disjuncture between what’s going to happen with coronavirus-era requirements for schools and the funding they get in the coronavirus economy, Merrie Najimy, the president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association pointed out:
“Schools must be safe, they must be fully staffed, they must be fully funded. And parents and educators must be central to the decision making, right now they are not,” said MTA President Merrie Najimy. “You cannot go back to school safely with fewer staff and more requirements.”
● Uber and Lyft drivers are employees, the California Public Utilities Commission ruled. That’s going to be widely attributed to AB5, but it’s also the case under the prior court ruling that laid the groundwork for AB5.
● From soldier to worker. What’s the place of police in the labor movement?
● Solidarity: