Three companies including Gate Gourmet, a global provider of airline meals, received $338 million in relief money for workers — and laid workers off anyway.
Immigration
Undocumented Farmworkers Are Refusing Covid Tests for Fear of Losing Their Jobs
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As states reopen for business, the coronavirus is exploding among America’s 2.5 million farmworkers, imperiling efforts to contain the spread of the disease and keep food on the shelves just as peak harvest gets underway
Wage Theft
Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry secures nearly $315K in back wages for workers in Digi-Key Project
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The back-wage amounts ranged from less than $100 to more than $11,000 in payments to individual workers.
#GeorgeFloyd
It’s Time to Make Black Lives Matter in Our Unions
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The Movement for Black Lives is encouraging union members to plan “Labor for Black Lives” actions in their communities on Friday, June 19—Juneteenth.
COVID-19
Emails Reveal Chaos as Meatpacking Companies Fought Health Agencies Over COVID-19 Outbreaks in Their Plants
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Thousands of pages of documents obtained by ProPublica show how quickly public health agencies were overwhelmed by meatpacking cases. One CEO described social distancing as “a nicety that makes sense only for people with laptops.”
Workers
Top Mexican labour lawyer arrested after activism in US-owned factories
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Susana Prieto Terrazas filmed her own arrest in the border city of Matamoros where she has advised maquiladora factory workers
COVID-19
Nike Turned Away a Public Health Official From Its Warehouse Days After a Worker With COVID-19 Died
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The Health Department received a complaint that a Nike warehouse wasn’t being cleaned thoroughly or allowing for social distancing. Its inspector wasn’t allowed inside. Twenty-one workers have tested positive for COVID-19 at Nike’s Memphis locations.
Essay
Yes, Unemployment Insurance and Welfare Encourage People to Quit Lousy Jobs. That’s the Point.
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Do we have a right not to work? The answer is we don’t if Democratic leaders stubbornly try to keep the “era of big government” confined to the 20th century.
Organizing
Organizing for a New Restaurant Industry
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“We can’t go back to normal, because normal wasn’t working,” said Hornstein. “The fact that we are also fighting for broader change in the industry. We know this isn’t just about our restaurants, but about workers across the industry, in the Twin Cities and the country.”
Commentary
A Call to Action from Essential Workers
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On May 6th I tested positive for COVID-19. All the weeks of fear, anger and grief that I had suppressed–in order to keep working, keep my loved ones calm, keep helping neighbors who had it even worse–it all came crashing in. And with it, an odd sense of relief.
Organizing
Caribou Coffee Protests Continue
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Monday, Caribou Coffee frontline workers rallied for the second time in a month to demand their employer improve working conditions for employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. About 30 Caribou Coffee workers were joined by approximately 70 community allies.