July 30 Labor News Roundup
Workers form California's first childcare workers union, protest the reopening of schools, and report mail slowdowns across the country stemming from sabotage by bosses and politicians
This is the Written Up Labor News Roundup for July 30, 2020. You can skim for stories from the industries, locations, and topics that you care about, read the direct quotes from workers throughout, or go ahead and read the whole thing if you really want to. If you know of a story I should include or write about in a separate post, send them to writtenupnewsletter@gmail.com.
Childcare
40,000 childcare workers in California formed a union. Of those who voted, 97% voted for the union. Jerry Brown and Arnold Schwarzenegger both previously vetoed bills that would have given childcare workers the right to form a union.
“It’s taken so long because the work that we do has always been minimized and infantilized,” [Miren] Algorri, a childcare worker, said. “It’s because of the way society has seen child care from the very beginning of this country. The foundation was women of color caring for children. Doing work that, according to society, doesn’t require any skills.” The industry’s workforce in California is mostly women and about three-fourths people of color, according to the union.
Food processing
Poultry workers in six states have filed a lawsuit claiming workers are being put at risk by dangerous increases to line speeds at plants throughout the country. In 2014, the Food Safety Inspection Service set the maximum line speed at 140 chickens per minute. But in the years since, FSIS has granted waivers to nearly half the poultry plants in the country, allowing them to operate at 175 chickens per minute, greatly increasing the risk of injury to the industry’s workers.
A Tyson worker in Springdale, Arkansas was told to return to work two days after testing positive for the coronavirus.
Workers in Nebraska called on state politicians to pass more protections for meatpackers.
“The virus spread like the domino effect,” [Geraldine] Waller, [a Smithfield worker in Nebraska] said. “The masks and shield did nothing to protect us and isn’t enough in these working conditions.”
A Nebraska state politician tried to introduce a bill to meet the workers’ demands. Politicians voted 28-10 in support, but Nebraska’s legislature required a 30-vote supermajority in order to take up a new bill at this point in the session.
[Tyson now uses infrared scanners, shown above, to record the body temperatures of workers as they enter the plant. Photo credit: Tyson]
Farmworkers
An NBC News investigation into the H-2A visa program found workers have been subject to increasing abuse and horrific conditions imposed on them by labor contractors. It also found 5,000 H-2A farmworkers were cheated out of wages last year, a number that has more than doubled since 2015. NBC’s story follows workers at a pine needle packing company in Georgia who were crammed by their contractor into a decaying house with no food or transportation and not paid for weeks. A judge found the contractor guilty of forced labor and human trafficking.
A Stanford medical student working the blueberry harvest posted about labor exploitation in the fields:
Education
A first-grade teacher in Tennessee posted a video message asking the state to delay school reopening. Yesterday, Written Up covered what teachers across the country have been saying about schools reopening this fall. Adding to yesterday’s research, a new survey of 2,400 teachers in Mississippi found only 18% want to return to completely in-person instruction. And unions representing 238,000 school workers in Illinois said strikes over health and safety were a possibility if schools reopen without proper protections.
Faculty and staff at Oklahoma University staged a die-in at an OU Board of Regents meeting over the university’s reopening plan.
“We are not going to just passively accept these policies that will endanger our lives,” [OU instructor Sarah] Warmker said. “They need to understand that either they change the safe and resilient instruction plan, or they’re going to have to deal with mass non-compliance and possibly a strike.”
Logistics
Amazon is under triple investigation for its treatment of warehouse workers in California during the coronavirus pandemic. California’s attorney general, Cal/OSHA, and the San Francisco Department of Public Health have all opened investigations. A worker at a San Francisco fulfillment center filed a complaint saying that Amazon forced workers to share equipment like freezer suits and did not allow workers time for anti-coronavirus precautions like washing hands and maintaining social distance.
A former Amazon Vice President called on Jeff Bezos to “let” Amazon workers form a union. Usually this means staying neutral during a union campaign and not retaliating against workers, since companies and bosses are legally not allowed to encourage their workers to unionize. They were barred from doing so because companies regularly tried to encourage workers to join “company unions”—fake unions controlled by management.
A new Amazon warehouse will employ 500 workers in Olive Branch, MS, a suburb of Memphis, TN, according to a press release.
Healthcare
760 nursing home workers have died since the beginning of the pandemic, making it the most dangerous job in the country, with a death rate twice that of some of the most dangerous industries during normal times.
Union homecare workers in Connecticut negotiated hazard pay for working on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic. Members of SEIU District 1199 will receive checks for a 7.5% pay increase for hours worked from April through June in two weeks.
Mining
A protracted strike battle involving 1,800 workers and 7 unions at Asarco copper mines in Arizona continued as Asarco rehired some striking workers after previously hiring permanent replacements. However, the company has said it will not fire the replacements and will only allow union workers back as new positions open. The unions charged that the company had committed unfair labor practices, sparking the strike—under these circumstances, the company would be barred by law from hiring replacement workers. If the National Labor Relations Board finds that the workers went on strike for economic reasons, though, the company is allowed to hire permanent replacements for their workers under federal labor law.
[Asarco’s Silver Bell Mine in Arizona. Photo credit: Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources]
As the coal industry struggles with bankruptcy and mine closures, a new report found that cleanup work at former coal mines across the West could create thousands of jobs for out-of-work miners.
Government
US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy may be planning to close post offices around the country. A Trump donor, DeJoy has already slashed overtime for hundreds of thousands of Postal Service workers and delayed mail deliveries ahead of an election that will heavily feature voting by mail. Congress’s coronavirus relief package authorized the Postal Service to borrow up to $10 billion to avoid cuts—USPS has still not used that money.
Other post offices have been cutting hours. Elizabeth Coonan, a postal worker in West Virginia, said, “The times that they’re slating [the offices] to close is when they do a lot of business.”
Clerks in Michigan have already reported mail slowdowns ahead of a primary election there. The USPS Inspector General found that hundreds of absentee ballots were delivered too slowly to be counted in an April election in Wisconsin.
A postal carrier wrote a thread about some of the cuts on Twitter:
The small town of Alexandria, KY hired a social worker instead of a new police officer in 2016. Repeat 911 calls dropped significantly and about 15% fewer people wind up going to jail in Alexandria today.
Paper
900 workers have been laid off after the Verso paper mill in Wisconsin Rapids stopped production.
“That’s where you went to work,” [Rick Armagost, who works at the mill] said. “It’s gotten me everything, on a high school education.”
At 26, the wages were good enough that he was able to buy a 120-acre farm outside of town, where he keeps about 20 head of beef and dairy cows.
Over time, though, he saw his earning power erode. His father had a higher standard of living working at the plant than he does, he said. “He went on a hunting trip and a fishing trip every year. He had a new vehicle every couple years. I have never had a new vehicle.”
He added: “That’s just America now.”
Prison workers
Prison workers in Colorado have filed a lawsuit claiming they were used as “slave labor” and are petitioning to be considered state employees and paid minimum wage. One plaintiff was paid $0.10/hr for his kitchen job.
Airports
Four airport contractors are under investigation for breaking federal law after receiving $500 million in government assistance from the CARES Act while laying off 7,500 workers. Gate Gourmet was the worst offender, receiving $171 million and laying off 3,500 workers, nearly half of its workforce. The other companies are Food Fare, Swissport, and G2 Secure Staff.
Hawaiian Airlines plans to furlough up to 2,000 of its 6,200 union workers. Hawaiian Airlines workers have a provision in their union contract that will allow them the option to return to work when the business bounces back before the company brings in new workers to fill those positions.
Undocumented workers
79,000 undocumented immigrants in Utah and their families have been left out of coronavirus assistance.
Aimee Contreras’ family also didn’t qualify for stimulus money because her parents are undocumented, and they are considered essential workers as janitors.
“My parents were frustrated having to work really hard because their work, their labor is being needed and, just like many others, my parents contribute to this country,” Contreras said. “(Immigrants’) work has been taken for granted and our families have been taken for granted.”
Auto
General Motors will transfer some Detroit autoworkers to its plant in Wentzville, MO, where it previously had planned to eliminate its entire third shift due to the high number of workers out sick or not showing up due to fears about the coronavirus. Each shift at the Wentzville plant has about 1,250 workers, and the plant makes the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon pickup trucks.
Various
Another national magazine went on safari to study the behavior of Wisconsin workers in the wild.
A majority of workers in the US have had a boss so bad it caused them to quit their job, according to a nationwide survey of workers. The survey company also ranked states by how many workers said they hated their boss. The top 5 are New Mexico, Oklahoma, Alabama, Michigan, and Iowa.
Nonprofits
Two union workers at a non-profit social service agency in Cleveland have died of the coronavirus after workers accused the non-profit’s managers of not taking the pandemic seriously and failing to provide its workers with personal protective equipment. The workers provide services for the homeless, and for victims of domestic and other forms of violence.
Machinists & Steelworkers
Boeing is making more significant production cuts and may permanently shut down an assembly line in Everett, WA. Boeing has already cut 10,500 jobs in Washington state this year. The production cuts also affect Boeing workers in South Carolina.
ArcelorMittal laid off nearly 500 steelworkers at its Cleveland plant.
Casinos
Horseshoe Casino workers protested outside Baltimore City Hall to ask for more protections from local government after casino managers have failed to implement the safety precautions workers are calling for.