Free Republic

Labor shortages at supermarkets across the country have increased in recent weeks as the COVID-19 omicron variant continues to spread. Workers are calling sick, and there are not enough cashiers, baggers, and stockers, forcing some supermarket chains to slash hours of operations. Compounding labor woes, supply chains are still severely snarled as food shortages are being reported nationwide. WSJ reports supermarkets are having difficulty staying open as workers call out sick because of infection. Some grocers are frantically hiring new employees, using temporary employment agencies, and overworking current staff to keep stores from shuttering. The seven-store supermarket chain Stew Leonard’s...

American Airlines has 216 flights cancelled and 519 delayed so far todayThey had 19 cancelled yesterday— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) October 13, 2021 More than 230 American Airlines flights have been cancelled and 600 more have been delayed thanks to Hurricane Joe Brandon, just as CFP predicted and reported Monday night. Data provided by FlightAware

Update (1800ET): Southwest Airlines has had another terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day - as a shortage of workers combined with an air traffic control interruption to bring the total number of canceled flights to nearly 3,100 in four days."Crews were struggling to move and you end up in short order with aircraft and crews in the wrong spot," said EVP Bob Jordan, adding "It’s really difficult to repair and put those things back together."Speculation over the actual cause of the cancellations has been rampant on social media - with some pilots refuting claims that they were staging a...

Trains 465 and 416 departing on 10/10 are canceled due to unforeseen crew issues. Alternate transportation will be provided.— Amtrak Northeast (@AmtrakNECAlerts) October 10, 2021 Amtrak announced it will require nearly all of its 18,000 employees be fully Vaccinated by Nov. 22. Multiple sources are reporting that train crews have now joined the protest started by Air Traffic Controllers and Southwest pilots and employees. Rumors that American Airlines pilots are next. #GoingGaltFirst Southwest & FAANow Amtrak & I hear American Air coming upLet the statists run their own countryOh that's rightThey can'thttps://t.co/4PaXOHxVMB— Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) October 10, 2021 Airlines and...

Aug 14 (Reuters) - An Arizona school district that ignored state safety guidelines and voted to begin in-person learning on Aug. 17 has had to cancel classes after staff said it was unsafe to return and called in sick. Greater Phoenix's J.O. Combs Unified School District cancelled all instruction for Monday due to "insufficient staffing," days after its board disregarded state benchmarks on when students can safely return to classes during the pandemic. The "sick out" underlined the difficulties in returning to in-person learning in the United States after schools in Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama closed this week as students...

The Detroit Public Schools is seeking a temporary injunction against teachers after sick-outs closed 88 schools in Detroit today - the largest in a string of teacher protests. The district is seeking relief in the Michigan Court of Claims, naming among the 28 defendants Steve Conn, the ousted leader of the teacher's union, interim president Ivy Bailey, and several groups including DPS Teachers Fight Back. Teacher absences forced 88 Detroit schools to close today, the largest sick-out meant to call attention to large class sizes, dilapidated buildings and other problems in Michigan's largest school district. The sick-out idled most of...

Officials from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency are warning riders to expect major delays on Muni Monday morning after a contract dispute prompted a “sickout” by a large portion of Muni workers. […] Muni operators voted on Friday on a proposed labor agreement, but that does not mean that the contract will be ratified. […] Under the proposal, Muni operator’s pay would be raised to about $32 an hour on July 1—making them the second-highest paid transit workers in the country, according to the SFMTA. …

Late Tuesday night the Hudson Board of Education meted out punishment for teachers who called in sick in protest against Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill, causing school to be closed on Feb. 18. Board president Barb VanLoenen read a resolution that included several categories ranging from one-day unpaid suspensions up to 15 days. All categories included letters of reprimand and warning in the teachers’ personnel files. The suspensions went up based on actions a teacher was believed to have taken. The longer suspensions were for teachers who encouraged colleagues to call in sick and who conducted or discussed union...

I don't think anyone really considered the actions of the Wisconsin Teachers Union and their members in last months protest of the Wisconsin budget battle as anything other than a sick out. The only thing lacking was proof, but in an odd quirk of fate that is exactly what fell into the lap or voicemail of concerned citizen. Blaska's Blogs has the sordid details including an audio recording of a pre-meditated, union authorized job action consisting of a phone tree with teachers calling other teachers for the express purpose of closing down schools. This type of action is prohibited by...

Madison teachers who missed school last month to attend protests and turned in fraudulent doctor's notes have been given until April 15 to rescind those notes, officials said Thursday. The district received more than 1,000 notes from teachers, human resources director Bob Nadler said. A couple hundred of those were ruled fraudulent because they appeared to be written by doctors at the Capitol protests against Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to limit collective bargaining. Teachers who don't rescind fraudulent notes could receive a disciplinary letter of suspension, the most serious form of discipline aside from termination, Nadler said. The suspension would...

We've all heard of Furlough Fridays - well, at the San Francisco office of the Department of Motor Vehicles, they had a "Missing Monday" when nearly two-thirds of the staffers didn't show up. In all, 20 of the 34 staffers at the Fell Street DMV office who had been forced to take Friday off without pay took Monday off as well. DMV spokesman Armando Botello said the department had to bring in workers from other jurisdictions to help out with the "higher than usual absences." Naj Alikhan of the Service Employees International Union, which represents the workers, said he hadn't...

Workers and students across the nation plan to skip work and school Wednesday in a national moriatorium to stop the impending war against Iraq.Backed by dozens of religious, labor, community and anti war groups, the moriatorium's theme is 'no school, no work no business as usual.'Participants are being encouraged to call in sick close their businesses, cancel classes, hold workplace talks about the war, conduct special services at house of worship and stage non violent protests.The student walkout has gained a momentum of its own, with thousands of students on more than 200 campuses pledging to boycott classes.In the Bay...