Free Republic

The Biden Administration’s acting general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board Peter Sung Ohr ordered the votes of 800 poultry workers who didn’t want to be members or have the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) represent them to be trashed. He justified this ruling by saying “a prior agreement between the UFCW and the owners of the Delaware processing plant overrides the wishes of the affected employees.” Oscar Cruz Sosa, the employee who championed the vote to decertify the UFCW as the workers’ representative complained that “this Union doesn’t represent the workers. It exploits and abuses them....

PHOENIX – A head-on collision involving two buses carrying workers at a gold mine killed 16 people and injured 14 The crash happened at 3:36 a.m. local time Tuesday near the entrance to the Noche Buena mine, about two hours driving distance south of the Lukeville, Arizona, port of entry, according to the Sonora Attorney General's Office. The mine used the two buses to shuttle workers, it said in a news release. Images of the crash site showed that the two buses had crashed head-on, obstructing the two-lane road. others south of the U.S.-Mexico border near Arizona.

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose slightly last week as February’s massive winter storm roiled the coronavirus-battered labor market, the feds said Thursday. The 745,000 initial jobless claims filed last week brought the total for the COVID-19 pandemic to nearly 80.4 million — a number more than twice the size of California’s population.

American workers filed 779,000 applications for unemployment benefits last week in the latest sign that the labor market is still in the throes of its coronavirus crisis. The newest batch of initial jobless claims brought the total for the COVID-19 pandemic to roughly 77.2 million — a number nearly twice as large as California’s population.

Employees of tech companies in San Francisco, California, can’t leave the city fast enough, fleeing for the potential tech hubs of tomorrow such as Austin, Texas, and Miami, Florida. One former San Francisco exec said: “what else can God and the world and government come up with to make the place less livable?”

Up to half of health care workers in some parts of California are refusing to take the coronavirus vaccine, despite scientific evidence that it is safe, leading to a potential surplus of doses and renewed questions about the system for allocating them.

Some 742,000 Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week as a surge in coronavirus infections threatened to shut down businesses again, the feds said Thursday. The latest batch of initial jobless claims brought the seasonally adjusted total filed during the coronavirus pandemic to roughly 68.1 million — equivalent to more than 42 percent of the nation’s workforce.

Another 709,000 Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week as the labor market continued a slow recovery threatened by a dangerous new wave of coronavirus infections, the feds said Thursday. The latest initial jobless claims brought the number filed during the COVID-19 pandemic to a seasonally adjusted total of more than 67.4 million — a figure larger than the population of the United Kingdom, the US Department of Labor data show. The fourth straight weekly decline in new filings came as the US grappled with a record-setting spike in virus cases that’s led some parts of the country to consider...

President Donald Trump has launched a fundamental reform of the H-1B visa system to protect American graduates from outsourcing — despite furious opposition from donors and leaders from Silicon Valley, Fortune 500 companies, and coastal investors. The reform will end the annual award of 85,000 H-1B visas by lottery, which has been gamed by companies to import foreign workers at wages far below the salaries needed by American professionals. Instead, the visas will be offered to the companies that compete to offer the highest salaries, preventing employers from undercutting American graduates.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and 10 of the city’s public employee unions have struck another deal to delay the city’s furlough program, leaving workers with just one unpaid day off before the end of the year, according to a memo issued last week. The City Council approved a plan last month to force more than 15,000 city workers to take one unpaid day off every two weeks — effectively a 10% pay cut — as part of a larger effort to balance the budget. But last week, Garcetti and the city’s bargaining committee changed course, signing off on an...

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits topped 1 million for the twentieth straight week — bringing the total number of initial jobless claims filed during the coronavirus pandemic to more than 55 million. An additional 1.186 million people filed for unemployment last week, according to the US Department of Labor. Jobless claims were down 249,000 from the week prior, but at a total of 55.3 million, the number of Americans who have filed for unemployment claims during the course of the pandemic is greater than the populations of New York and Texas combined — and has long since...

The ongoing effects of the coronavirus pandemic on our Nation’s economy and workforce have been unprecedented. Businesses of all sizes have been forced to close, downsize, or restructure; countless employees have transitioned to working remotely; and tens of millions of Americans have found themselves newly unemployed. Despite the hardship caused by the pandemic, it has not encumbered the American spirit or the unyielding resolve of our Nation’s workers. The United States economy added 2.5 million jobs in May, rebounding with historic strength and beginning the transition back to strong economic growth. During Pledge to America’s Workers Month, we celebrate...

Seattle pajama boys are not only Zapatistas, but also "workers"! "Proletariats"!

Thousands of foreign workers, many living overseas, are receiving stimulus checks designated for U.S. residents due to an unforeseen glitch that funneled taxpayer dollars to other countries, according to tax consultants and the recipients themselves. College-age workers who spent time in the U.S. in the last two years - some of whom returned home long before the coronavirus pandemic - have been surprised to find $1,200 checks deposited into their bank accounts. And with no clear guidance on how to return it, they’re holding onto the money or racing to spend it before the Internal Revenue Service realizes the mistake....

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - May Day usually brings thousands of people to downtown Los Angeles for a march and protest for workers’ rights, but that won’t happen this year because of the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing. Instead, essential workers of large corporations that have become vital lifelines during the pandemic will walk off the job to demand better health and safety conditions, along with hazard pay, on International Worker’s Day, which is observed around the world on May 1. According to organizers, workers from Amazon, Whole Foods, Target and Instacart will call out sick or walk off the job...

CHICAGO/WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - At a Wayne Farms chicken processing plant in Alabama, workers recently had to pay the company 10 cents a day to buy masks to protect themselves from the new coronavirus, according to a meat inspector. In Colorado, nearly a third of the workers at a JBS USA beef plant stayed home amid safety concerns for the last two weeks as a 30-year employee of the facility died following complications from the virus. And since an Olymel pork plant in Quebec shut on March 29, the number of workers who tested positive for the coronavirus quintupled to...

Hundreds of thousands of retail workers across the US have been furloughed from their jobs until further notice as their employers take drastic measures to cut costs during the coronavirus crisis. The retail sector has been hit hard over the past few weeks and months, and for conflicting reasons. While grocery chains and food delivery companies are scrambling to meet surging demand, other retail businesses deemed "nonessential" by the government have been forced to shutter stores and are now finding that a large portion of their business has dried up. Store closures across the country are taking their toll on...

Workers say they will strike Tuesday because the Amazon subsidiary has failed to prioritize their safety during a period of record sales. Whole Foods employees are planning to strike on Tuesday to protest the lack of protections offered to workers during the coronavirus pandemic—the first national collective action led by workers at the company since it was founded in 1980. On March 31, Whole Foods employees will call in sick to demand paid leave for all workers who stay home or self-quarantine during the crisis, free coronavirus testing for all employees, and hazard pay of double the current hourly wage...

Workers are bugging out in certain industries with the intentio of applying for those checks. Thousands of workers who are fine are going to bug out from work. The offer of checks will hasten the economic collapse. Hello? Wake up.

Hourly wage workers at McDonald’s Corp on Tuesday sought paid sick leave for those working at its U.S. restaurants and an update to the safety protocols as coronavirus cases in the United States rise. The burger chain has not trained or given any guidelines on the epidemic, McDonald's cooks and cashiers associated with labor group Fight for $15 and a Union said. Maurilia Arellanes, a McDonald’s worker in California, said on a media call organized by the labor group that she cannot afford to take a day off if she is sick. “McDonald’s needs to step up and do everything...