Free Republic

The coronavirus pandemic solidified the idea people don’t have to show up at an office to get work done. That fresh reality has led to a growing number of people relocating to more affordable cities across the country. But while the development is beneficial to remote — or so-called Zoom — workers, it is leading to rent increases in areas where newcomers are settling in. And in some cases forcing low-income residents to leave the neighborhood.

Democratic senators announced on Wednesday that a deal has been reached to prevent Senate cafeteria workers from losing their jobs, just days after they said they received notices from their employer that they were being laid off. The announcement came during a demonstration led by workers, union representatives and a number of lawmakers, ranging from Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) and others.

An illegal alien has pleaded guilty to operating a massive $3.5 million illegal hiring scheme in Savannah, Georgia, and helping orchestrate the murder of a legal immigrant who blew the whistle on the scheme. Last week, 53-year-old illegal alien Pablo Rangel-Rubio of Mexico pleaded guilty to working with two other illegal aliens in employing at least 100 illegal aliens for a tree service company and helping murder Eliud Montoya, a naturalized American citizen, after he reported the scheme to the federal government.

President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will allow businesses to import another 35,000 foreign H-2B visa workers for working and middle-class jobs even as 11.7 million Americans remain jobless. On Thursday, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that the agency would allow businesses to import 35,000 more foreign H-2B visa workers to fill non-agricultural jobs in construction, hospitality, and landscaping from April 1 to September 30.

For months, Cambodia’s PM has attempted to quash protests against the NagaWorld casino in Phnom Penh. But his tactics are failing due to workers’ opposition and international pressure.It’s noon and Phnom Penh looks like an escape room. At the central intersection between Suramarit and Sothearos boulevards, a swarm of police cars and uniformed and plainclothes officers protect NagaWorld, the capital’s only licensed casino-hotel complex. Suddenly, a walkie-talkie command arrives and the game of cat and mouse begins. The police hunt down a dozen strikers and lock them inside a public bus, which serves as a mobile cell. They go on...

Nine flight attendants from six states said Monday they are suing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the federal mask mandate on public transportation, arguing the COVID-19 rule obstructs their normal breathing over many hours and threatens aviation security because passengers refuse to comply. They want a judge to vacate the rule, which was recently extended to April 18, and prevent the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services from issuing such a mandate again. The attendants filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado because one plaintiff, Victoria Vasenden of Southwest...

As American workers and businesses struggle with the fallout from the most vicious bout of inflation in 40 years, workers across the US are struggling as wage growth lags behind inflation. For example, federal jobs data released last month showed that wage growth was disappointingly slow, as the YoY growth rate actually declined from January, coming in at just 5.1% (and missing the Wall Street consensus forecast of 5.8%). Since the start of the pandemic, most economists expected near-record numbers of open jobs would force employers to hike wages significantly. And while wages did indeed climb for public-facing workers during...

The percentage of white-collar workers in New York City office buildings remains abysmal. Workers aren't returning, and it's crushing the local economy.NYC's 7.6% unemployment rate is shockingly high compared with the rest of the country (nationwide average of 3.8%) as an economic recovery is slow to materialize, according to Bloomberg. There could be a muted recovery without five-day-a-week commuters because their impact on the local economy is substantial. Keycard swipes tracked by security company Kastle Systems show NYC offices are about 36% occupied, far below pre-COVID levels. Even as companies announced return-to-office dates, many implemented a hybrid work model that...

Rineke Lewis, a registered nurse in Boise, Idaho, said she expects to be fired after her exemption to the mandatory vaccination rule had been revoked and her religious exemption request denied. Though Democrat politicians are rapidly throwing out increasingly unpopular COVID jab mandates ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, many ordinary Americans, including frontline healthcare workers, still face termination for refusing to get the experimental drugs. Last week, one Idaho nurse’s heartfelt Instagram message went viral when she explained that she faced imminent termination for refusing the shot, and asked followers whether they had any “leads” on other nursing positions...

They’re slob goblins. With employees prepping to flock back to the office amid easing COVID restrictions, many are faced with the same dilemma — how to switch off “goblin mode” now that they’re around other people.

President Joe Biden and his deputies at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have dropped nearly all border protections for U.S. graduates, allowing a mass rush of Indian graduates to grab jobs from Fortune 500 companies, experts and foreign workers say. “They’ve opened up everything,” said Jay Palmer, a civil rights, human trafficking, and immigration rights activist, who works with many of the foreign visa workers who are exploited by their U.S. employers. He continued: “The administration has basically taken down all the checks and balances, and they opened the entire immigration platform for any [foreign gradaute] that wants to...

We are renewing a challenge to the CMS vaccine mandate in court so Tennessee health care workers have the right to private health care decisions. - Governor Bill Lee

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) issued an order Wednesday mandating healthcare workers be fully vaccinated and receive a booster or face being fired, NorthJersey.com reported. The order removes the state’s previous option for unvaccinated workers to test regularly for the coronavirus instead of getting vaccinated. Medical exemptions and exemptions for “deeply held” religious beliefs will still be granted, Murphy said. The order includes all workers in congregate settings such as prisons and group homes.

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...

Citigroup Inc. workers who refuse to comply with the company’s vaccine mandate by Jan. 14 will be fired, Bloomberg reports. They will be put on unpaid leave and released from employment at the end of January. Employees will be required to sign an agreement stating that they will not pursue legal action against Citigroup to receive year-end bonus payments. Some workers will still receive certain payments.

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court turned down emergency requests by New York healthcare workers for a religious exemption from state requirements to vaccinate against Covid-19. A federal appeals court in New York previously denied the workers’ requests. The court denied the requests in brief written orders. As is typical for such emergency actions, the majority didn’t explain its thinking. Three conservative justices—Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch—said they would have allowed the exemptions. In October, the court denied a similar application from Maine healthcare workers seeking exemption from their state’s vaccination requirements, which lower courts had rejected. The same three conservatives...

After the number of U.S. workers voluntarily quitting their jobs reached a record high in September, White House Council of Economic Advisers member Jared Bernstein framed the labor crunch as a "good sign," saying that employees now have more leverage to negotiate better-paying roles. More than 4.4 million employees left their jobs last month, the highest figure in two decades, and a rise of about 164,000 from the last record set in August of 4.3 million, according to the Labor Department's monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey released Friday. As employers contemplate raising wages to attract workers amid their...

Very brief segment at 1:53 mark on linked video.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) on Thursday said he is “not having second thoughts” about mandating vaccines for first responders and other city workers ahead of Friday’s 5 p.m. deadline. He predicted many will get vaccinated anyway “once they really realize that they’re not going to get paid.” When asked about the likelihood of shortages of city workers Monday — from sanitation workers to first responders — the Democrat mayor made it clear he has no regrets.

In a rare move, federal labor officials have threatened to take over three states’ workplace safety programs because they failed to adopt emergency COVID-19 rules to protect healthcare workers. That admonition, labor advocates say, also serves as a thinly veiled warning that resisting the forthcoming federal vaccine mandate for most healthcare workers and employees at large companies likewise could cost states their regulatory power over workplace safety. “This is definitely an effort to send a message that [the Occupational Safety and Health Administration] is going to take any defiance of the next standard very seriously,” said Jordan Barab, who served...