The Democratic sponsors came up with $600 a week for the boost because when that is added to the national average unemployment payment — $371.88 a week at the end of 2019 — the boost makes unemployment compensation go from 38% of what the average American worker would have earned on their job to almost 100%.
The CARES Act also provided unemployment compensation coverage to many workers who are not eligible for regular unemployment insurance, but are out of work as a result of the virus — people such as independent contractors, gig workers and those who had to leave their job to take care of a child whose school closed. It took a while for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program to get set up, but they are now operational in many states, and the Department of Labor reported May 7 that nearly a million people had had PUA claims processed by April 18, and at least another 1.4 million had filed PUA claims since that time.
Unfortunately, Republicans were really unhappy about passing an increase in unemployment benefits as part of the CARES Act, even if the $250 billion the unemployment comp boost is projected to cost is a bargain compared with the $877 billion the CARES Act authorized to bail out corporations, large and small. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said any extension of the enhanced unemployment benefits would take place “over our dead bodies.” And Republican governors are moving to make it impossible for many people to collect even the first segment.
While the CARES Act significantly expanded workers’ UI eligibility and benefits during the coronavirus crisis, widespread reports indicate that long-neglected state UI systems are unable to handle the volume of applications, preventing laid-off or furloughed workers from receiving necessary unemployment benefits.
A survey by the Economic Policy Institute in mid-April found that for every 10 people who successfully filed for unemployment benefits during the previous four weeks, three to four additional people tried but could not get through the system to make a claim, and two more people did not try to apply because it was too difficult.
Now, as Republican governors move to reopen their states quickly, they’re forcing people back to unsafe jobs, with the threat that workers who don’t go back to their job, even if it’s unsafe, aren’t eligible for unemployment insurance. Some states, including Ohio and Iowa, have set up tip lines for employers to turn in reluctant workers, and Alabama’s government has warned workers that collecting unemployment rather than returning to an unsafe job is fraud.
Among those who are forced to go back to unsafe workplaces are meatpacking workers, after Donald Trump on April 28 invoked the 1950 Defense Production Act to mandate meat plants stay open during the pandemic. COVID-19 outbreaks caused at least 30 meatpacking plants to temporarily close over the past two months, resulting in an estimated 40% drop in pork production capacity and a 25% drop in beef production capacity, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), which represents meatpacking and food processing workers.
The US Department of Agriculture May 8 reported 14 plants that had closed due to outbreaks of the virus were in the process of reopening, but UFCW has said more protective equipment and testing would be required to open the plants. “Today’s rush by the Trump Administration to re-open 14 meatpacking plants without the urgent safety improvements needed is a reckless move that will put American lives at risk and further endanger the long-term security of our nation’s food supply,” UFCW International President Marc Perrone stated
Unions were able to maintain relatively high wages and safety standards for meatpackers through the 1970s. However, standards began declining in the 1980s as meat processing was consolidated into a few “industry powerhouses.” Iowa Beef Processors (IBP) especially transformed the meat production process so that, in each stage, workers have a mindless, repetitive movement to complete “in what the industry calls a disassembly-line process,” Human Rights Watch commented in a 2004 report, “Blood, Sweat & Fear.” IBP and peer companies increased the speed of the lines and cut wages.
Many companies in “right to work” states simply shut down their plants, laid off their established, organized workers, and reopened with a non-union, immigrant workforce. Employers strongly resisted attempts to unionize in relocated or reopened plants.
In 1983 meatpackers’ wages fell below the average for manufacturing workers, Human Rights Watch noted. In May 2019, 73,900 workers involved in animal slaughtering and meatpacking were paid a mean hourly wage of $14.23, or $29,600 annually, compared with a mean hourly wage of $19.30, or $40,140 annually, for all manufacturing occupations, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
“Workers continue to be required to work without protective gear. Sick workers continue to lack access to paid sick leave. And when workers try and speak up for themselves and each other, they are fired. Workers are dying as a result,” Celine McNicholas and Margaret Poydock wrote for EPI. They conclude that Congress must include worker protections — an Essential Workers Bill of Rights, such as that proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) — in the next coronavirus relief bill.
The Essential Workers Bill of Rights would ensure front-line workers receive adequate health and safety protections, such as employer-provided personal protective equipment (PPE), paid sick and family and medical leave, and government-provided health care. This is necessary because the Trump Department of Labor has rolled back and weakened these protections for essential workers, including millions of health care workers and first responders.
In addition, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) must coordinate with states where public-sector workers—such as public transit workers, postal workers, and sanitation workers—lack health and safety standards to ensure they are protected from COVID-19. And at a time when the number of OSHA inspectors has fallen to a 45-year low, it’s imperative that the agency provide front-line inspectors with the training and supplies they need to ensure workplaces are safe during the coronavirus pandemic.
Front-line workers should get premium pay, retroactive to the start of the pandemic.
Workers should receive whistleblower protections, allowing workers to report unsafe working conditions. In addition, OSHA should enforce existing protections. This is especially necessary when workers are being fired for seeking basic health and safety workplace protections.
The Essential Workers Bill of Rights would safeguard union elections and protect existing collective bargaining agreements. Further, workers should be represented on corporate boards and corporations must remain neutral during union organizing drives. These protections help to ensure essential workers are able to utilize their right to join a union.
We agree that the House should pass such a bill, but we don’t have any confidence in the Trump administration, which is unresponsive to the concerns of workers, or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is prioritizing liability waivers for employers that require workers to report to potentially unsafe workplaces.
Remember them in November. — JMC
From The Progressive Populist, June 1, 2020
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