Mackenzie Bouverat is a student at Harvard Law School.
Colorado, Mississippi, Minnesota, Montana and Tennessee are poised to join Georgia, Oklahoma, Alaska and South Carolina in easing coronavirus-related restrictions on commercial activity. Colorado is permitting hair salons, barbershops and tattoo parlors to open next Friday (but Denver county has extended stay-at-home orders until May 8.) Dine-in services are permitted to resume in Tennessee this Monday. Oklahoma opens spas, pet groomers, salons and barbershops this Friday. Missouri will open the “majority” of its businesses on May 4. These re-openings contradict the advice of public health experts and the polled preferences of the majority of Americans.
As meat processing plants close across North America, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Labor have issued joint guidelines for meat processing facilities. The new regulations direct meat processing employers to maintain six feet of distance between employees, and to screen employees for coronavirus symptoms at the beginning of each shift. But for many employees, these measures come too late: over 5,000 meatpacking workers have already contracted the coronavirus; 13 have died. A Missouri-based workers rights nonprofit, the Rural Community Workers Alliance, is suing Smithfield Foods for breaching its duty to provide its workers with a reasonably safe workplace conditions. The single plaintiff-employee of Smithfield in the case has elected to remain anonymous, “because her years of experience working for Smithfield suggest to her that Smithfield is likely to retaliate against her for speaking out against the company.” The lawsuit aims to secure adequate personal protective equipment and the company’s commitment to refraining from disciplinary action when workers take sick days.
On Friday, President Trump announced the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, a $19 billion relief program for the agriculture sector. The bill distributes $16 billion in direct payments to farmers and ranchers and mass purchases $3 billion of dairy, meat and produce to distribute through food banks. This step follows the reduction of restrictions on farmers hiring H2-A migrant workers–including lowering minimum wages–and the relaxation of water use restrictions for California growers. Despite these measures, the Wall Street Journal reports that farmers have been ‘forced’ to destroy their crops, citing a lack of demand.
After 840 sailors on the USS Theodore Roosevelt tested positive for coronavirus, the US Navy has recommended the reinstatement of the ship’s captain, Brett Crozier. Crozier was relieved of his command by acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly after distributing a letter criticizing the Navy’s response to the ship’s outbreak. Defense Secretary Mark Esper intends to meet with Navy leadership before the Pentagon issues a final decision.
Daily News & Commentary
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September 16
In today’s news and commentary, the NLRB sues New York, a flight attendant sues United, and the Third Circuit considers the employment status of Uber drivers The NLRB sued New York to block a new law that would grant the state authority over private-sector labor disputes. As reported on recently by Finlay, the law, which […]
September 15
Unemployment claims rise; a federal court hands victory to government employees union; and employers fire workers over social media posts.
September 14
Workers at Boeing reject the company’s third contract proposal; NLRB Acting General Counsel William Cohen plans to sue New York over the state’s trigger bill; Air Canada flight attendants reject a tentative contract.
September 12
Zohran Mamdani calls on FIFA to end dynamic pricing for the World Cup; the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement opens a probe into Scale AI’s labor practices; and union members organize immigration defense trainings.
September 11
California rideshare deal advances; Boeing reaches tentative agreement with union; FTC scrutinizes healthcare noncompetes.
September 10
A federal judge denies a motion by the Trump Administration to dismiss a lawsuit led by the American Federation of Government Employees against President Trump for his mass layoffs of federal workers; the Supreme Court grants a stay on a federal district court order that originally barred ICE agents from questioning and detaining individuals based on their presence at a particular location, the type of work they do, their race or ethnicity, and their accent while speaking English or Spanish; and a hospital seeks to limit OSHA's ability to cite employers for failing to halt workplace violence without a specific regulation in place.