Florida’s Tens Of Thousands Of Farmworkers Are Facing A Coronavirus “Time Bomb,” Advocates Say

Poor living conditions pose a threat to workers and America’s food chain, leading voices warn.
Michael SallahBuzzFeed News Reporter


Posted on March 30, 2020, at 8:53 p.m. ET
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Bloomberg / Getty Images
Workers pick and pack strawberries during a harvest at Fancy Farms near Plant City, Florida, U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015. Annual strawberry harvests in the area bring nearly $1 billion to the local economy, according to the Florida Strawberry Festival Growers Association. Photographer: Mark Elias/Bloomberg via Getty Images


With Florida's peak growing season underway, thousands of foreign guest workers are descending on farm fields to join a labor force that has endured the hardships of crowded boarding houses, law enforcement raids, and indentured servitude for generations.

But now the workers who are critical to the nation's food supply will face a nemesis they've never encountered.

The explosive growth of the novel coronavirus prompted one of the nation's oldest farm labor organizations on Monday to push for new safety standards for thousands of the workers and demand that growers provide medical care during outbreaks.

“If it reaches the agricultural community, it will devastate them,” said Baldemar Velasquez, founder of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee. “There won't be a safety net.”

The entry of the workers comes just days after the US State Department lifted restrictions on temporary work visas and allowed the laborers to enter during the busiest agriculture season in Florida, where the nation's largest supply of oranges, winter sweet corn, and other crops are harvested. Created decades ago, the guest worker program allows farmers to hire foreign laborers if they can show that no Americans are available to work the fields.

If the virus spreads among the workers — many of whom sleep in dilapidated trailers and cramped barracks — it could impact the spread of the illness among the laborers and the grower's ability to harvest the fields and stock American groceries.

Velasquez, who founded the advocacy group in 1967, said he is requesting that workers abide by social distancing rules, request isolation quarters if they get sick, and ensure their employers take them to hospitals.

If the growers refuse, Velasquez, who has led farm labor strikes, said his group is prepared to file lawsuits. “These are among the most vulnerable workers in the country,” he said. “It's a national problem.”

The son of Mexican migrant workers, Velasquez, 73, said he expects growers who signed contracts with farm labor groups will try to meet the demands. So far, about a third of the growers in North Carolina with those contracts have provided safeguards, including places for workers to be isolated, he said.

Florida, however, could be a “ticking time bomb,” said Greg Schell, a veteran attorney who has represented laborers there for decades. The state has a dark history of abusing its agricultural workers, dating to the 1940s, when the region's largest sugar grower was indicted for slavery — and later, when the town of Belle Glade was profiled in the Edward R. Murrow television documentary Harvest of Shame.

The guest workers “are in the middle of stinking nowhere,” Schell said. “They work on top of one another and they live on top of one another.”

Schell, who sued in 2001 to stop crew leaders from forcing workers to pay them kickbacks, said about 10,000 workers will be coming to Florida in the current wave, joining another 25,000 who have been in the state since January. By next month, Florida could have more guest workers than any state.



Spencer Platt / Getty Images
A woman walks along a street in the rural agriculture community of Immokalee on September 9, 2018 in Immokalee, Florida.
Florida Farming Community Still Struggles One Year After Hurricane Irma
IMMOKALEE, FL - SEPTEMBER 09: A woman walks along a street in the rural agriculture community of Immokalee on September 9, 2018 in Immokalee, Florida. The Immokalee community, which is made up mainly of seasonal farm workers, was severely effected by Hurricane Irma which caused severe flooding in the area. Nearly one year later many residents still haven't fully recovered from the storm. Mobile homes make up roughly a quarter of theÊhousing in Immokalee and many were destroyed in the category 3 storm that caused major damage throughout the state. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

He said his biggest concern is that most arrivals work for labor brokers — operators who work for the large farms and insulate the growers from any responsibilities.

Schell said he expects the laborers in the coming months to stay in the fields, "unless they're dropping dead."

One of the mainstays of farming in South Florida is the "mule train," a large flatbed contraption pulled through the field, with workers "who are often on top of one another" picking, shucking, and crating corn.

"I can't imagine anyone is going to be talking about social distancing," said Schell.

Also, most of the workers are transported in buses to and from the fields and orange groves. "They are packed in there,” Schell said. “No one is sitting one to a seat."

Some growers have provided better wages and work conditions over the years in Florida, but he said many of the smaller farmers are still under pressure to get their crops out of the fields and, in turn, are putting extreme demands on workers.

The Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association, which represents a broad swath of farmers, did not respond to questions provided by BuzzFeed News but referred all inquiries to the National Council of Agricultural Employers.

Michael Marsh, president of the growers council, said his organization is educating farmers through webinars and emails about their responsibilities to protect workers.

He said the recent $2 trillion spending bill enacted by Congress provides that guest workers receive emergency sick pay — but it's up to the farmers to provide protections, including social distancing and any facilities they build for quarantine.

"The risk would be for the farmer and if he has someone who is sick. He runs a bigger risk" by not protecting the other workers, Marsh said.

On a tip sheet offered by the organization to growers in California, employers are told to instruct workers who are sick to not report to work and to "tell them to contact a medical provider or physician by phone before going to the medical office, clinic, or emergency room. Another option is to contact a teledoctor."

Schell said because there is no government plan for the farmers, he expects some of the larger growers to offer protections, and others to cut corners and "hope nothing happens," he said. "They will be whistling by the graveyard."


Michael Sallah is a senior investigative reporter and editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington D.C. He is a recipient of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting and was twice named a Pulitzer finalist, once for public service in 2012 and the other for local reporting in 2016.

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The Coronavirus Outbreak Has Workers Who Care For The Elderly "Terrified"
Home health aides are at risk, and many of them are without adequate protection from COVID-19. “We really feel under threat.”

Miriam ElderBuzz Feed News Reporter March 28, 2020

Kathy Willens / AP
A home health aide checks her phone after disembarking from a bus in Brooklyn, March 26.

Every day, they fan out across New York — hundreds of thousands of home health aides entering the houses and apartments of the city’s most vulnerable, people who are old, infirm, and unable to care for themselves. Practicing social distancing is impossible for them; how can it not be when your job is to change a person’s clothes, roll them on their sides, and make sure they are getting bathed and fed?

Home health aides across the city, state, and country say they have been left exposed and unprotected as the coronavirus outbreak grows exponentially each day. Many say they have heard little to nothing from the agencies they work for, and have been given none of the basic things needed to try to keep themselves, and their at-risk patients, safe — including gloves, masks, and hand sanitizer.

“We really feel under threat. We don't feel safe,” said Sally, 35, who is originally from Tajikistan and has been working as a home health aide in New York for nearly four years. She currently has one regular patient, a woman in her nineties living in Queens who has dementia and doesn’t understand that she is living in the midst of a global pandemic.

On the days Sally is not with her, the agencies she works for deploy her across the city — a few hours with a patient in Brooklyn, a few hours with a patient in Queens, people she will likely never see again. Most home health aides sign up with multiple agencies and take clients wherever they can get them. Few make more than minimum wage.

“The patients need us to come, they need us to work, and they give us nothing,” Sally said. “I buy everything myself — I buy gloves, I buy sanitizer.” In the early days of the crisis, she found a set of 50 masks for $100, which she bought herself, someone who makes just over $12 an hour. Sometimes, she spends half her daily pay on a taxi, so she can avoid taking the subway. The agencies reimburse her for none of that, nor do they provide health insurance.

“Honestly, I feel terrified — it’s scary what’s going on around us,” said Sally, who, like other workers who spoke to BuzzFeed News, asked not to use their full names for fear of professional repercussions. “I travel from another part of the city to see my clients and, on the subway, you see fewer and fewer people like there was some sort of apocalypse.”

There are nearly 400,000 home health and personal care aides in the state of New York, and up to 75% of them work in New York City, according to the Home Care Association of New York State (HCA-NYS). A recent survey by the group found that 68% of agencies working in the state “do not have access to adequate personal protective equipment in their COVID-19 response.” They also found that nearly 50% of all agencies reported instances where patients or family were refusing entry to home health aides over coronavirus fears. That means aides don’t get paid. And while there’s been a loud discussion about the ethics of continuing to pay other service providers, like nannies and cleaners, it has not really extended to home health aides, who continue to work in the dark, like so much when the elderly are involved.

“Home care has been completely missing from all of the directives on the prioritization of supplies,” said Roger Noyes, spokesperson for HCA-NYS. “We’ve been raising this appeal repeatedly through every level of government.”

Nurphoto / Getty Images
A view of people wearing masks going about their daily lives in Queens, March 21.

“The directives are coming from the city, and that’s where the epicenter is — in the city the directives say priority supplies should be really reserved for hospitals, EMS, dialysis centers, nursing homes. Home care is just not even in the queue. Just to actually be mentioned in that directive,” he said. The group has begun hearing of instances where home health aides, many of whom are immigrants and/or people of color, have been stopped on their commutes by police enforcing New York’s shelter-in-place order, who have not recognized their agency ID as proof that they are essential workers, even though they are listed as such.

“Another thing we’re asking the local government is just to communicate out that home health care is under the governor’s order as an essential service, explicitly mentioned and to honor those credentials,” Noyes said. “It falls under the invisibility of our sector in the directives that are happening in a crisis like this.”

In New York, the issue has fallen victim to the endless tussle between the city and state. New York’s home health aides are “on the front lines of our healthcare system” and Gov. Andrew Cuomo is “committed to providing them with the supplies and equipment they need,” Gary Holmes, spokesperson for the state’s department of health, said in a statement. “We know home health care agencies are experiencing supply shortages, most urgently in New York City, but they should know help is on the way, as the Governor just announced the five boroughs will receive 169,000 N-95 masks, 430,850 surgical masks, 176,750 gloves, 72,561 gowns and 39,364 face shields, on top of the one million N95 masks the State already sent to New York City.”

While the current guidance from the CDC suggests that masks are not necessary for healthy people to avoid contracting the virus, there is now increased debate in the medical community about whether those guidelines should change, especially for people who are still out and working closely with others.

Patrick Gallahue, a spokesperson for the city’s health department, said New York City’s health care system “is facing a severe shortage of masks, gloves, and other key supplies that are needed to protect healthcare workers treating critically ill patients with COVID-19 infection in our hospitals” and warned that “local hospitals may run out of critical supplies within weeks at the current rate.”

“Therefore, we must prioritize ensuring the availability of protective equipment for health care workers working with patients with severe COVID-19 illness at this time,” he said.

Home health aides, moving around the city and coming into close contact with those believed to be most vulnerable to the coronavirus, argue they are also on the front lines.

They don’t have it easy in the best of times, as hourly wage earners who are often provided few or no benefits to do grueling work. In New York City, the people they care for often have no one else. It can feel like solitary work, depending on the health of the patient. And they do it all behind closed doors.

Jobina, who has worked as a home health aide in the city for nearly 14 years, said she was drawn to the job because “the elderly need help.” Now, she said, “I fear for my life.”

“How are we protected, how are we assured that we are not gonna contract [the coronavirus] and be fine?” she asked. She said her agency provides gloves but no masks and little guidance beyond “wash your hands before and after your shift.” She lives in the Bronx, and her sole client is there — a 45-minute bus ride away that fills her with stress every time.

Some home health aides faulted their agencies for failing to recognize the impact of the virus early on. “They should’ve prepared everything earlier,” said one woman, who works in Brooklyn and Queens and asked not to be named for fear she could be fired. The main agency she worked with, BNV Homecare, only sent out its first guidance on March 18, well into the crisis, announcing how employees could pick up gloves (but not masks). A second notice, sent two days later, informed employees that the main office had closed.

She has taken it upon herself to figure out how to keep herself, and her clients, safe during the crisis. “I wash my hands more often, disinfect all my outer clothes, disinfect every hour almost, wash the floors more often than I usually do, wash my hands really often,” she said. “Everyone is saying ‘Sit home and don't go out.’ It seems to me in such cases they should pay for our car rides, give us gloves and masks. There aren't masks anywhere; there aren't enough gloves.” BNV did not respond to a request for comment.

The issue is most acute in New York, which has become the epicenter of the coronavirus in the United States, with more than 46,000 known people infected with the virus, 549 of whom have died as of Saturday morning. But it extends around the country.

“They don't really look out for their caregivers in the way that I feel that they should, you know. I feel like we're doing as much as we can for other people, and the least that they can do is try to make things a little easier for us,” said Zoriah, 24, who is originally from Brooklyn and now works in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband and 17-month-old daughter.

As it looked like the novel coronavirus was taking hold in the US, she reached out to her manager at Americare Home Solutions, asking if the agency would provide gloves and masks. “She said she would get back to me, but she never did.” The company only sent an email to its employees on March 16, outlining the basic guidance that had already become second nature to everyone around the country: Wash your hands often; don’t touch your face. Zoriah, who makes $11 an hour, said she took it to mean that the company was telling her: “You’re still on your own.”

Jamie Shea, the director of Americare Home Solutions, said, “We’ve had a lot of trouble, obviously, getting a lot of that stuff.” He said the company’s order for masks was on backfill, and just two-thirds of their order of 150 bottles of hand sanitizer was delivered on Thursday. “We are doing our best to keep up with it and make sure that our caregivers know what the risks are,” he said. “All we’ve been doing for the last two weeks is asking for donations. Anybody that has it, we’re willing to take it and use it for our clients and caregivers.” He did not have an answer for why they did not begin to prepare sooner.

Last week, Zoriah’s main client died — an 87-year-old man who had respiratory issues for years. His kidneys started shutting down, and within a week he was dead. It was the first time she had lost a patient, and she was there when it happened. The company gave her no time to grieve.

She spoke to the agencies that employ health care workers around the country. “I really want them to know that their caregivers — they do everything that they can to help these clients every day. And it makes our jobs so much easier if we had an agency that stands behind us. And that they would help make everything a lot easier by providing us with simple things like gloves or fake masks or hand sanitizer, for that matter,” she said.

“It's a tough job, and we don't get as much credit for it as other people do — but somebody's got to do it.”

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Miriam Elder is a political reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York. Her secure PGP fingerprint is 5B5F EC17 C20B C11F 226D 3EBE 6205 F92F AC14 DCB1


Contact Miriam Elder at miriam.elder@buzzfeed.com.


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Trader Joe’s Workers Are Terrified Not Enough Is Being Done To Keep Them And Customers Safe

Workers fear that even if a store itself is not contaminated, they may have been infected with the virus by a sick colleague.

Julia ReinsteinBuzz Feed News Reporter April 1, 2020

Gabriele Holtermann-gorden / Sipa USA via AP
People wait in line outside Trader Joe's in Cobble Hill in Brooklyn, March 16.

With their Hawaiian shirts, free samples, and friendly vibes, Trader Joe’s stores can seem more laid-back than other supermarkets.

But employees working during the coronavirus pandemic fear for their health and the safety of customers.

“People are generally scared. There’s a lot of people feeling that the company is not responding in a responsible fashion,” said one employee of the Trader Joe’s in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill neighborhood, who like several people in this article asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing his job.

More than half a dozen employees told BuzzFeed News that employees of at least four store locations in New York and Washington, DC, have tested positive for the coronavirus — but the locations have remained open with workers expected to come in as normal.

Like other supermarkets across the country, Trader Joe’s stores are staying open as essential businesses to ensure people can still get food and supplies during the pandemic. But employees say guidelines around store safety have varied; some stores have brought in professionals for a deep clean after COVID-19 cases were discovered, but other stores have not done so because of the amount of time that had passed since the sick staffer had worked.

Workers also fear that even if the store itself is not contaminated, they may have been infected by a sick colleague and might be unwittingly passing it on to each other and customers. All this is worsened by communication from their managers and corporate that the workers say has been poor and haphazard, leaving them feeling unsafe and undervalued.


Leigh Vogel / Sipa USA via AP
Shoppers wait in line outside a Trader Joe's in Washington, DC, March 21.

Two employees of the Cobble Hill store said one of their coworkers tested positive for COVID-19, and two more have been diagnosed as suspected cases by a doctor. The store remains open and has not closed for professional cleaning, they said.

For over a week, store managers did not inform staff of the case at any of their morning “huddles,” the employees said. Staffers only found out their coworker had tested positive “through the grapevine.”

On Monday night, the manager told staff in an email, seen by BuzzFeed News, about the two colleagues who had been diagnosed by doctors. The email does not mention the third aforementioned case, which was an employee who said in a Facebook post she had tested positive.

“Because the crew member [diagnosed by a doctor] was in the store 9 days ago, the CDC does not recommend cleaning beyond what we have already been doing,” the email states.

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The email does not advise staff members to quarantine themselves due to possible exposure. The staffers work in close quarters and are unable to follow CDC guidelines that recommend workers stay 6 feet away from each other. The incubation period for COVID-19 can last up to 14 days, meaning store employees are still at risk for developing symptoms they could pass on to each other and customers.

Employees have been permitted to take unpaid time off if they are concerned about contracting the virus — but doing so isn't feasible for most of them, with bills to pay and no end in sight for the pandemic.

Company spokesperson Kenya Friend-Daniel told BuzzFeed News all Trader Joe’s staffers have been granted seven extra days of paid sick leave and that the company is “providing up to two weeks of paid sick leave to all Crew Members quarantined for or diagnosed with the coronavirus.”

Additionally, corporate policy now allows for workers to wear gloves and masks — something many store managers were previously prohibiting. Friend-Daniel said plexiglass is being installed at store registers as well.


Courtesy of Sammy Almlah
Sammy Almlah at work at Trader Joe's.

Sammy Almlah, 26, who works at a Trader Joe’s in Westbury, New York, told BuzzFeed News two of his coworkers have tested positive for the coronavirus, and at least two more people have been experiencing symptoms.

On Monday night, the Westbury store manager sent out a nearly identical email to the one sent to Cobble Hill staffers, which stated that the employee had last worked seven days ago, so they would not need to take additional cleaning measures.

“I feel nervous going in because of my asthma and the fact that my girlfriend is immunocompromised,” Almlah said. “I can’t afford to not work unless I’d be getting paid time off, but that only will happen if I get COVID-19.”

Almlah said he was confused why his store didn’t close for cleaning, while a nearby store in Plainview closed for cleaning two days after a worker tested positive.


Anthony Behar / Sipa USA via AP
Customers stand in line in front of a Trader Joe's in Manhattan while observing social distancing, standing 6 feet apart, March 29.

Friend-Daniel, the company spokesperson, said Trader Joe’s works “closely with local, state and federal health officials and base all of our decisions on their guidance.”

“The health and safety of our Crew and customers remains our top priority through this crisis,” Friend-Daniel said.

As the pandemic has grown, Trader Joe’s has implemented “enhanced safety and sanitation measures,” Friend-Daniel said.

In some cases, stores have temporarily closed in order to undergo a deep clean after employees have tested positive for the coronavirus. “We take a hyper careful approach by closing stores in these instances, and we do not reopen a store until we are satisfied that further intense cleaning and sanitation has been completed,” Friend-Daniel said.

The Trader Joe’s in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood briefly closed over the weekend after four workers tested positive over the course of two weeks, one worker there told BuzzFeed News.

The Chelsea staffers were not told who exactly had tested positive, due to privacy regulations, but were told what shifts those people had worked.

“I was afraid because I work these shifts, these morning shifts, with some of the crew that tested positive,” the Chelsea worker said. “The store is only so big, so I was like, was I in close contact with this person? Should I take a leave and quarantine myself to see what happens?”

The worker at the Chelsea location said she lives with her grandmother and is afraid of getting her sick. “It’s anxiety-inducing,” she said. “I try to be as careful as I can be, but honestly it’s so hard.”

One employee who works at the Trader Joe’s in the Glover Park neighborhood of Washington, DC, told BuzzFeed News that staffers are “not encouraged to tell the customers” about positive or suspected cases in the store.

“They said to keep an awareness of what we say in front of the customers ... and if a customer asks, to tell a manager to talk to them,” she said.

But Friend-Daniel said news about store closures and positive or suspected COVID-19 cases is being shared on the Trader Joe’s website. No locations are currently closed, she said, and no mentions of any previous closures can be found on the company website. There are also no announcements listed for positive or suspected COVID-19 cases in stores.

In Hartsdale, New York, one Trader Joe’s employee has tested positive for the coronavirus, and another has been diagnosed as a suspected case by their doctor, according to one current and former employee.

Erica Mildner worked at the Hartsdale store until she quit March 20 after being sent home for asking to wear gloves, which previously were not explicitly permitted by the corporate office. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is now investigating her case.

Mildner said she does not trust Trader Joe’s guidelines regarding whether a store is closed for a deep cleaning.

“We all know it takes a few days to feel symptoms, get access to a test, and then get the results of that test,” Mildner said. “The CDC regulations that [managers] list [in their emails] basically say [they] understand the virus lasts on surfaces for two to three days at most. So based on the last date that the [sick] employee worked, that’s how we’ll decide whether or not to close the store.”

Essentially, by the time a sick employee can get a positive test back or a diagnosis from a doctor, that period of time in which the disease can be passed from touching surfaces has already ended.

But this does not take into account the coworkers who may have already touched those surfaces and contracted the virus and who may get sick and pass the virus along even further.

“It’s an impossible formula,” Mildner said.


Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
A Trader Joe's in Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia, Mach 31.

Earlier in March, Trader Joe’s announced all its workers would be granted a bonus due to sales skyrocketing amid the pandemic, which comes out to about an additional $2 per hour before taxes.

The bonus was announced after workers started a petition — which to date has been signed by over 20,000 people — calling for Trader Joe’s to pay its employees hazard pay at the rate of time and a half.

“The bonus, I think, was a way of attempting to shut us up about hazard pay,” said Almlah, the Westbury staffer. “I don’t think the check was worth the risk of being there. If anything it makes me more upset that they believe this is sufficient.”

The DC employee said her bonus for a month’s work came out to about $160, which she said feels inadequate considering the risk she’s putting herself and her partner in.




“A lot of us don’t feel safe,” the DC employee said. “Everyone’s really anxious.”

On Sunday, her store manager said in an email that one employee had tested positive for the coronavirus — and that because the employee had last worked 11 days ago, business would continue as usual.

Despite her fears, the DC employee said she has no choice but to keep working until she gets sick so she can take paid sick leave.

“I need to eat and I have rent,” she said. “I’m terrified of not working. I wake up anxious because I know it’s something that I have to do.”

UPDATE
April 1, 2020
After the company was contacted by BuzzFeed News for comment, the Trader Joe's website was updated to list stores temporarily closed for COVID-19 cleaning.

Dennis Dickson Worked To Clean NYPD Headquarters Of The Coronavirus — Then He Died From It

CLEANING IS FRONT LINE PANDEMIC WORK DONE BY THE LAST THOUGHT OF WORKERS THE JANITOR, CUSTODIAN, CARETAKER 

Dickson worked 17 days straight during Hurricane Sandy to keep police headquarters clean. He was working again during the coronavirus pandemic before he himself fell ill.

Emmanuel FeltonBuzzFeed News Reporter March 27, 2020



Instagram
A photo Dickson posted to Instagram of himself at work in 2015.

Dennis Dickson, who worked for 14 years as a janitor with the New York City Police Department, died Thursday from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. He was 62.

Dickson, who died at Brooklyn’s Kings County Hospital, was the first NYPD casualty of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a video message posted to Twitter on Thursday night, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said, “Today, we lost one of our own.”

“We have lost a member of the NYPD family,” said Shea, “and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.”


Commissioner Shea@NYPDShea

Today we lost one of our own: City Custodial Assistant Dennis Dickson, who faithfully served with the NYPD since 2006, has passed away from complications related to the coronavirus. Our deepest sympathies & all of our prayers go out to Dennis’ colleagues & family. #NeverForget12:24 AM - 27 Mar 2020
Reply Retweet Favorite


On Facebook, Dickson’s widow, Debbie, posted a photo of the pair smiling and embracing.
“This is how I want to remember my husband,” she wrote. “Never expect u would leave me this soon.”
“U r and will always be my true love,” she said. “Until we meet again, my baby.”

Police described Dickson — a native of Guyana, according to his Facebook page — as a “revered” member of the department who had first joined the NYPD in 2006.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Dickson worked for 17 days straight, keeping 1 Police Plaza, the department’s famed lower Manhattan headquarters, safe and clean for his colleagues, even as the neighborhood around the building was plunged into darkness for days after the storm struck.

In a photo from the time provided by the department, Dickson still had a smile on his face during those trying days.

NYPD

Dickson (second from right) working in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

As COVID-19 presented another crisis for the city, Dickson again stepped up, working to disinfect 1 Police Plaza before he himself fell ill.

“Mr. Dickson was again on the front line cleaning and disinfecting 1 Police Plaza so that our personnel could be here safely, allowing them to continue to serve the people of the City Of New York,” police officials said in a statement.

According to the NYPD facilities team, custodians have been busy disinfecting hard surfaces that officers and staffers might touch throughout their day in police buildings, including doorknobs, elevator buttons, and staircase railings.



Dan Finkelstein/Flickr/Creative Commons / Via Flickr: steuben
One Police Plaza in Manhattan, where Dickson worked as a member of the custodial staff.

As of Thursday night, the NYPD reported that 351 employees — 294 uniformed officers and 57 civilian staff members — had so far tested positive for the coronavirus. As of Friday morning, CNN reported that 512 employees had tested positive, according to a senior NYPD official.

On Facebook, Dickson was also remembered by his mother-in-law, Christine Fernandes.

Referring to Dickson by his nickname, Double D Sexy, she spoke of her “profound sadness and deep regret.”

“May his soul rest in peace and rise in glory,” she wrote. “Just sleep on.”

CORONAVIRUS
An American Airlines Flight Attendant Has Died From The Coronavirus As Employees Fight For Safer Working ConditionsBrianna Sacks · March 27, 2020

THE VICTIMS OF COVID-19

Mark Blum
69, Actor in New York City.
Floyd Cardoz
59, an Indian-American chef in New York City.
Alan Finder
72, a reporter for The New York Times in New York City.
Dezann Romain
36, school principal in Brooklyn
Nashom Wooden
50, a drag queen in New York City.

See our full coverage here of the coronavirus outbreak here.

Emmanuel Felton is an investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.

FASHIONABLE EXPLOITATION

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, big clothing brands, including Ann Taylor, American Eagle, and Anthropologie, shut their stores across the world but earned praise for announcing they'd pay their store employees during the closures.

But employees told BuzzFeed News that the companies are misleading them as well as the public.

April 1, 2020

Gene J. Puskar / AP An Ann Taylor store in Pennsylvania.

Store associates ended up getting paid very little or nothing after stores cut their scheduled shifts before announcing the closures. And employees said the companies have failed at communicating with them during the pandemic.

“They’ve been misleading, manipulative, and created far more stress in an already stressful time,” an Ann Taylor store manager, who requested anonymity for fear of losing her job, like several other people who spoke for this article, told BuzzFeed News. “People who shop there were texting me saying they were so happy Ann Taylor was paying associates, and I had to tell them they actually weren’t. Everyone is angry — clients, managers, associates. Everyone.”

[If you're someone who is seeing the impact of the coronavirus firsthand, we’d like to hear from you. Reach out to us via one of our tip line channels.]

BuzzFeed News reached out to some employees after they had commented on a BuzzFeed post about companies that said they were paying associates through the crisis.

In a now-edited announcement on its website, Ann Taylor said it was closing its stores March 18–28.

“Our associates are at the heart of what we do, and they will be paid for their scheduled shifts during this time,” Gary Muto, the CEO of Ascena Retail Group, whose brands include Ann Taylor, Loft, and Lou & Grey, said in the announcement.

After BuzzFeed News reached out to Ann Taylor for comment on the morning of March 27, the part about paying store associates was removed from Muto’s statement on the website.




anntaylor.com



The Ann Taylor store manager told BuzzFeed News that store associates “got absolutely nothing.”

“No pay at all,” she said. “If they did get paid, it was the people who usually work 25-plus hours, and we snuck them on for three hours for one day to cover managers' breaks.”

She said that Ann Taylor first directed managers like her to cut associates’ shifts back on March 12, a week before stores closed. A few days later, more associates’ shifts were cut when Ann Taylor reduced store hours.

Then, on March 16, managers were told to operate on “minimum coverage,” which meant that only two people from the management team would be scheduled to work, she said. This meant that no associates were put on the schedule.

“This was a full 24 hours before we knew we were closing,” she said. “We had associates on the other side of the phone crying, saying we couldn’t cut their shifts because they wouldn’t be able to pay rent. It was one of the worst things I’ve ever witnessed.”

So when Ann Taylor publicly announced the next day that it would pay store associates through the closures, it caused confusion and anger among employees, the manager said.

“The store associates were calling and texting, asking if they were getting paid now — after we had just told them they weren’t getting paid,” the manager said. “It didn’t just mislead the public; it misled the people who work for the company.”

A company spokesperson declined to comment.


Jels@HeyItsJels
@PButterfield18 Ann Taylor LOFT made stores SIGNIFICANTLY cut back on payroll, had store managers make a new schedule giving part-time associates maybe 4 hours/week IF that, then announced they are closing and associates get what they are scheduled. This is through the 28th. Unknown after that.12:54 AM - 18 Mar 2020

The company has since furloughed all store associates until it can reopen stores.

“We found out on March 24th that we had to call everyone from home and tell them they were furloughed,” the Ann Taylor manager said. “Associates are able to use up the rest of their sick time if they choose to, which they have very little of."

In a letter to employees published on StreetInsider.com, Muto said, “Furloughing our [store] associates is one of the most challenging decisions we have ever had to make as an organization.”

He said that it was “incredibly disheartening” for the company to take this step “due to the unpredictable and unimaginable impact of COVID-19.”

“I want you to know that as a furloughed associate, you are still very much part of our team, and it is our goal to recall you to work as soon as possible,” Muto’s letter said.





Twitter: @DrBethK, Twitter: @hartkeas

The Ann Taylor employee said the company used managers like her as “puppets” and made them look like “the bad guys.”

She said that other managers she has talked to across the company’s brands felt that the company had treated store employees unfairly.

“When we go back to work I am going to have a team full of women who dislike me because the company made us the bad guys,” she said. “We were the people responsible for doing all these awful things.”


Randy Hoeft / Yuma Sun via AP A sign on the door to an American Eagle in Arizona.

In a news release March 17, American Eagle Outfitters announced it was closing its stores at least until March 27 and that “all store associates will be compensated for scheduled time during that period.”

Naomi Slack, a store associate at an American Eagle in Oklahoma City, called the statement a "cleverly worded lie."

Slack, 43, told BuzzFeed News that while American Eagle said it would pay associates for "scheduled" shifts, it didn't say "we'll just take you off the schedule."

"That's so shitty," Slack said.


Courtesy of Naomi Slack

Slack, who was hired at American Eagle a little over a week before it closed its stores, was expecting to be scheduled for at least 10 hours a week as a part-time store associate.

But on Tuesday, when Slack logged into the employee website to check how many hours she would be getting paid for, "I felt like I got punched in the gut."

"I got zero hours because I got scheduled for zero hours," Slack said.

Slack, who still has her day job at another company, said she was depending on the approximately $100 she would have gotten from American Eagle to go toward her medical treatments and the "extra money I need every month to make sure I don't overdraft my checking account by pay day."

Slack said American Eagle's statement to the public and to employees about paying store associates for their scheduled shifts did not clarify that some associates like her would not get scheduled at all.

"They shouldn't get the press they're getting for being kind to their employees. when they're not," she said.

Slack provided BuzzFeed News with screenshots of group chats in which her store manager informed associates about closures and the pay schedule during that period.

In one message on March 18, Slack's coworker asked their store manager, "So we will get scheduled but not have to come in and we will get payed [sic] for those days!!"

The store manager replied, "That's the idea BUT if corporate feels we 'overscheduled' they can pull the hours out. Hopefully we fell into their guidelines."


Slack

He later added that not everyone was scheduled and that priority was given to leaders and core associates.

"Then if hours were left, we could schedule flex associates," Slack's store manager said in the chat.

Slack told BuzzFeed News that she had never been told she was a "flex associate" and did not even know what that meant.

When she found out she had not been scheduled to work at all during the store closures, Slack asked the store manager about it.

"I know that you guys were going to scale down but I didn't think it would be to zero [hours]," Slack told him.

"We only had a limited amount of hours to use," her manager replied. "The priority was full time at 40 then our core staff at at least 12. after that there really wasn't much to use."







When Slack lamented to him about needing the money, the manager told her, "It's something new none of us have gone through."

Slack said she will look for another second job soon. She said that American Eagle should have paid all their store associates for the two weeks.

"They have more than enough money to do it," she said. "It's a billion-dollar brand."

In a message to her direct manager, Slack complained about the company's misleading statement.

"It's shady," Slack said in the message. "Feels like a dirty trick after what they said cuz I could have started working on another job somewhere else 3 weeks ago."

Her manager replied, "I understand how frustrating it can be, just know that you are not alone."

A 21-year-old store associate for American Eagle in Oregon told BuzzFeed News that the company's statement about paying store associates was “misleading."

On March 16, the associate — who did not wish to be identified for fear of losing her job — said she got a call from her manager after the company shortened their store hours. She was scheduled to work for three shifts that week, but due to the reduced hours, the manager had to cut two of the shifts.

The next day, she found out — through an American Eagle mass email sent to all customers on their subscription list — that it was closing all its stores.

Only after that email did her store manager tell associates via group text that their store was closing.

“So before the decision to close the store was made, associates were called and asked to reschedule or cut their shifts, that they otherwise would have been compensated for,” the associate told BuzzFeed News.

She said that if her scheduled shifts had not been cut she would have made $135 (before taxes) for the week. After two of her three shifts were cut, she made only $45 for the week after stores closed.

“While I am thankful for the time I was compensated for, it’s upsetting that what I would have normally been paid was cut over half for my last check until further notice,” the associate said. “This has affected me greatly financially. Like many store employees, I do not know when I will be making an income again, and am having trouble applying for unemployment since American Eagle has not laid off their employees yet.”

The company did not reopen its stores on March 27 as previously announced, and associates have not heard from the company about when the stores will likely reopen or if they will be paid during this time.

She doesn't know of any associate who had shifts scheduled this far out, which means they wouldn't be compensated.

She added that there has been “minimal communication” from American Eagle.

The assistant store manager sent associates a group text March 27 informing them about how they could send photos to be posted to the store’s Instagram account during the closure.

The manager “casually mentioned, ‘While we don’t have a date for when we return…’ but did not expand on that,” the associate said.

On Monday, the store assistant manager contacted the associates on group text to tell them the company had given associates a coupon code for 25% off.

“Not exactly the compensation some of us were hoping for,” the associate said.

She said that associates still haven’t received a company email about what the continued store closures mean for store employees.

“I unfortunately do feel the company could be handling this situation better,” she said. “I feel at the very least, clear and consistent communication directly with the employees would make a positive difference.”

American Eagle Outfitters did not return multiple requests for comment.

Gado Images / Sipa USA via AP An Anthropologie store in California in 2019.

URBN, which includes brands like Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, Free People, BHLDN, and Terrain, publicly announced it was closing all its global stores on March 14 and that it would continue to pay store employees.

But Anthropologie "said they'd pay employees publicly but have so far made no attempt to give employees any actual information about what's going on and after announcing they'd pay for scheduled hours, promptly took everyone off the schedule. Workers with 30+ hours a week are getting only 8 hours ‘quarantine pay,’” one person commented on BuzzFeed.

When asked about the commenter's claims, URBN said in a statement to BuzzFeed News that it was “standard business practice for retailers to adjust store associate schedules according to traffic and demand trends.”

The statement said that, "due to the impact of COVID-19 and the rapidly declining retail store environment during the week of March 9th," store employees' schedules "had been adjusted downward.”


“We understand employees may question the timing of this change, but these two decisions were 100% mutually exclusive as we continued to react quickly and ever changing conditions,” the statement said. “Notwithstanding deteriorating conditions in the market, we chose to honor those scheduled hours.”

On Tuesday, March 31, URBN announced that it was furloughing “a number of store, wholesale and home office employees” for 60 days as store closures "continued for the foreseeable future."

The company said that impacted employees will continue to receive enrolled benefits during their furlough and be able to collect unemployment compensation.

“We will make every effort to assist those furloughed in receiving all benefits available to them,” URBN said.

In the meantime, store associates are struggling to make ends meet.


The 21-year-old American Eagle store associate said she was having trouble qualifying for unemployment.

"I normally have two jobs that I am financially dependent on (as well as providing child care), and my other job laid me off, so I have been filing for unemployment since I was laid off from that job on [March 20],” she said. She said unemployment representatives had advised her to continue applying weekly even though she was still employed by American Eagle.

“I still have not heard anything back from the unemployment office, however,” she said.


MORE ON THIS
Starbucks Employees Got Sick. Starbucks Stores Stayed Open.Albert Samaha · March 26, 2020
These Retailers Have Been Staying Open. Employees Say They’re Afraid For Themselves And Others.Albert Samaha · March 18, 2020
Costco Employees Are Testing Positive For The Coronavirus And Their Coworkers Say Managers Aren't Being TransparentBrianna Sacks · March 25, 2020



Tasneem Nashrulla is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.
Contact Tasneem Nashrulla at tasneem.nashrulla@buzzfeed.com.

Workers at Bezos-owned companies plan MORE protests: Staff at second Amazon warehouse walkout as Whole Foods 'sick out' organizers slam the billionaire and execs for criticizing their demonstration 'while they work safely from home'

Amazon workers in Michigan are said to have gone on strike Wednesday at noon 

Whole Workers vowed to continue strike action after staging the 'successful' nationwide protest, warning 'this is only the beginning' in a statement

'We are the team members who continue to put our lives at risk', they wrote

Whole Foods had called workers who staged a 'sick out' protest at working conditions 'disappointing' while hailing their 'heroic' colleagues for showing up

Instacart contractors have shown on Twitter how their members are refusing to take deliveries over conditions after launching strike action Monday 

They have confirmed they will strike 'until their demands are met'

By LAUREN FRUEN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 1 April 2020 

Staff at an Amazon warehouse in Michigan staged a walkout Wednesday days after their colleagues in New York also protested against coronavirus working conditions.

Workers at the plant in Romulus are said to gone on strike at midday, The Verge reports. Employee Tonya Ramsay said: 'I get we’re essential, but our lives are essential as well.'

Those working at the facility say management has been slow in telling them of the three positive cases at the site. They also say better cleaning and more space between workers is needed.

An Amazon spokesman told DailyMail.com: 'Of the over 4,000 employees at our Romulus, MI fulfillment center, less than 15 people, participated in today’s demonstration. Our employees are heroes fighting for their communities and helping people get critical items they need in this crisis.'

It comes as the organizers behind Tuesday's Whole Foods 'sick out' slammed Jeff Bezos and his corporate staff for 'dismissing our actions while working from the safety of their homes'.

Whole Workers vowed to continue strike action after staging the 'successful' nationwide protest, warning 'this is only the beginning'. In a statement Tuesday evening they pledged: 'We will be following this sickout with further action.'

As millions of people stay at home in the United States and non-essential businesses are shuttered to slow the spread of the virus, grocery stores and pharmacies are staying open.

A number of those working across the industry, including Instacart contractors, have confirmed they will strike 'until their demands are met'.

Unemployment in the United States hit a record high last week with 3.28million people - four times the previous record of 695,000 in October 1982 - making claims. Dow Jones say a further 2.65 million may join them this week.

One in three Americans report someone living in their household has lost their job or been forced to take a pay cut.

Employee Tonya Ramsay, right, holds a sign outside the Amazon DTW1 fulfillment center in Romulus, Mich., Wednesday. Employees and family members are protesting in response to what they say is the company's failure to protect the health of its employees

Staff at an Amazon warehouse in Michigan staged a walkout Wednesday days after their colleagues in New York also protested against coronavirus working conditions

A Whole Foods store near Colombus Circle, New York on Tuesday. The organizers behind Tuesday's Whole Foods 'sick out' have slammed Jeff Bezos and his corporate staff for 'dismissing our actions while working from the safety of their homes'
Customers stand on lines outside Whole Foods in Harlem

Whole Workers on Tuesday slammed the response from their employer, adding: 'Essential workers in all fields need to be protected and compensated for the increasingly dangerous work that we do.'

They added: 'It is disappointing to hear Whole Foods corporate dismisses our actions and our intentions in media statements.

Costco unveils new social distancing rules for shoppers who will now only be able to enter in twos

Costco on Wednesday unveiled new social distancing rules for shoppers who will now only be able to enter in twos

In a statement the company said: 'Effective Friday, April 3, Costco will allow no more than two people to enter the warehouse with each membership card.

'This temporary change is for your safety and the safety of our employees and other members, and to further assist with our social distancing efforts. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding. '

'We are the team members who continue to put our lives at risk while our corporate leadership and our company spokespeople continue to work from home in safety.'

Whole Foods had on Tuesday called workers who staged a 'sick out' protest at working conditions 'disappointing' while their 'heroic colleagues showed up to provide essential services' during the corona virus outbreak.

A spokesman for the Jeff Bezos owned grocery store told DailyMail.com they 'have seen no operational impact'.

But they added: 'It is disappointing that a small but vocal group, many of whom are not employed by Whole Foods Market, have been given a platform to inaccurately portray the collective voice of our 95,000+ Team Members who are heroically showing up every day to provide our communities with an essential service.'

As millions of people stay at home in the United States and non-essential businesses are shuttered to slow the spread of the virus, grocery stores and pharmacies are staying open.

There are now more than 200,000 confirmed coronavirus cases across the nation; the death toll stands at 4,391.

A new poll released Wednesday shows that 28 per cent of Americans have already lost wages as a result of the pandemic. A further 16 percent have been laid off or furloughed from work, the Grinnell College poll shows.

Whole Workers, an independent group say there is a lack of adequate compensation and protections from the coronavirus.

The organization has about 300 members and describes itself as a grassroots movement of employees at Amazon.com Inc-owned Whole Foods who are working to unionize.

RELATED ARTICLES

Whole Foods slams workers who staged 'sick out' while their...

AS AMAZON AND WHOLE FOODS WORKERS STRIKE OWNER JEFF BEZOS POCKETS $3.4 BILLION BY SELLING STOCK


Jeff Bezos made $3.4billion selling shares of the company in February

Amazon staff say they are struggling to access sick pay and fear colleagues are coming to work ill - as they paint a grim picture of coronavirus protections inside warehouses where 'everything has been touched by 1,000 hands.'

The online retail giant has increased pay and offered sick leave to anyone who has tested positive for coronavirus, but critics accuse the $1trillion company and owner Jeff Bezos of failing to do enough - just weeks after he pocketed $3.4billion by selling stock.

Bezos, the world's richest man, made $3.4billion selling shares of the company in February, just before the market tanked as coronavirus infections soared.

The sale saved Bezos a staggering $317million, compared to him keeping the stock through to March 20.

It also meant the billionaire sold as much stock in that one week as he has in the last year, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The sale accounted for around 3% of Bezos's total Amazon shares, and made up over a third of all stock exchange sales during this timeframe.

Bezos has also suggested that Amazon may be the solution to getting 'easy-to-access' COVID-19 test kits to people across the world after conversations he had with administrators in the World Health Organization.

In an Instagram post last week, the Amazon CEO shared that he had had a good call with WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom.

The announcement comes as workers from facilities across the US have tested positive for coronavirus.

'This isn't business as usual, and it's a time for great stress and uncertainty. It's also a moment in time when the work we're doing is its most critical,' the billionaire wrote in the memo shared on his Instagram.

Bezos said: 'Across the world, people are feeling the economic effects of this crisis, and I'm sad to tell you I predict things are going to get worse before they get better.'

The Whole Worker group is demanding, among other things, hazard pay and the immediate shutdown of any location where a worker tests positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

If a store is closed, all workers should receive full pay until the store can safely reopen, the group said on its Twitter account.

It comes amid reports that worker at a Whole Foods in San Francisco were warned not to tell customers an employee there had tested positive for coronavirus as the store remained open.

One told KQED: 'They don't want us to tell customers. They want us to direct customers to our store team leader.'

The call for action at Whole Foods won the endorsement of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which has 1.3 million members in the grocery industry.

Instacart workers pledge to strike 'until their demands are met'

It comes as Instacart contractors have shown on Twitter how their members are refusing to take deliveries over conditions after launching strike action Monday.

They have confirmed they will strike 'until their demands are met'.

Demands include hazard pay, expanding coronavirus sick pay and changing the default tip to 10 per cent.

Instacart contractors have shown on Twitter how their members are refusing to take deliveries over conditions after launching strike action Monday.

UNIONS AND WORKERS TAKING ACTION ACROSS U.S. AS CORONAVIRUS CASES RISE

The United Auto Workers union

Nurses demanding more personal protective equipment

The Association of Flight Attendants union

Whole Workers

GE workers staged a silent protest to build ventilators

Amazon in Staten Island

Instacart workers

Source: Axios

One Instacart shopper wrote Monday: 'Please stop telling customers it's just today. As per our original statement - we are striking until demands are met and a history of instacart abuse and lack of communication with us makes clear that won't be in 24 hours.'

Another worker showed a stream of requests from customers that were not being picked up by Instacart 'shoppers'.

They added: 'There are a lot alerts for orders and nobody fighting to take them! #INSTACARTSTRIKE is working!

A spokesman for Instacart said the strikes resulted in 'absolutely no impact to Instacart's operations', adding: 'The health and safety of our entire community — shoppers, customers, and employees — is our first priority. Our goal is to offer a safe and flexible earnings opportunity to shoppers, while also proactively taking the appropriate precautionary measures to operate safely.

'We're focused on serving as an essential service for millions of families, while providing immediate earnings opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people across North America.'

NYC Mayor orders investigation into firing of Amazon worker

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Tuesday he had ordered the city's human rights commissioner to investigate the dismissal of a worker at a Bezos owned Amazon.com warehouse who had participated in a walkout.

He said: 'I've ordered the city's commission on human rights to investigate Amazon immediately to determine if that's true. If so, that would be a violation of our city's human rights law and we would act on it immediately.'

The New York state attorney general Letitia James had earlier called Chris Smalls' dismissal 'disgraceful' and pointed out that the law protects employees' right to protest.
Amazon workers stage walkout in NY amid coronavirus


Jordan Flowers holds a sign at Amazon building during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the Staten Island borough of New York City on Monday

'At a time when so many New Yorkers are struggling and are deeply concerned about their safety, this action was also immoral and inhumane,' she said in a statement.

Amazon said fired Smalls made 'misleading' statements about conditions and that he was supposed to be in quarantine and had no choice but to fire him after he came to the facility.

Rachael Lighty, Amazon Spokesperson told DailyMail.com: 'We did not terminate Mr. Smalls employment for organizing a 15-person protest.

'We terminated his employment for putting the health and safety of others at risk and violations of his terms of his employment.

'Mr. Smalls received multiple warnings for violating social distancing guidelines. He was also found to have had close contact with a diagnosed associate with a confirmed case of COVID-19 and was asked to remain home with pay for 14-days, which is a measure we're taking at sites around the world.

'Despite that instruction to stay home with pay, he came onsite further putting the teams at risk.'

DailyMail.com has contacted Whole Worker, Whole Foods and for comment.

Nearly a third of Americans say they've already lost wages, 16% have been fired or furloughed and almost HALF of all millennials fear they'll lose their jobs as coronavirus threatens to tip the world into a recession

More than a quarter of Americans say they've lost wages due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new Grinnell College poll released Wednesday.

1,009 Americans from across the country were surveyed March 27 -30 about changes to their finances amid COVID-19, with 28% saying they have lost some form of income, due to sickness, reduced hours or business closures.

Meanwhile, 16 precent of all respondents revealed that they have been laid off or furloughed from their jobs due to the evolving health crisis.

The numbers are even more dire for young Americans, with 25 percent of those aged under 35 saying that they have already been fired or furloughed. A further 20 percent expect to lose their jobs at some stage in the near future.

Disturbingly, a quarter of Americans aged 35 and under are currently going hungry, or expect to go hungry soon.

The poll gives a grim snapshot of America's current economic situation - which is only expected to worsen as coronavirus cases skyrocket across the country and stay-at-home orders are extended in many places until the end of April.


Several economists have estimated that 3.5 million people across the country will file an unemployment claim this week, up from the previous record of 3.1 million last week. Gap furloughed thousands of workers Tuesday. One of their stores is pictured

However, the Grinnell College poll also uncovers a surprising optimism among the American people, with 88% of all respondents saying they are 'confident Americans will get through this'.

72 percent say they are remaining calm, while only two in every 10 claimed they are feeling lonely.

Respondents also claimed the be following guidelines put out by the CDC and local governments.


More than a quarter of Americans say they've lost wages due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new Grinnell College poll released Wednesday. Pictured: a closed business in Detroit, Michigan

98 percent of Americans are washing their hands on a more frequent basis, while 84% have stayed mostly inside without any physical contact.

7 in 10 responders say they are willing to stay inside and social distance for 'as long as asked'.

The poll was conducted between last Friday and this Monday, when the number of COVID-19 cases in the US skyrocketed.

On Monday, Trump extended the country's effective economic shutdown through April 30, after having earlier claimed he wanted people back to work.



'Where can I file for unemployment': The stunning Google search chart that underlines the collapse the US economy

A stunning Google search chart has underlined the grim collapse of the United States economy, showing searches for 'file for unemployment' spiking dramatically in recent days.

Goldman Sachs now predicts the United States economy will shrink a staggering 34 percent in the second quarter, more than three times the biggest plunge in history.

The investment banking giant has also warned unemployment could hit 15 percent as the country reels from the coronavirus outbreak.

Google trends show searches for 'file for unemployment' have spiked in recent days

High end stores in Manhattan board up their windows amid the coronavirus outbreak in NYC

Economists at Goldman Sachs had warned then that U.S. gross domestic product will plummet by 24 percent in a post earlier this month.

Revising their figures they said Tuesday they now expect the U.S. economy to shrink 34 percent in the second quarter, but they expect growth to rebound in the third quarter.

They said decline would be deeper than it had previously forecast and unemployment would be higher, citing anecdotal evidence and 'sky-high jobless claims numbers.'

It would mark the largest quarterly drop in GDP on record, which is currently held by a 10 percent decline in the first quarter of 1958 during the 'Eisenhower Recession.'

There are now more than 180,000 confirmed coronavirus cases across the nation; the death toll stands at 3,699, surpassing China which has recorded 3,309 deaths.

Private sector employees feel the pain of coronavirus cuts as 3.5million are expected to file for unemployment and as many as 47million could be laid off

Private sector employees are enduring the worst of job cuts resulting from the coronavirus outbreak as a record 3.5 million Americans are expected to file for unemployment this week and predictions say tens of millions more could be laid off.

Retailers including Macy's, the Gap, JCPenney, and Neiman Marcus, as well as mall owner Simon Properties, among others from the private sector are enacting furloughs because of the outbreak.

Private companies enacting employee furloughs due to the coronavirus outbreak

Macy's (operates Macy's, Bloomingdale's and BlueMercury stores): Most of 125,000 employees to be furloughed with health benefits

J.C. Penney (employs 95,000 associates globally): Retailer will furlough the majority of its hourly store employees

Gap (total workforce was 129,000 as of Feb. 1): About 80,000 employees to be furloughed with health benefits, plus an undisclosed number of corporate employees to be laid off

Nieman Marcus: Luxury retailer says it will furlough the majority of its 14,000 workers or temporarily cut salaries

Companies like iHeart Media representing 800 stations, outdoor recreational craft maker Polaris, hospital operators and large law firms also are sending employees home.

Meanwhile, government employees, including in the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, have remained employed full time, amid slow downs in work.

Southwest Airlines airplanes, for example, are flying at about 20 per cent full, which means Jasmine and other TSA workers no longer have long security lines to contend with at LAX.

As no one working security has been laid off, TSAs no longer face thousands of passengers squeezing through airport checkpoints.

'Things have been really slow for about two weeks now,' Jasmine confesses.

'Our numbers have just been slowly decreasing. It’s super weird because we’re so used to constant rush. Now it’s literally, like, 10 people an hour, it’s crazy.'

‘I’m just hanging out with my friends at this point,’ a TSA worker at Los Angeles International Airport tells

.The crisis has caused private payrolls to drop for the first time since 2017, likely as businesses shut down in compliance with strict measures by authorities to contain the global pandemic, supporting economists' views that the longest employment boom in history ended in March.

Read more:
SF Whole Foods Employee Tests Positive for Coronavirus, Store Stays Open | KQED News
The coronavirus is inspiring a new labor movement - Axios
Amazon workers plan strike at Michigan warehouse for COVID-19 protections
Exclusive: Detroit Amazon workers plan to walk out over handling of COVID-19 - The Verge

Whole Foods 'sick out' organizers slam Bezos for 'dismissing our actions while working from homes'

A Revolt Over Safety and Pay

An Instacart worker filling an order in a Chicago grocery store.

Credit...Laura McDermott for The New York Times March 31, 2020

On strike

Workers for the grocery delivery service Instacart and an Amazon warehouse in New York City walked off the job yesterday, while some Whole Foods employees have called for a “sick out” today. They want more safety measures and better pay to compensate for risk.

Instacart workers had several demands, including more disinfecting material, bigger tips and shares of delivery fees, and an expansion of sick pay, the NYT reports. It’s not clear how many workers participated — the company contends that it saw “absolutely no impact” to operations — but it was notable that salaried employees joined independent contractors.

The Amazon walkout was led by a worker who was alarmed that the company did not close the center after a colleague fell ill. Organizers say several dozen workers took part, while the company said fewer than 15 did. But the protest highlighted concerns about steps Amazon has taken to protect workers, including its inability to provide enough masks.

• The worker who helped organize the protest, Chris Smalls, was subsequently fired for what Amazon said were repeated violations of distancing guidelines.

Can this sort of organizing succeed? Jake Rosenfeld, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis, told the NYT that such actions were unusual in bad economic times. But he added that he was skeptical that these kinds of protests would achieve much without help from legislation or unions.