Southwest Airlines is giving fully vaccinated staff 16 hours extra pay - and cutting special sick pay for unvaccinated workers who catch COVID-19

Grace Dean

Thu, September 16, 2021, 

Southwest Airlines is boosting incentives to encourage staff to get vaccinated. Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

• Southwest Airlines is giving staff 16 hours extra pay if they show proof they're fully vaccinated.

• Southwest said flight attendants and pilots would receive pay for 13 trip segments, per CNBC.

• The airline is also cutting special sick pay for unvaccinated people who catch COVID-19.

Southwest Airlines is boosting incentives for staff to get COVID-19 vaccines.

The airline is giving fully vaccinated staff 16 hours extra pay if they show proof of vaccination before November 15, according to a company memo sent Wednesday, first reported by CNBC, The Dallas Morning News, and others.

Southwest confirmed this to Insider, saying that it would offer these members of staff "roughly two days of pay."

Southwest said in the memo that flight attendants and pilots, who aren't paid hourly, would instead receive pay for 13 trip segments, per CNBC.

The airline also confirmed to Insider that it would cut quarantine pay protections for unvaccinated people who catch the coronavirus after November 16.

The protections gave employees full pay for up to 10 days if they were exposed to or contracted COVID-19 on the job, per Bloomberg.

Unvaccinated workers would still be able to use normal sick pay, the airline said in the memo, per CNBC.

"If you have not been vaccinated and choose to do so, this timeline gives you enough time to receive both rounds of a two-series vaccine or the single-dose vaccine," Southwest said in the memo, per CNBC.

Alaska Airlines, Delta Airlines, and American Airlines have already announced similar moves.

CNBC reported that Southwest told staff the new policies were "unrelated" to the vaccination rules President Joe Biden announced September 9, which would require businesses with more than 100 employees to mandate vaccines or weekly testing.

In August, United Airlines became the first US airline to mandate vaccines for all employees.

Other airlines, including Delta, Alaska, and Horizon, are only requiring the vaccine for new hires, while encouraging existing staff to get a shot with perks, such as bonuses.

Delta said in August that workers who don't get vaccinated would have to pay $200 extra a month for health insurance. The airline said that each worker who was hospitalized with the virus cost it an average of $50,000.

Delta said last week that 20% of its unvaccinated workers chose to get the vaccine within two weeks of it announcing the insurance surcharge.

Just under a quarter of adults in the US are yet to get their first dose of the vaccine, according to CDC data.

Hundreds of migrating songbirds crash into NYC skyscrapers


Skyscrapers Bird Deaths

This photo provided by Melissa Breyer shows some of the dead birds collected in the vicinity of New York's World Trade Center, Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021. Hundreds of birds migrating through New York City this week died after crashing into the city's glass towers, a mass casualty event spotlighted by a New York City Audubon volunteer's tweets showing the World Trade Center littered with bird carcasses. Melissa Breyer via AP

KAREN MATTHEWS
Thu, September 16, 2021


NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of birds migrating through New York City this week died after crashing into the city's glass towers, a mass casualty event spotlighted by a New York City Audubon volunteer's tweets showing the World Trade Center littered with bird carcasses.

This week's avian death toll was particularly high, but bird strikes on Manhattan skyscrapers are a persistent problem that NYC Audubon has documented for years, said Kaitlyn Parkins, the group’s associate director of conservation and science.

Stormy weather Monday night into Tuesday contributed to the deaths, she said.

“We had a big storm and sort of weird weather and lots of birds, and that’s sort of the perfect combination that can lead to bird-window collisions,” Parkins said.

“It seems that the storm might have brought the birds in lower than they would have otherwise have been, or just disoriented them,” Parkins added. “The effects of nocturnal light on birds is also quite strong, especially when it’s a cloudy night.”

Volunteers with NYC Audubon document bird deaths at high-risk spots during the spring and fall migrations.

Melissa Breyer, the volunteer who tweeted about finding nearly 300 birds on sidewalks surrounding the new World Trade Center towers, said the experience was “overwhelming.”

“As soon as I got to the buildings, the birds were everywhere on the sidewalk,” Breyer said. “Looking north, covered, south, covered, west, covered, the sidewalks were literally covered with birds.”

NYC Audubon wants the owners of the World Trade Center towers and other buildings to help reduce the number of bird strikes by dimming the lights at night and by treating glass to make it more visible to birds.

“Make it so that they can see it and recognize that it’s a solid barrier that they cannot fly through,” Parkins said.

Jordan Barowitz, a spokesperson for the Durst Organization, co-developer of One World Trade Center, said in an email, “The first 200 feet of One WTC are encased in glass fins that are non-reflective. This design was chosen because it greatly reduces bird strikes which mostly occur below 200 feet and are frequently caused by reflective glass."

Dara McQuillan, a spokesperson for Silverstein Properties, the developer of three other trade center skyscrapers, said, "We care deeply for wild birds and protecting their habitat in the five boroughs. Understanding that artificial night-time lighting in general can attract and disorient migrating birds, we are actively encouraging our office tenants to turn off their lights at night and lower their blinds wherever possible, especially during the migratory season.”

It wasn't the last flight for all the birds that crashed. Some survived.

A total of 77 birds were taken to the Wild Bird Fund's rehab facility on the Upper West Side on Tuesday, the majority of them from the trade center area, director Ritamary McMahon said.

“We knew it was going to be a large migration coming in. They could tell from the radar,” said McMahon, who scheduled extra staff to care for an expected influx of injured birds.

The Wild Bird Fund staff members gave the birds food, fluids and anti-inflammatory medications to reduce swelling.

Thirty birds recovered and were released in Brooklyn's Prospect Park on Wednesday, McMahon said.

“One of our staff took an Uber down to Prospect Park to release them so they wouldn’t face any more tall buildings on their travels,” she said.

___

This story has been corrected to attribute the quote “Make it so that they can see it and recognize that it’s a solid barrier that they cannot fly through" to Parkins, not Collins.

Edmonton Urban Farm expansion helps feed dozens of families

Chris Chacon 

An expansion to an urban farm is establishing some important roots in Edmonton. The farm is not only helping feed dozens of families, but also providing an escape during a year full of challenges.

© Chris Chacon/Global News 

Image of people harvesting vegetables at the Edmonton Urban Farm.

Alica Jogo and several others from Edmonton's Sudanese community is harvesting loads of vegetables from this newly expanded acre at an urban farm in the city.

"I think I have enough for the next six months," Jogo said. "I'm not buying anything. It's really a blessing, having this garden -- I'm glad that I could be a part of it."

Jogo is one of 53 people who signed up to learn how to garden back in April. That is when the unused plot of land owned by the city but leased to Explore Edmonton had just been transformed to a usable garden space.

"We had funding from the Butler Foundation and from Communities United and we managed to swing it so we actually got seeds in the ground on June 5," said Patty Milligan, Explore Edmonton's agriculture education specialist.

The $35,000 investment is helping bring an abundance of food to several cultural communities in Edmonton at no cost.

"There are some huge needs in the community, and I think they relate to community connection, feeling a part of a group, feeling that you have a safe place to connect during a stressful time and also of course food security," Milligan said.

"It's been hard but with the help... it's really great," Jogo said. "I don't have to worry about food. I don't need to worry about the vegetables now."

Urban farm organizers said they hope to add things like greenhouses, make it more education-friendly and possibly acquire another plot of land.

Read more: Edmonton business owner gets idea for urban farming from Yukon

"The long-term goal would be to have potentially half a block (or) a full city block of diverse growing space with different facilities and structures as well," said Communities United program manager Matthew Taylor.

As for Jogo, she can't wait to get started on the next growing season.

"So long as the garden is still here, I am coming back," Jogo said.

Those interested can contact Communities United or multicultural health brokers for more information.

UCP BACKPEDALS A WEE BIT

Alberta postpones plan to require ID for supervised consumption

(ANNews) - Alberta’s government has postponed plans to require identification to access supervised consumption services for people who use drugs until 2022, the Edmonton Journal reports.

The announcement comes two weeks after harm reduction advocacy groups Moms Stop the Harm and Lethbridge Overdose Prevention Society launched a legal challenge against the government over the new Recovery-Oriented Overdose Prevention Guide announced in June, which will require clients to provide their personal health card number.

Advocates say this measure will add a needless burden to accessing a life-saving service.

Moms Stop the Harm co-founder Kym Porter says rather than postponing the changes, they should be scrapped entirely.

“This doesn’t go far enough. Alberta must repeal the restrictions it has placed on delivering and accessing supervised consumption services in the province or more people will die,” Porter said in a statement.

At the time of Porter’s statement, no SCSs in the province were made aware of the changes, which she says is concerning, as the changes were supposed to come into effect at the end of September.

“We are weeks away from when the restrictions were set to be put in place and, despite the postponement, the Alberta government hasn’t informed supervised consumption sites that they don’t need to implement the changes at this time,” said Porter.

“It’s reckless. Supervised consumption sites need to be notified immediately to ensure they don’t implement measures that will drive people away from accessing their services.”

In a statement sent to the Journal, associated minister of mental health and addictions Mike Ellis said the postponement is intended to ensure SCS operators are in compliance with the Health Information Act to protect their clients’ privacy while accessing their health numbers.

“Alberta’s government will not be deterred in our mission to improve service quality and community safety. It is unfortunate that advocates for supervised consumption services are opposed to ensuring they meet basic quality standards to integrate into the health-care system,” Ellis said.

A 2016 survey from the University of Alberta of 320 people located in downtown Edmonton who use drugs found that just 36 per cent of them would use a site that required them to provide their health card number.

The other requirements of the Recovery-Oriented Overdose Prevention Guide, such as a “good neighbour agreement” with surrounding communities that includes a dispute resolution process, regulations surrounding data collection, staff qualification and training, and clinical practice standards, still go into effect Sept. 30.

From January to May 2021, 624 Albertans have died from accidental drug overdoses, a 41 per cent increase from the same period in 2020.

Jeremy Appel is an LJI reporter for Alberta Native News.

Jeremy Appel, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News

Exclusive-Teamsters organizing workers' unions at 9 Amazon.com facilities in Canada



FILE PHOTO: The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in Lauwin-Planque, northern France


By Julia Love and Moira Warburton

Fri, 17 September 2021, 

(Reuters) - The Teamsters workers' union has launched campaigns to organize employees in at least nine Canadian facilities of U.S. e-commerce company Amazon.com, according to Reuters interviews with union officials.

The influential union took the first step earlier this week to organize employees at one of Amazon's Canadian facilities, and the interviews reveal it is widening such efforts across the country, where the e-commerce company employs about 25,000 workers and plans to add 15,000 more.

The campaigns could be seen as a bet by the Teamsters that early success unionizing employees in a more labor-friendly market such as Canada will inspire similar results south of the border, where Amazon has so far fended off unionization attempts.

In the latest challenge to Amazon's anti-unionization stance, Edmonton, Alberta's Teamsters Local Union 362 filed for a vote on union representation at a company fulfillment center in nearby Nisku late on Monday.

Interviews with Teamsters units in other cities and provinces show that the union's efforts stretch from the Pacific coastal province of British Columbia to the Canadian economic heartland in southern Ontario.

The Teamsters' Edmonton unit says it has enough signed cards calling for a union to meet the 40% threshold to require a vote. Two of the union's units in Ontario and one in Alberta have confirmed they are signing membership cards with Amazon workers.

And two of the five units that confirmed to Reuters that they are organizing said they are running campaigns at multiple sites, bringing the total Amazon facilities involved in some level of organizing to at least nine.

“Any locals that have an Amazon facility in their area are doing an organizing campaign,” Jim Killey, an organizer with Teamsters Local 879 near Hamilton, Ontario, told Reuters.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier in the week Amazon Canada spokesperson Dave Bauer said in an emailed statement: "As a company, we don't think unions are the best answer for our employees."

Unions would prevent the company from changing quickly to meet employees' needs and represent "the voices of a select few," he added.

The Teamsters say they can help the workers win better wages and benefits, such as leaves of absence.

SLEEPING IN THEIR CARS

Unionization votes in Canada do not have any direct bearing on the United States, but they could raise enthusiasm, said John Logan, a labor professor at San Francisco State University.

“Organizing at a place like Amazon requires workers to take a certain amount of risk,” Logan said. “If they can look to other places and see that that risk has paid off for other workers, then they are far more inclined to do it themselves.”

Union members are going to great lengths to connect with Amazon workers, sleeping in their cars to catch the employees after graveyard shifts and forging ties at local churches.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which has more than a million members in the United States and Canada, has made organizing Amazon a top priority, describing it as an “existential threat."

Amazon does not have any unionized facilities in North America. The Teamsters is one of a handful of unions trying to undertake the daunting task of organizing its vast, high-churn workforce.

Earlier this year, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) lost a vote to organize workers in Bessemer, Alabama, by a more than two-to-one margin. Amazon pushed hard against unionization, and the result is being disputed.

The Teamsters have indicated they will not seek to hold such votes in the United States any time soon, arguing the process is unfairly tilted toward employers.

But in Canada, where labor laws are more favorable, the Teamsters see an opportunity to go straight to the ballot box.

The Teamsters' Killey said his chapter is campaigning at Amazon facilities in Milton, Cambridge and Kitchener, all traditionally working-class towns just west of Toronto, Canada’s most populous city.

"Where we see there is a lot of support, we're going to go full steam ahead," said Christopher Monette, spokesperson for Teamsters Canada.

Jason Sweet, president of Teamsters Local 419 in Ontario, said his unit has begun signing cards with workers in the greater Toronto area and has formed WhatsApp groups with Amazon workers to keep them abreast of the union’s efforts, delivering updates every 48 hours or so. "We are trying to build relationships from the inside," he said.

In British Columbia, Teamsters Local 31 President Stan Hennessy said potential members have been receptive.

“It’s our hope that we can help these workers,” he said. “They certainly can use some help.”

(Reporting by Julia Love in San Francisco and Moira Warburton in Vancouver; Editing by Peter Henderson and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

FOUR DAYS BEFORE THE ELECTION

Jason Kenney's COVID crisis hits federal election campaign trail

© Provided by National Post Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole avoided speaking directly about Alberta's COVID crisis when asked about it on Thursday.

OTTAWA – The Liberals used Jason Kenney’s dramatic reversal on public health rules to make COVID-19 management central to the campaign Thursday, while Conservative leader Erin O’Toole avoided even saying the Alberta premier’s name.

After having declared Alberta “open for business” and “open for good” earlier this year, Kenney was forced to reverse course Wednesday evening, re-imposing mask mandates and imposing a vaccine passport system.

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau said the federal government would offer any support it could and has sent ventilators and other resources to the province. But he also said Kenney’s choice had helped create the situation in Alberta.

“The choices that leaders make in a crisis matter. Half measures won’t do to fight this pandemic, to keep people safe, to prevent further lockdowns,” Trudeau said at an event Thursday in Montreal.

Kenney was forced to act by a hospital system under severe strain. The province has already created additional ICU spaces, but even those new spaces are now nearly 90 per cent full. The province has more ICU patients than it has ever had and is starting to look to other provinces in the hope they can take patients.

Alberta relaxed restrictions more quickly and more thoroughly than other provinces. Kenney admitted Wednesday he had been too optimistic about the path of the pandemic in July. Health Minister Patty Hajdu wrote a letter raising concerns about Alberta’s approach in early August, which drew a swift rebuke from Kenney who said his United Conservative Party wouldn’t be lectured by Hajdu.

Alberta imposes provincewide COVID restrictions, vaccine passport system as cases surge

Trudeau said O’Toole’s support for Kenney’s approach is a clear sign the Conservatives would prolong the pandemic unnecessarily.

“Just a few days ago, Mr Toole was still applauding Mr. Kenny, for his management of the pandemic.”

One of Trudeau’s Liberal candidates, George Chalal in Calgary Skyview, released a campaign ad on social media of comments O’Toole made last year, saying Kenney had navigated the pandemic better than the federal government and that, “the federal Conservatives can learn a lot from our UCP cousins.”

O’Toole was asked repeatedly Thursday morning if he stood by his support for Kenney’s COVID management, but his answers didn’t even mention Alberta, instead focusing on Trudeau’s election call.

“The fact that we’re in an election, a $600 million election because of Mr. Trudeau’s own political interest shows that he’s not going to put the health and economic needs of the country first. Canada’s conservatives will,” O’Toole said.

O’Toole suggested the money being spent on the election would be better served going into the provinces. He said Trudeau has been an adversary to provincial governments far too often.

“I will be there as the wing man to the provinces to fight COVID-19 and to secure our future.”

An Alberta Conservative MP, who spoke on background, said their constituents were still focused on removing the Liberal government, even as they were angry with Kenney.

“I’ve found a number of people who are really upset with our provincial premier, but they also seem very determined to remove Justin Trudeau as prime minister.”

Zain Velji, an Alberta political strategist and partner at the Northweather agency, said it was a major setback for the Conservatives and a potential game changer. He said even in the most charitable interpretation it knocked O’Toole’s team off their message.

“They can’t deny the fact that this is not what Erin O’Toole wants to talk about in these critical final days of the campaign. At the very least, it takes him away from his message and his closing arguments against Trudeau,” he said.

Velji said it probably did not open up any new seats for the Liberals Alberta, but linking bad COVID management to O’Toole could hurt him elsewhere in the country. He said the Liberals just had to ensure they were not overplaying their hand.

“My concern for them is always that they get too ham fisted and lose the subtlety and it just becomes crass.”

Duane Bratt, a political science professor at Mount Royal University, said the province was in a real crisis and O’Toole was on record supporting the man who led Alberta to this point.

“We’ve got 50 per cent of all COVID cases in Canada in this province with 15 per cent of the population. And there are clips of O’Toole, praising Jason Kenney,” he said.

Bratt said unlike the Liberals’ attempts to invoke the ghost of Stephen Harper, linking O’Toole to Kenney was a much easier sell to Canadians and one the Conservatives had to be afraid of.

He said there were only a handful of ridings in Alberta directly in play and they likely became closer contests after Kenney’s announcement.

“We already knew that Jason Kenney unpopularity was hurting the federal Conservatives in those ridings, and yesterday didn’t help that.”

Ryan Tumilty

POSTMEDIA
• Email: rtumilty@postmedia.com | Twitter: ryantumilty


For NDP, an improved election turnout depends on unlikeliest of factors: support for Erin O’Toole

© Provided by National Post NDP leader Jagmeet Singh greets supporters during a campaign stop in Oshawa, Ontario. In a recent Leger poll, 72 per cent of NDP voters said they were not likely to switch their vote this election.

OTTAWA — The NDP have been riding high on the popularity of leader Jagmeet Singh, polling near historic highs just days out from the election. But another, less obvious, factor might provide an additional boost: a Conservative Party that’s lagging in the polls.

Analysts are constantly weighing the impact of strategic voting in a campaign, which tends to be motivated by keeping an opponent out of power rather than getting a preferred candidate in.

In recent Canadian elections, strategic voters have largely consisted of leakage between Liberal-NDP supporters. That appears to have been the case in the 2019 election, when former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer was leading in many polls just days before the election, and as some observers were speculating that a Conservative majority wasn’t entirely out of the question.

Polling data largely tracked with the final result: Scheer won the popular vote at 34 per cent, but lost the election to the Liberals. The biggest surprise was a diminished turnout for the NDP, which was several points below expectations, winning just 24 seats. But that support base could hold up better in the current campaign.

Analysts have said that the 2019 fallout was likely motivated by fears among NDP supporters at the prospect of Scheer becoming prime minster, made all the more pronounced by his more traditional views on social issues like abortion. This election, Conservative leader Erin O’Toole has put forward a more socially-progressive platform, including new spending on childcare and a promise to boost the Canada Health Transfer.

Perhaps more to the point, O’Toole is polling slightly behind Liberal leader Justin Trudeau across most national surveys. The latest Nanos polling has O’Toole at 30.3 per cent, trailing Trudeau by 1.6 points. The same poll has the NDP at 21.2 per cent, on the higher edge of its margin of support since August.

John Ivison: Jagmeet Singh's crafted play on 'selfish' Trudeau may serve NDP well in election

Leger, meanwhile, puts the Conservatives and the Liberals in a dead heat at 33 per cent, with the NDP at 21 per cent.

“The fact that Erin O’Toole doesn’t look particularly threatening might actually give pause for thought for NDP voters in terms of what is the best play for them,” said Andrew Enns, executive vice-president at polling firm Leger.

That has in turn blunted Trudeau’s ability to scare would-be NDP supporters into voting Liberal based on their common preference for higher levels of economic interventions and debt-financed spending.

“When the polling says it’s tied, it’s hard to say: ‘Be careful, these guys are going to win,’” Enns said.

In 2019, the final days of the Liberal campaign were almost exclusively focussed on warning voters about a Conservative government. In a campaign stop in Whitby, Ont., just days before the election, Trudeau warned about retrenchment under a possible Conservative government.

“Between now and Monday, here’s what people in Ontario need to ask themselves: are you ready for even more harmful Conservative cuts, cuts that would be four times larger than Doug Ford’s?”

Scheer had himself said he would win a majority, fending off questions about how he could form government when other parties said they would refuse to work with a Conservative minority.

According to Leger polling, NDP supporters are by far most likely to vote Liberal as their second option, with 36 per cent of NDP respondents saying they would support Trudeau. The next-most popular party for their second choice was the Green Party, at 18 per cent.

The NDP-Liberal swing runs both ways: among Liberal voters, the NDP was by far the most popular second choice, with 51 per cent of respondents. The next-most popular was the Conservatives at 13 per cent.

Still, it’s unclear how many NDP voters are willing to switch ballots this election, according to the Leger poll, where 72 per cent said they were not likely to change, compared with just 19 per cent saying they would “likely” switch. The remaining nine per cent said they did not know.

Jesse Snyder 

POSTMEDIA
• Email: jsnyder@postmedia.com | Twitter: jesse_snyder
.

Friday's letters: Latest COVID measures fall short
Edmonton Journal 

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Alberta Premier Jason Kenney during a news conference regarding the surging COVID cases in the province in Calgary on Wednesday, September 15, 2021.


Most Albertans will appreciate the new COVID-19 health measures the government have and will be implementing. After reviewing the new measures, which came after two days of nearly non-stop meetings, I have to ask, “Mr. Premier, is this the best your government can come up with?”

Why do these measures not also include health-care and congregate-care settings as many have current outbreaks with residents and staff, where many have had two doses of the vaccines? Why was contact tracing not totally reinstated when the majority of cases are coming from unknown sources? Why are schools left to address outbreaks without government direction? Why will it take several more weeks to develop a QR code for the proof of immunization, which you said your government was “reluctantly” implementing?

For Albertans, this half-assed approach leaves too many questions without answers and your “Best Summer Ever” has now possibly become the Worst Fall-Winter Ever”!

Stephanie Shostak, Edmonton

Donate vaccination payoff to charity

To all people who chose to wait (after 18 months of crisis), could you please at least give your $100 to a charity, preferably one that works to help the Third World get their vaccinations? Because, sorry to say it, you do not deserve this money. Do something good for the world, even if you won’t do it for us.

J.N. Durvec, Edmonton

Second thoughts from unvaccinated?

David Staples reported unvaccinated Albertans have been 32 times more likely to end up in an ICU than fully vaccinated people and 99 per cent of those under 40 were unvaccinated. I wonder what percentage of those people and their families who are fully relying on our best medical care still believe that, for some vague reason, it was fully within their rights to contract their deathly illness.

Harry MacKendrick, Edmonton

Which patients should be treated first?

Re. “Health care for all regardless of their personal choices,” Letters, Sept. 14

Mr. Halicki’s narrative deserves a response. It’s not a question of personal choices but rather one of limited resources. Other preventable diseases he mentions have never overwhelmed our hospitals and dedicated medical staff. What does Mr. Halicki think a doctor should do if forced to choose, because of limited ventilators, between intubating a COVID patient who has done his best to protect himself and everyone else around him by masking and vaccinating, but yet has contracted COVID through no fault of his own; or intubating an irresponsible patient who has rejected masking and vaccinating, but also finds himself in ICU fighting for his life?

Given the current upward trend of COVID patients, the majority of whom have chosen to be irresponsible, doctors may yet find themselves confronting the unthinkable dilemma of “triage protocols.” Let us hope this never happens. But if it does, which patient does Mr. Halicki want to be in this scenario?

G.A. Phillips, Edmonton

New measures unfair to vaccinated

That’s it! I have had enough! Why should I, as a civic-minded Albertan, be denied access to my family, friends, health-care needs, and to public places because a number of citizens are refusing to be vaccinated? Your new measures are hurting the economy, and the health of Albertans.

When will you reverse your latest measures, and call for a certificate of vaccination to permit access to all services for vaccinated citizens? You must act now!

Lise Tremblay, Edmonton

Health-care crisis a failure of leadership

Premier Kenney, Minister Shandro and Dr. Deena Hinshaw have all assured us of their determination to protect our health-care system, so that it would be there for all Albertans, not just COVID patients. So what is going on? Clinics are shut down, testing for things such as colon cancer halted, cancer, heart, transplant and joint surgeries are postponed. Albertans will suffer and how many will die as a result?

We have the highest ICU occupancy in the history of the pandemic, but no one in government is stepping up. While ICU capacity is ramped up, it can only happen if other health services are sacrificed and even that has limits. Doctors will have to decide who lives and who gets denied treatment in real time.

This is an absolute failure of leadership. Where in God’s name are you? Where are all the other elected MLAs?

S.M. Hogan, Edmonton

Assist those who need help to get vaccinated

We have been reading in the news about people who had no time to get a vaccine, no transportation to a vaccine site, no child care to free themselves for a vaccine appointment. If you know someone in such a situation, and are able to help, please do so. COVID is not going away, our medical system is beyond repair; we must be there for each other.

Ask the unvaccinated how you can help them get vaccinated. I personally know people who have booked appointments for those who did not know how and driven their friends and neighbours to vaccine sites.

Dianne Post, Edmonton

The government is not our parent

Re. “Vaccine passport beats bribes,” Letters, Sept. 14

Likening Canadians to misbehaving children is neither a fair or accurate comparison. The two are not alike. The government is not our parent. We are not children who have not yet learned to think critically for ourselves nor do we require others to make decisions for us like a child. You may disagree with the decisions or responses of others but that doesn’t make your position any more right than theirs is.

B.J. Hall, Didsbury

Remember lack of action at ballot box

In the event of a public emergency, we, the public, have been told many times that the first duty of government is to protect and ensure the safety of the public regardless of political considerations. It seems that Mr. Kenney and his ministers, as well as the United Conservative Party as a whole, have either forgotten that principle, or didn’t know of it in the first place, or are willfully disregarding it.

No matter what the reason(s) for the UCP government’s lack action to control the fourth wave of this pandemic and to correct its mistakes of July 1, it speaks of colossal incompetence that, in the real world, is viewed as a firing offence. We, the voters, would do well to remember this come election time.

Robert McDonald, St. Albert

UCP always lags in pandemic fight

Throughout this pandemic, the UCP government has been five steps behind, only taking action when it’s too late to make a difference. The singular looming threat Premier Kenney cited to justify his too-late action was preventing the collapse of our health-care system. That exact scenario is now playing out, and our so-called leaders are closing their eyes, covering their ears, and singing la, la, la.

Meanwhile, the selfish and self-absorbed minority have flouted public health restrictions and shunned vaccines. They faced no consequences for this (since the risk of hospitalization and death is apparently trivial). But now, their actions have imperilled our health-care system and threatened the health and safety of every Albertan. You do not bribe people like this.

You bring in a vaccine passport that will, for the first time, make this minority experience the consequences of their decisions by limiting access to optional aspects of our society (while also protecting the vulnerable and vaccinated, who have sacrificed for the greater good of all).

Rome is burning; when will our leaders stop fiddling?

S.A. Blumenschein, Edmonton

‘He lied to us’: 'He lied to us': Canadians angered by Premier Kenney’s response as virus pushes Alberta to edge

'I want to see the Premier of Alberta prosecuted’: Canadians stunned as Kenney refuses to apologize for easing COVID-19 restrictions

Elisabetta Bianchini
Thu, September 16, 2021, 

The Alberta government has now declared a state of public health emergency as COVID-19 continues to significantly spread across the province.

"We may run out of staff and intensive care beds within the next 10 days," Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said at a press conference on Wednesday.

"Unless we slow transmission, particularly amongst unvaccinated Albertans, we simply will not be able to provide adequate care to everyone who gets sick, based on current trends."

Alberta has now introduced stricter COVID-19 restrictions across the province in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.


Some of the new restrictions now effect include:


Mandatory work-from-home measures at workplaces unless the employer has determined a physical presence is required for "operational effectiveness"


Indoor private gatherings for vaccine-eligible, fully vaccinated individuals are limited to a single household plus one other household to a maximum of 10 people


Outdoor private social gatherings are permitted to a maximum of 200 people

Some additional restrictions that come into effect on Sept. 20 include:


Outdoor dining only with a maximum of six individuals per table (one household or two close contacts for those living alone)


All indoor wedding ceremonies and services are limited to 50 attendees or 50 per cent fire code capacity, whichever is less, and no indoor receptions are allowed

Beginning on Sept. 20, individuals eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine will be required to provide proof of vaccination or a negative privately paid COVID-19 test from within the previous 72 hours to access non-essential businesses services, with the introduction of the "restriction exemption program."

"Businesses that implement the Restrictions Exemption Program would operate as usual, provided they are serving only people who have proof of immunization or who have a recent privately paid negative test, as per the requirements in place," information from the provincial government reads.

While Alberta is implementing new restrictions, the provincial government is receiving extensive criticism on its management of the COVID-19 pandemic to date, particularly after introducing its "Open For Summer" plan earlier this year.

We were wrong in talking about moving this from pandemic management to endemic management in July and August. I, frankly, don't think we were wrong to lift public health restrictions in July, we actually saw that case counts and even the Delta variant continued to stabilize, and even come down in most of July.

Jason Kenney, Premier of Alberta

"I also think it's critically important to understand that, at least in this society, you can't sustain serious intrusions into people's lives permanently. No, I don't apologize for the decision to relax public health restrictions in the summer...when numbers were declining and vaccine numbers were going up, supported by the experience of other jurisdictions around the world. To have maintained damaging restrictions, all through the summer, would, I think, have only resulted in massive noncompliance and even more [anger]."

Kenney added that he said "optimistic" things in the summer because he believes it is the "job of a leader" to "convey a sense of hope and optimism, not a sense of despair and pessimism."

Several people, including health professionals, took to social media to comment on Alberta's COVID-19 situation.

    

Instagram head compares social media to cars because although ‘people die’ they create ‘more value than they destroy’

CARS DO NOT CREATE VALUE

Adam Smith
Fri, 17 September 2021

The social media platform has unveiled anti-bullying tools (Getty)

The head of Instagram Adam Mosseri has compared social media to cars, saying that while people may be harmed the good outweighs the bad.

“We know that more people die than would otherwise because of car accidents, but by and large, cars create way more value in the world than they destroy,” Mosseri said Wednesday on the Recode Media podcast, as reported by CNBC, “And I think social media is similar”.

Host of the podcast, Peter Kafka, asked if the Facebook-owned photo app should be limited or regulated if there is a chance it could be doing harm to users.

“Absolutely not, and I really don’t agree with the comparison to drugs or cigarettes, which have very limited, if any, upsides,” Mosseri said. “Anything that is going to be used at scale is going to have positive and negative outcomes. Cars have positive and negative outcomes”.

Mosseri said that he thinks care is needed, as “regulation can cause more problems,” but continued that he does “think we are a big enough industry that it’s important, and we need to evolve it forward”.

His comments were criticised by former Facebook executive Brian Boland, who has revealed insight into the inner workings of the social media company before.

“We also have regulations and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for cars. Maybe @mosseri should read Unsafe At Any Speed?”, he tweeted.

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The news comes after a series of stories published by the Wall Street Journal, which revealed that Facebook knew Instagram made teenage girls feel worse about themselves, but that young users are ‘addicted’ to the app.

Facebook also “routinely made exceptions for powerful actors” using a program called XCheck, the Journal reported, exempting them from the platform’s rules. A 2019 review, reportedly seen by the Journal, said that Facebook is “not actually doing what we say we do publicly,” and called the company’s actions “a breach of trust”. It added: “Unlike the rest of our community, these people can violate our standards without any consequences.”

Facebook spokesman Andy Stone told the Journal said criticism of XCheck was fair, but added that the system “was designed for an important reason: to create an additional step so we can accurately enforce policies on content that could require more understanding.”

He also said Facebook has been accurate in its communications, and was phasing out whitelisting as a practise. “A lot of this internal material is outdated information stitched together to create a narrative that glosses over the most important point: Facebook itself identified the issues with cross check and has been working to address them,” he said.

In a blog post about The Wall Street Journal’s findings, Instagram said: “Social media isn’t inherently good or bad for people. Many find it helpful one day, and problematic the next. What seems to matter most is how people use social media, and their state of mind when they use it.

“Many said Instagram makes things better or has no effect, but some, particularly those who were already feeling down, said Instagram may make things worse. In the research world, this isn’t surprising or unexpected. Issues like negative social comparison and anxiety exist in the world, so they’re going to exist on social media too. That doesn’t change the fact that we take these findings seriously, and we set up a specific effort to respond to this research and change Instagram for the better.”

UK
Return to the office threatened by new flexible working rules

James Warrington

THE TELEGRAPH
Fri, 17 September 2021

Traders

All employees will be able to request flexible working patterns when they start a new job, potentially derailing plans to bring workers back to offices in city centres.

Millions of workers will be able to make such requests immediately rather than having to wait 26 weeks under proposals set to be announced by the Department for Business.

Plans could be announced as soon as next week, Sky News reported.

The move is understood to have been planned since 2019 but has become more urgent following the huge shift in working patterns during the pandemic.

The proposed changes mean that staff will be able to request flexibility over the time, location and hours of their work. Existing rules that allow employees to make such requests after six months have been in place since 2014.

The change comes as a further blow to plans for a mass return to the office that would breathe life back into city centres.

Boris Johnson last week raised the prospect of a return to work from home guidance, or even a further lockdown, if Covid cases surge this winter.

The downbeat winter plan sparked anger from business groups, which warned that companies were being left in the dark by the lack of clarity over government guidance.

Hannah Essex of the British Chambers of Commerce said any changes to the rules must be accompanied by clear guidance so both businesses and employees fully understood their legal position.

“Providing flexible options is not just about working from home – there are many jobs where this just isn’t an option, but across all sectors and workplaces there are a great deal of possibilities including job sharing, self-rostering of shifts and compressed hours," she said.

“A recent BCC survey found three in four firms are likely to have some staff working from home for the next year, but they are also looking at other flexible practices to make sure their overall arrangements work well for their business and their staff.”

The plans are separate to proposals tabled by the flexible working taskforce, which was set up earlier this year to produce advice for employers and employees on the practical and legal issues associated with hybrid working.

A Whitehall source said flexible working made jonbs “more accessible to under-represented groups such as women, disabled people, parents and carers, giving employers access to a wider pool of talent”.

A government spokesman said: “As is set out in the 2019 manifesto, the Government is committed to consulting on making flexible working the default unless employers have good reason not to – boosting business productivity and helping even more workers to join the labour market. Our proposals will be published shortly.”