New financial disclosure shows Sen. Kelly Loeffler invested in firm that makes personal protective equipment

Catherine Garcia,The Week•April 1, 2020

A financial disclosure filed Tuesday shows that from mid-February to mid-March, Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) and her husband, New York Stock Exchange Chairman Jeff Sprecher, invested in DuPont, a company that makes personal protective equipment used by first responders fighting the COVID-19 coronavirus, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Loeffler, worth an estimated $500 million, came under fire last month when it was discovered that she dumped millions in stock after receiving private briefings on the coronavirus pandemic and before she publicly downplayed the threat from the virus; 15 of the stocks had, on average, lost more than a third of their value by late March. Loeffler has denied using insider knowledge to influence her decisions to buy and sell stock, and her campaign says an investment firm manages her stocks and she does not have any control over day-to-day decisions.

The disclosure filed Tuesday shows that the largest transactions made between mid-February and mid-March involved $18.7 million in sales of Intercontinental Exchange stock. ICE owns the New York Stock Exchange, and Loeffler is a former company executive. Loeffler's campaign said the sales were prearranged as part of Loeffler's and Sprecher's compensation package. Read more about Loeffler's stock sales at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Update, April 2: In a statement to The Week, a Loeffler spokeswoman said, "Sen. Loeffler filed another Periodic Transaction Report (PTR) and the facts are still the same. These transactions are consistent with historical portfolio activity and include a balanced mix of buys and sells. Her stock portfolio is managed independently by third-party advisors and she is notified, as indicated on the report, after transactions occur. Sen. Loeffler continues to operate with integrity and transparency — following both the spirit and the letter of the law. While some will continue to make baseless accusations devoid of facts, Sen. Loeffler will continue working to keep Americans safe and provide much-needed relief to Georgia families and businesses impacted by COVID-19."

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U.S. dairy farmers dump milk as pandemic upends food markets

By P.J. Huffstutter, Reuters•April 3, 2020

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CHICAGO (Reuters) - Dairy farmer Jason Leedle felt his stomach churn when he got the call on Tuesday evening.

"We need you to start dumping your milk," said his contact from Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), the largest U.S. dairy cooperative.

Despite strong demand for basic foods like dairy products amid the coronavirus pandemic, the milk supply chain has seen a host of disruptions that are preventing dairy farmers from getting their products to market.

Mass closures of restaurants and schools have forced a sudden shift from those wholesale food-service markets to retail grocery stores, creating logistical and packaging nightmares for plants processing milk, butter and cheese. Trucking companies that haul dairy products are scrambling to get enough drivers as some who fear the virus have stopped working. And sales to major dairy export markets have dried up as the food-service sector largely shuts down globally.

The dairy industry's woes signal broader problems in the global food supply chain, according to farmers, agricultural economists and food distributors. The dairy business got hit harder and earlier than other agricultural commodities because the products are highly perishable - milk can't be frozen, like meat, or stuck in a silo, like grain.

Other food sectors, however, are also seeing disruptions worldwide as travel restrictions are limiting the workforce needed to plant, harvest and distribute fruits and vegetables, and a shortage of refrigerated containers and truck drivers have slowed the shipment of staples such as meat and grains in some places.

Leedle could likely sell his milk if he could get it to market. Dairy products in grocery stores have been in high demand as consumers stay home during the pandemic, though panic buying may be slowing. Earlier this week, a local market told Leedle's wife she could buy only two dairy products total per shopping trip as retailers nationwide ration many high-demand products.

"It's just gut-wrenching," said Leedle, 36, as he stood inside his barn, with cows lowing softly as the animals were giving milk that would be funneled directly into a manure pit. "All I can see is that line going down the drain."

Leedle has dumped 4,700 gallons of milk from his 480 cows each day since Tuesday. The 7,500-member DFA told Reuters it has asked some other farmers in the cooperative to do the same but did not say how many.

Dairy cooperatives oversee milk marketing for all of their members and handle shipping logistics. Leedle said he will be paid for the milk he and other farmers are dumping, but the payments for all cooperative members will take a hit from the lost revenues.

Land O’Lakes Inc., another cooperative, has also warned its members they may have to dump milk. Another cooperative, Wisconsin-based Foremost Farms USA, was even more grim.

"Now is the time to consider a little extra culling of your herds," the cooperative said in a March 17 letter to members. "We believe the ability to pick up and process your milk could be compromised."

The cooperative, which also owns butter and cheese processing plants, said milk-dumping might also be on the horizon.

The dumping comes even as consumer demand for dairy has soared. Panic buying has left grocery store shelves nearly empty in recent weeks amid business shutdowns and quarantines nationwide. Retail purchases of milk rose nearly 53% for the week ended March 21, while butter sales surged more than 127% and cheese rose more than 84%, compared to the same period a year earlier, according to Nielsen data.

Grocers have been charging consumers more, too. The average retail price of cow's milk was up 11.2% for the week ended March 21, compared to a year earlier, the Nielsen data shows.

RESTAURANT CLOSURES DISRUPT SUPPLY CHAINS

Finding enough truck drivers is part of the challenge. Agriculture groups have lobbied states to increase truck weight limits on highways to enable more food to be delivered.

Dean Foods Co, which has been starting some plant shifts earlier and running later, is offering $1,000 sign-on bonuses for drivers with dairy experience as it struggles to fill 74 open positions, a company spokeswoman said.

Another major problem: The sudden shift in demand from restaurants - now closing en masse - to grocery stores creates severe logistical challenges. Suppliers struggle to make the shift from wholesale packaging for restaurants to preparing retail products for stores.

“About half of U.S. consumers’ food budget was spent on restaurants, and we’ve shut that spigot off,” said Matt Gould, editor at trade publication Dairy & Food Market Analyst.

It would take millions of dollars, for instance, to install new equipment to switch a plant from making one type of cheese - such as barrel cheese used to make processed slices for fast-food restaurants - to producing cheddar wedges for grocers, said dairy analysts. Even switching from bagging 10 lb bulk bags of shredded cheddar for food service to 8 oz bags for retail stores would require costly new packaging robots and labeling machinery.

Schreiber Foods Inc, one of the country’s top dairy product manufacturers and food distributors, is cutting hours for workers at its dairy processing plants that normally supply the restaurant industry and adding staff to plants that stock the U.S. retail market, said spokesman Andrew Tobisch.

As of last week, the plants serving retail were bottlenecked.

“We’ve almost had too many trucks showing up at some of our plants,” Tobisch said. “The deliveries get backlogged and the drivers are having to wait longer and longer.”

Trucks heading to restaurants, meanwhile, are getting sent back. Sartori Cheese in Plymouth, Wisconsin, has had restaurant customers refuse shipments of food they had ordered, said president Jeff Schwager. Some restaurant customers have called, asking if they can return orders delivered weeks ago. But processors can't take the cheese back and resell it - or even donate it - because they can't ensure it has been safely handled, Schwager said.

Some of Sartori's grocery retailers are telling Schwager they are closing their gourmet cheese counters with their displays of huge cheese wheels, in favor of pre-packed, grab-and-go wedges. The stores want to redeploy those cheese counter crews to stock shelves and handle other tasks, Schwager said.

That means Sartori Cheese will need far more film wrap of a different size that is now in short supply as demand skyrockets.

Meat producers and fruit-and-vegetable farmers are also struggling with the shift from wholesale to retail, causing plentiful products to run short on grocery store shelves. [nL1N2BA2RF]

Paul Sproule, a potato farmer in North Dakota, said processors who churn out french fries and other restaurant products have stopped buying. Most can't pivot to retail because they don't have customer-facing packaging or relationships with stores for shelf space.

FILLING THE GAPS

In rural communities, smaller food retailers such as bakeries are starting to stock products that have been running short at grocery stories. In the farm town of Rossville, Indiana, local baker Sandra Hufford’s picked up grocery products from a food distributor, including butter, cartons of cottage cheese and gallons of milk.

“They told me that they had a lot of customers not wanting to pay right now, and they needed cash-paying customers,” said Hufford, who owns the Flour Mill Bakery.

Hufford stocked up her bakery’s refrigerated case and posted what was available for pickup and delivery on the shop’s Facebook page. Word spread. Now, customers from as far as Indianapolis – 60 miles away – are placing orders and driving out to pick up groceries.

(Reporting By P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago. Additional reporting by Karl Plume and Christopher Walljasper in Chicago; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Brian Thevenot)

In Ecuador, families wait with their dead as bodies pile up
CHRISTINE ARMARIO and GONZALO SOLANO, Associated Press•April 2, 2020

APTOPIX Virus Outbreak Ecuador
Pedestrians, wearing protective face masks as a precaution against the spread of the new coronavirus, walk past a mural in Quito, Ecuador, Saturday, March 28, 2020. The government has declared a health emergency, enacting a curfew and restricting movement to only those who provide basic services. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Virus Outbreak Ecuador

Relatives watch as the remains of a coronavirus victim, which authorities wrap in plastic, arrive to the Jardines de la Esperanza cemetery in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Wednesday, April 1, 2020. Ecuador has one of the highest numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths in the region, combined with a lack of ventilators, hospital beds and experienced crisis management. (AP Photo/Andrea Aguilar)

Virus Outbreak Ecuador

Soldiers deliver food to a man who cannot leave her house because of the government's request that people don't leave their homes to prevent the coronavirus from spreading throughout the city in Zambiza, near Quito, Ecuador, Thursday, April 2, 2020. The government has declared a "health emergency," restricting movement to only those who provide basic services, enacting a curfew, and closing schools. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Daniel Larrea died Monday after a week of high fever, struggling to breathe and steadily turning blue. Then a new nightmare began for his family. No one in their city on Ecuador's Pacific coast would pick up his body.

“We wrapped him up in black plastic,” Larrea's wife, Karina, said Wednesday. “He’s here in the living room.”

Hospitals are turning away patients and bodies are being left on streets and in homes for days in Guayaquil, a normally bustling city of 2.6 million that has become a hot spot in Latin America as the coronavirus pandemic spreads.

The small South American nation has recorded 120 coronavirus deaths, but officials say there could be dozens more who died without ever being officially diagnosed — people like Larrea, who had all the symptoms, but never got tested. Nationwide, there were 3,160 cases confirmed on Thursday, likely a vast underestimate.

Meanwhile, untold numbers of Ecuadorians are dying of unrelated diseases that can’t be treated because hospitals are overwhelmed.

It's not just medical services at a breaking point. Morgues, funeral homes and all related services for the dead are over capacity.

In recent days, macabre images and pleas from families have appeared on social media showing dead loved ones wrapped in plastic or cloth, waiting for them to be taken away. Television crews have captured images of bodies and coffins left on sidewalks.

“It’s a desperate smell,” said Merwin Teran, 61, the owner of a Guayaquil funeral home, who said he saw 50 dead in one morgue alone.

Doctors say there aren't enough tests in the country, making it harder to identify and isolate the sick to try to stop the spread of COVID-19, the disease the virus causes — as well as too few hospital beds and ventilators.

“We are seeing a situation quite similar to that of Italy,” said Dr. Mireya Rodas, a lung specialist at a Guayaquil hospital who has herself tested positive.

Ecuador identified its first case of COVID-19 on Feb. 29 — a 71-year-old woman who had traveled from Spain — making it one of the first Latin American countries to confirm the arrival of the disease.

Medical experts fear the disaster brewing in Guayaquil may offer a frightening glimpse of what awaits the region in coming weeks and months.

“More contagion, more mortality,” said Enrique Acosta, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic research in Germany. “They are closely intertwined.”

Acosta is among a group of policy experts urging Latin American governments to quickly ramp up testing. They note that in countries like Singapore and South Korea, where the virus has been more quickly contained, testing was widespread. But that is not the case in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Medical professionals believe the true number of coronavirus cases in Ecuador could be five times the official count or higher.

Teran, the funeral home owner, said he went to a cemetery on Tuesday where workers usually inter about 30 people a day, but 149 bodies were awaiting burial or cremation.

He said many funeral homes are not operating, while those that are have to send workers to pick up bodies without adequate protection. By law, he said, funeral homes can’t pick up bodies until a doctor has signed off on a cause of death, but because so many physicians are treating patients, bodies are accumulating in morgues, creating a backlog.

Virus Outbreak Ecuador

Relatives and the staff of Jardines de la Esperanza cemetery wait to bury suspected victims of the new coronavirus, in coffins which authorities have wrapped with plastic, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Wednesday, April 1, 2020. Ecuador has one of the highest numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths in the region, combined with a lack of ventilators, hospital beds and experienced crisis management. (AP Photo/Andrea Aguilar)

Virus Outbreak Ecuador

A police officer instructs shoppers to maintain a social distance as a precaution against the spread of the new coronavirus, as they wait in line to enter a supermarket in Quito, Ecuador, Saturday, March 28, 2020. The government has declared a health emergency, enacting a curfew and restricting movement to only those who provide basic services. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Virus Outbreak Ecuador

A police officer instructs shoppers to maintain a social distance as a precaution against the spread of the new coronavirus, as they wait in line to enter a supermarket in Quito, Ecuador, Saturday, March 28, 2020. The government has declared a health emergency, enacting a curfew and restricting movement to only those who provide basic services. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Not all of the dead are dying from the coronavirus — which for most people, causes only mild to moderate symptoms, like a fever and cough. But for others, particularly older adults and those with other health problems, it can lead to pneumonia and death.

Carmen Suarez, 71, died at her home over the weekend in Guayaquil from what the family believes was kidney failure. Relatives tried to find a hospital that would accept her as her legs grew increasingly swollen, but were told no beds were available and that taking her to a hospital would be risky anyway because of the coronavirus spread.

By Tuesday, the family had spent three days waiting for her body to be taken away. They eventually called a funeral home worker who brought a coffin and embalmed her body, which was still waiting on the family’s patio.

“It’s catastrophic what is happening in Guayaquil,” said Byron Moreira, 36, her son-in-law. “I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.”

Esteban Ortiz, a public health specialist, said that in the province of Guayas, which includes Guayaquil and where 70% of the country's virus cases are located, only around 175 ventilators are likely available. On Thursday, 225 people were hospitalized, including 122 in serious condition nationwide, indicating a likely critical shortage of the live-saving equipment.

“We’re not giving them a chance to come and get medical attention,” he said.

The Ministry of Public Health did not respond to requests for comment. But at a news conference Wednesday, health authorities defended Ecuador's response, saying that new technology would soon allow testing to increase to 1,400 a day.

Jorge Wated, the official tasked by the government with handling the death toll crisis, said authorities were preparing for many more fatalities and working to ensure all are buried appropriately. He said authorities usually pick up about 30 people who have died in their homes each day, but have been picking up around 150, not all of whom died of COVID-19.

“We ask for forgiveness for those who had to wait days for their loved ones to be picked up,” he said.

Gina Watson, representative for the Pan American Health Organization in Ecuador, said experts expect to see a similar uptick in cases elsewhere in the region.

“Guayaquil is experiencing what we expect to see in all countries,” she said. “A rising curve of cases along with the associated mortality.”

Until he came down with a 102-degree fever a week ago, Larrea had no known health problems other than being overweight, his family said.

The family called doctors, who advised him to stay home and take an over-the-counter fever reducer.

As he grew worse — struggling to breath and changing color — the family called for an ambulance, only to be told none were available to go to their poor neighborhood.

The family was dependent on the 42-year-old Uber driver and father of four for their economic livelihood and together with other relatives — eight people in total — live in a small home.

After he died, they wrapped the body in thick black plastic, called 911 and waited.

Aside from the emotional toll of seeing their loved one die, the family now fears that they have all been exposed to coronavirus.

“We’re afraid,” said Larrea's wife, Karina, “that we’re all infected.”

___

Armario reported from Bogota, Colombia.

'We are on the verge of a massive collapse': Ex-Energy Secretary Perry says COVID-19 will ravage oil industry

William Cummings, USA TODAY•April 1, 2020


Former Energy Secretary Rick Perry believes that the oil industry could collapse because of the dramatic decrease in demand worldwide caused by the coronavirus outbreak and a steep decline in prices.

"Our capacity is full. The Saudis are flooding this market with cheap oil," Perry told Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday night. "I'm telling you, we are on the verge of a massive collapse of an industry that we worked awfully hard, over the course of the last three or four years, to build up to the number one oil and gas producing country in the world, giving Americans some affordable energy resources."

Many U.S. states and countries around the world have ordered their citizens to stay home in order to contain the spread of the virus. And airlines have dramatically cut back on flights as the number of passengers has fallen off. Fewer cars on the road and planes in the sky means far less demand for oil.

Coupled with a dispute between Saudi Arabia and Russia that has resulted in an oil surplus, the price for crude as well as gasoline has plunged. The national average for gas in the U.S. is now below $2 a gallon.

Perry, a former governor of oil-producing Texas, said that could destroy smaller, independent companies and hurt the people who depend on them for jobs.

"There's this host of Americans who their entire future – taking care of their family paying their mortgages – is tied directly to the energy industry," Perry said. "It's a driver of a massive amount of our American economy."

And he said the loss of those smaller companies would have long term consequences for the American consumer.

"If we woke up a year from now, and there were five big companies because all of these independents were gone out of business ... I would suggest that would make a lot of Americans really nervous," he said.

Perry's concerns appeared prescient Wednesday after the Whiting Petroleum Corporation announced it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In announcing the decision, CEO Bradley Holly cited "the severe downturn in oil and gas prices driven by uncertainty around the duration of the Saudi / Russia oil price war and the COVID-19 pandemic."

BREAKING: U.S. shale company Whiting Petroleum becomes the first to go down, filling for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as #oil prices plunge. Whiting is big in North Dakota's Bakken basin | #OOTT #OilPriceWar #covid19 #NorthDakota pic.twitter.com/r1rxAiWIJU
— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) April 1, 2020

As one measure to address the crisis, Perry said that he would advise President Donald Trump to tell refineries to only use U.S. crude oil for 60 to 90 days.

Perry said that would "give a buffer to the market" and "send a clear message that we're just not going to let foreign oil flow in here" and "bust our oil industry."

U.S. national security is at stake, Perry said.

"If our independent operators – who have led the shale revolution, who have made America the number one gas-producing country in the world – if we lose that, we'd go back to 1974," Perry said. "I remember what that was like, where we were beholden to countries that didn't necessarily have our best interests in mind."

Perry also suggested that the Treasury Department should buy up oil futures to help buoy the industry.

Perry was one of the longest-serving members of Trump Cabinet before he resigned in October amid scrutiny of his role in the Ukraine scandal that led to Trump's impeachment.

'God's used imperfect people': Perry shares why he thinks Trump is the 'chosen one'

Contributing: Nathan Bomey

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus has oil industry near 'massive collapse,' Rick Perry says

FedEx drivers say they're not getting coronavirus protections other delivery workers receive

Adiel Kaplan and Samantha Springer and Cameron Oakes, NBC News•April 2, 2020

The drivers who handle much of FedEx's delivery business say they are not getting the coronavirus protections and additional sick leave other U.S. delivery workers have been given, even as they risk exposure working long hours delivering high volumes of packages to millions of Americans stuck at home.

While many major U.S. companies, including UPS, Amazon and the U.S. Postal Service, have changed sick leave policies for essential employees like delivery workers in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, drivers for FedEx's Ground division say the company has not provided cleaning and sanitizing supplies or offered additional health benefits like sick leave, even though other FedEx employees have received some.

FedEx directly employs more than 200,000 people in the U.S. and delivers more packages than any other private U.S. company except UPS. The FedEx Ground division, which delivers most FedEx packages in North America, is the company's second most profitable segment and brought in nearly 30 percent of its revenue last year.

FedEx Ground, however, is structured far differently than most other major U.S. delivery operations because it depends on drivers who are employed by independent contractors to deliver its packages. FedEx Ground drivers work for the contractors, not FedEx.

FedEx Ground works with nearly 5,000 contractors, which it calls "service providers," in the U.S. The contractors employ more than 100,000 workers -- many as drivers -- according to the company, and operate approximately 60,000 vehicles, according to federal data.

FedEx Ground drivers around the country told NBC News they are worried for their health and concerned by a lack of communication from FedEx about what measures the company is taking to protect them in light of the coronavirus.

NBC News spoke to 10 FedEx Ground drivers in seven states who said FedEx has largely told the contractors they are on their own when it comes to protective equipment, cleaning and sanitizing supplies and leave for sick workers.

"FedEx could give two anythings about us," said a veteran driver in Oak Park, Michigan. Like all the drivers who talked to NBC News, he spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid potential retribution. "They are telling contractors, 'it's your company, you figure it out.' My contractor is doing what he can, but he's losing money left and right."

A spokesperson for FedEx Ground told NBC News that "as independent businesses, service providers employ their own personnel, and make their own entrepreneurial decisions concerning employer-related expenses, including wages, salaries, and benefits."

Contractors are compensated by FedEx based on package, stop and mile rates. While there are no publicly available national statistics, drivers around the country said few offer benefits like health insurance, or have the ability to provide two weeks of additional paid time off.

"I'm very fortunate to have a good contractor that offers a good wage and health insurance," said a driver from Ohio. He said that for drivers who don't have good benefits, "it truly does make it scary working this type of job with everything going on."
Sick pay policies

The country's other major delivery companies have all offered employees some form of extra benefits due to coronavirus. The U.S. Postal Service has updated its leave policies to allow "liberal use of leave" so employees can stay home if they feel sick, must provide dependent care -- which now includes dealing with school closures -- or "wish to abide by state or local shelter-in-place requirements." It will also provide 80 hours of paid leave to noncareer employees for issues related to COVID-19.

UPS reached an agreement with its union to provide 10 days paid sick leave for workers diagnosed with COVID-19 and those required to be isolated due to a family member's illness.

Even Amazon, though still smaller than the other three big deliverers, has offered its delivery employees support. Amazon is the only other large deliverer that employs most of its delivery drivers through contracting companies, like FedEx Ground. Amazon's delivery network has far fewer contract companies -- just over 800 -- and employs more than 75,000 drivers in the U.S., according to company figures from December.

It has offered delivery drivers a $2-an-hour pay increase and created a relief fund that they can apply to for grants equal to approximately two weeks of pay for people diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed into quarantine by the government or Amazon.

Workers employed directly by FedEx, including office staff and the package handlers who load trucks and administrative workers, and drivers who work directly for FedEx Express, the division that makes FedEx's next-day deliveries in the U.S., are receiving more support from the company.

"FedEx has comprehensive benefits, including sick pay policies, across operating companies that were offered before the pandemic," a spokesperson told NBC News. "In some cases, sick pay has been recently enhanced. In general, FedEx employees will receive up to two weeks' pay based on their regular work schedule or guaranteed minimums if they have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed under a medically required quarantine." Full-time employees who are ill longer than two weeks are eligible for short-term disability benefits.

When asked about protections for FedEx Ground drivers, FedEx told NBC News that it has "taken a number of steps to support the health and safety of service providers and their employees, as well as the customers with whom they interact," listing changes like removing signature delivery, accommodating customer requests and modified store hours, and communicating to ensure service providers have access to the latest guidance from health authorities.

The company did not respond to questions about whether it is offering FedEx Ground drivers sick leave or hazard pay.
'No health insurance. No hazard pay.'

Some of the contracting companies that manage FedEx Ground deliveries are multistate operations, but many are small, local businesses where margins can be tight, drivers said. The drivers who spoke to NBC News worked for contractors that operated 10 to 250 vehicles for FedEx.

The amount and the way workers get paid hasn't changed amid the coronavirus outbreak, workers said. Unless FedEx chooses to offer more money to the contracting companies, they have few options for finding additional funds to improve pay or benefits for the drivers.

One North Carolina contractor expressed his concerns about FedEx's lack of support to his drivers in a March 22 text seen by NBC News. "We are all scared of this disease going around," he wrote. "There has not been 1 meeting about it. Nothing. FedEx does not care about us just the mighty dollar. ... No health insurance. No hazard pay."


Asked what it had communicated to the managers and owners of contracting companies, FedEx said, "Communication with service providers during the pandemic has been consistent and frequent due to the essential nature of the services we provide to customers and our communities. FedEx Ground provides a mix of information and resources that service providers can use to communicate with their employees, including printable and video materials, links to the latest updates from the CDC and other leading health experts, and FAQs."

"FedEx Ground has also hosted several conference calls with service providers to update them on steps we are taking to sustain operations and intensify safety measures, field and address their concerns, and guide them to the appropriate resources. We have been consistently urging businesses to keep their employees informed and engaged and to relay important information during this critical time."
'We're not doing anything different'

It's not just the pay that worries workers, but what they say is a lack of protective gear and cleaning measures that make them concerned for their health. All the drivers who spoke to NBC News said protective gear like gloves and supplies like hand sanitizer were in short supply or nonexistent at their terminals.

Employees who work directly for FedEx, including package handlers and drivers for FedEx Express, which has a smaller truck fleet than FedEx Ground, said they had the same concerns.

Several package handlers told NBC News there is no way for them to be 6 feet apart at their work stations as they touch thousands of packages a day. While some facilities now have protective supplies like hand sanitizer, cleaning wipes and gloves, not every shift has access to them.

Two package handlers from different shifts at the same Minneapolis terminal said gloves were provided to one group but not the other.

FedEx told NBC News that it has increased cleaning protocol at all of its facilities, "including more frequent janitorial services each day and sanitation of regularly used equipment," and that it has been working "to ensure a supply of disinfectant, hand sanitizer and latex gloves at every facility for use by employees and service provider personnel."

"They're much more concerned with keeping the operation rolling," said a FedEx Express driver in Hawaii. He received a small bottle of hand sanitizer for the first time last week, but said there has never been a cleaning service at his building. "We're not doing anything different at our facility, I can guarantee you that."

Opinion

All the FedEx drivers and employees who spoke to NBC News, whether employed directly by the company or by contractors, said they have heard little from supervisors on the subject and seen minimal evidence of such changes.

Most are continuing to work, though their concerns are mounting as cases climb around the country. "At the end of the day I love what I do. I feel like what we're doing right now is something to be proud of," said the Ohio driver. "There's just certain policies and protections that need to be implemented during a crisis like this."

"Help keep their employees safe and healthy. Compensate them for ... putting their health at risk. Do what's right, and not about what's going to help our stock rise," he said.

Republican Senator Calls on ‘Communist’ WHO Director to Resign MCCARTHYITE RED BAITING BY ARIZONA REPUBLICAN SENATOR SOON TO LOSE HER SEAT

Mairead McArdle,National Review•April 2, 2020


Senator Martha McSally on Thursday called on the director of the World Health Organization to step down, saying the organization covered up the extent of the spread of the coronavirus, which originated in China.

The Arizona Republican called WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus a “communist” and accused him of helping China conceal its underreporting of coronavirus case numbers.

“I’ve never trusted a communist,” McSally said in an interview with Fox Business.

“I think Dr. Tedros needs to step down,” she continued. “We need to take some action to address this issue. It’s just irresponsible, it’s unconscionable what they have done here while we have people dying across the globe.”

The senator condemned China itself for failing to acknowledge and curb the virus before it spilled over China’s borders and spread to the rest of the world.

“Their cover-up of this virus that originated with them, has caused unnecessary deaths around America and around the world. The WHO needs to stop covering for them,” McSally said, adding that as restitution, any U.S. debts to China “should be forgiven, as a minimum.”

The senator’s criticism comes days after another GOP senator, Rick Scott of Florida, called for a congressional investigation into the WHO and questioned whether the organization should continue to be funded since it engaged in “helping Communist China cover up” the seriousness of the virus.

“We know Communist China is lying about how many cases and deaths they have, what they knew and when they knew it — and the WHO never bothered to investigate further,” Scott said. “Their inaction cost lives.”

The WHO also “willfully parroted propaganda” from China’s Communist Party, Scott charged.

During an interview with Radio Television Hong Kong, WHO assistant director-general Dr. Bruce Aylward appeared to dodge a question about whether the WHO will reconsider granting membership to Taiwan, which China claims as a territory. Taiwan, which has reported just slightly more than 300 cases of the infection and only two deaths, has been widely praised for its containment of the coronavirus.

The senior WHO advisor responded that he could not hear the question, and when the interviewer offered to repeat it he interjected, “no, that’s okay, let’s move to another one then.” Later, he appeared to hang up when asked about Taiwan’s response to the pandemic, and afterwards said they had “already talked about China,” which has done “quite a good job.”

I wanted to find a slightly longer version of the RTHK interview (more context) with the WHO’s Dr. Bruce Aylward who basically froze when asked about Taiwan then started babbling about China then fled. And commend @yvonne_tg for sticking to the question. HT @BonnieGlaser: pic.twitter.com/2cc3hViiij
— Melissa Chan (@melissakchan) March 28, 2020

The U.S. intelligence community concluded in a classified report obtained by Bloomberg News that China deliberately provided incomplete public numbers for coronavirus cases and deaths resulting from the infection. In December, local and national officials issued a gag order to labs in Wuhan after scientists there identified a new viral pneumonia, ordering them to halt tests, destroy samples, and conceal the news.

The U.S. now has nearly 240,000 cases of the coronavirus around the country, and more than 5,000 have died. Worldwide, more than 50,000 people have died from the respiratory illness.

Cuban docs fighting coronavirus around world, defying US

ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ, Associated Press•April 3, 2020

HAVANA (AP) — For two years the Trump administration has been trying to stamp out one of Cuba’s signature programs __ state-employed medical workers treating patients around the globe in a show of soft power that also earns billions in badly needed hard currency.

Labeling the doctors and nurses as both exploited workers and agents of communist indoctrination, the U.S. has notched a series of victories as Brazil, Ecuador and Bolivia sent home thousands after leftist governments allied with Havana were replaced with ones friendlier to Washington.

The coronavirus pandemic has brought a reversal of fortune for Cuban medical diplomacy, as doctors have flown off on new missions to battle COVID-19 in at least 14 countries including Italy and the tiny principality of Andorra on the Spanish-French border, burnishing the island's international image in the middle of a global crisis.

“I am aware of the position of the United States, but we are a sovereign country and we can choose the partners with which we are going to have cooperation,” Andorran Foreign Minister María Ubach said.

In the city of Crema in the hard-hit Lombardy region of northern Italy, 52 Cuban doctors and nurses set up a field hospital with 32 beds equipped with oxygen and three ICU beds.

“This is a strongly symbolic moment because the Crema hospital has been going through an extremely complicated situation from the start,” Lombardy’s top social welfare official, Giulio Gallera, said at the inauguration last week. “The number of patients who have filled and continue to fill the emergency room and departments has truly put the medical personnel to a hard test.”

The Trump administration has sought to cut off income to Havana as part of a long-term tightening of sanctions. And it continues to discourage countries from contracting Cuban medical workers despite the pandemic, arguing that their pay and conditions fall short of industry standards.

“The government of #Cuba keeps most of the salary its doctors and nurses earn while serving in its international medical missions while exposing them to egregious labor conditions,” the State Department said on Twitter last week. “Host countries seeking Cuba’s help for #COVID-19 should scrutinize agreements and end labor abuses.”

Cuba currently has about 37,000 medical workers in 67 countries, most in longstanding missions. Some doctors have been sent as part of free aid missions, but many countries pay the government directly for their services. In some other cases international health bodies have paid.

The most recent deployments of at least 593 doctors from the Henry Reeve Brigade — founded by Fidel Castro in 2005 and named after a 19th-century American volunteer who fought for Cuban independence from Spain — have also been to Suriname, Jamaica, Dominica, Belize, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, Venezuela and Nicaragua, some of them reinforcing existing medical missions.

All have been billed as tied to the coronavirus epidemic, even though some of the countries have few confirmed cases so far. None of the agreements or financial terms have been made public.

Havana has said it receives about $6 billion a year from the export of public services, and medical services make up most of that. When Brazil expelled Cuban doctors in 2018, a few details emerged including that the country had been paying $3,100 per month for each doctor with 70% of that going into the pockets of the Cuban government.

Doctors typically make less than $100 per month working on the island, so doing an overseas mission means a significant pay hike even if those salaries remain low by international standards.

Andorran newspaper Diari d'Andorra reported Wednesday, citing Health Minister Joan Martínez Benazet, that one of the 39 Cuban doctors in the country had tested positive for coronavirus and was quarantined in a hotel. The Cuban government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Infection is a serious risk for those on the front lines. In Italy alone, over 10,000 medical workers have contracted the coronavirus and more than at least 69 doctors have died.

For most people the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause severe, life-threatening symptoms like pneumonia.

Cuban officials have been proudly posting videos of doctors being applauded as they arrive to begin work, and blasting the Trump administration for its criticisms.

“Shame on you. Instead of attacking Cuba and its committed doctors, you should be caring about the thousands of sick Americans who are suffering due to the scandalous neglect of your government and the inability of your failed health system to care for them,” Josefina Vidal, Cuba’s ambassador to Canada, wrote on Twitter.

Argentine officials have also said they are discussing possible coronavirus help from Cuba, and another mission should leave soon for Angola.

Cuba has a relatively high number of medical workers per capita — officials say there are currently about 90,000 in the country of 11 million.

The Henry Reeve Brigade has deployed previously on infectious disease missions, famously helping fight Ebola in West Africa in 2014.

That effort took place in cooperation with the administration of then-President Barack Obama, seen as easing relations ahead of the diplomatic thaw between the two countries later that year.

___

Andrea Rodríguez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ARodriguezAP

South Africa's ruthlessly efficient fight against coronavirus

By Andrew Harding - Africa correspondent,BBC•April 3, 2020

The Gauteng government deployed a team of health workers to the Stjwetla informal settlement to test people for COVID-19 on day 5 of National Lockdown on March 31, 2020 in Alexandra, South Africa

One week into South Africa's nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus, and it is tempting - dangerously tempting - to breathe a sigh of relief.

After all, look at how much has already been achieved. More than 47,000 people have been tested, and 67 mobile testing units have been organised.

There are even drive-through testing centres. Soon the country will be able to test 30,000 people every day. To date, only five deaths from the virus have been confirmed. About 1,400 have tested positive for Covid-19.

'Formidable leadership

South Africa seems to have acted faster, more efficiently, and more ruthlessly than many other countries around the world.

Heading the fight here against Covid-19, President Cyril Ramaphosa has emerged as a formidable leader - composed, compassionate, but seized by the urgency of the moment and wasting no time in imposing tough restrictive steps and galvanising crucial support from the private sector.

And one rung below the president, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has likewise garnered near universal praise for his no-nonsense, energetic performance, and his sober, deeply knowledgeable, daily briefings.

"What we may currently be experiencing is the calm before a heavy and devastating storm"", Source: Zweli Mkhize, Source description: South Africa's Health Minister, Image: Zweli Mkhize

Of course, there have been mistakes, and worse. The police and army have, at times, acted with thuggish abandon in their attempts to enforce the three-week-long lockdown, humiliating, beating, and even shooting civilians on the streets of the commercial capital, Johannesburg, and elsewhere.

There has been confusion about some of the regulations, clumsy messaging and U-turns from some of the country's less impressive ministers.

Above all, there has been the struggle to impose social distancing and effective hygiene in South Africa's poorest, most crowded neighbourhoods, where many fear the virus could yet wreak havoc.

But overall, as South Africans mark their first week under one of the strictest lockdowns introduced anywhere in the world - no jogging outside, no sales of alcohol or cigarettes, no dog-walking, no leaving home except for essential trips and prison or heavy fines for law-breaking - there is an argument to be made that a government so often attacked as corrupt and inefficient, and a private sector so often seen as aloof and greedy, are rising to meet what is widely anticipated to be the greatest challenge this young democracy has ever seen.

It is fitting that the man now loudly warning the nation against any hint of complacency - indeed about the profound dangers of such complacency - is the health minister himself.

"What we may currently be experiencing is the calm before a heavy and devastating storm," said Dr Mkhize, gravely, at Wednesday's official launch of a new batch of mobile laboratories.

"Unless we move fast we will soon be swarmed. There will therefore be no further warning before the pounding descends upon us.

"There will not be time to prepare what we will not have put in place in the next seven days," Dr Mkhize said, noting that the virus has already begun to spread inside the country and that "we don't as yet have a true picture of the size of the problem".

In other words, for all South Africa's impressive early steps, the real battle lies ahead and the real test of the country's health system has yet to begin.

Planning for danger. [ Flu season will start next month ],[ Hospitals and clinics will be flooded ],[ Fertile ground for spreading coronavirus ],[ Send more teams quickly into communities to test for Covid-19 ],[ Build treatment centres for Covid-19 patients in each town ],[ Get medics from China and Cuba to help ], Source: Source: South Africa's Health Ministry, Image

Given that this is one of the world's most unequal societies, it is already clear that the battle will be fought, lost, or won, in the country's poorest communities.
'Shambles and incompetence'

It is also clear that - for all the impressive, skilled leadership available at the highest levels of the South African state, government, and private sector - years of cronyism, corruption and economic stagnation have damaged key institutions.

"We are not well prepared and positioned as a country… after a decade of the hollowing out of state institutions," conceded Adrian Enthoven, a prominent businessman now helping to run a solidarity fund set up to collect and administer private contributions to the fight against the coronavirus.

"We were in a much stronger position going into the global financial crisis [of 2008] than we are today."

More on Africa and the virus:


Live tracker: Coronavirus in Africa


Fighting al-Shabab's propaganda against coronavirus


Zimbabwean broadcaster died 'alone and scared'


Ghana mourns mass funeral ban


The fake coronavirus stories spreading in Africa

Those same concerns apply in provincial health departments, sometimes led by incompetent political appointees.

"The clinicians are getting on with it. But the senior management is overwhelmed. It's always been a shambles. They're mostly cadre-deployed. There's no leadership capacity. They're completely out of their depth and very anti any co-operation with the private sector," said one senior figure in a provincial department, speaking to me on condition of anonymity.

A walk through the township of Alexandra, on the edge of Johannesburg, is another sobering reminder of how difficult it may yet prove to contain the virus.

Despite the new presence of army patrols, constant messaging about social distancing in the media, pick-up trucks dispensing free hand-sanitiser, and the speedy intervention of testing units trying to track down those who might be exposed to the first confirmed case there, the dirt streets and narrow alleys remain crowded with children playing football and friends strolling to visit each other.

Informal traders who ignored the lockdown have had their goods seized

There is concern about the virus in Alexandra, but for now that feels eclipsed by the more pressing issues of lost jobs, unaffordable food, and the near impossibility of isolating yourself or your family for any extended period when home is a single room with no running water or toilet.

The virus has already brought South Africa's systemic challenges - and its enduring inequalities - into sharp relief.

But a sudden, extreme crisis - like a war or similar emergency - offers the tantalising possibility of radical change, of forging new alliances, of disrupting failing systems and patterns, of exposing bad leadership in the most unforgiving manner, and of bringing the most talented and dynamic people to the fore.

Some of those changes are already under way.

NOT AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE
"Shoot them dead": Duterte orders police to kill Filipinos who defy coronavirus lockdown

Christina Capatides,CBS News•April 2, 2020


In the Philippines, the 57 million residents of the country's main island, Luzon, are under strict lockdown orders to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Despite that, many in a Manila slum took to the streets Wednesday to protest a lack of supplies, arguing they had not received any food packs since the lockdown started two weeks ago.

The local government refutes those claims and clashed with protestors, ultimately arresting 20 people who refused to return home.

Poland is making quarantined citizens use a selfie app to prove they're staying inside. Singapore is using Bluetooth signals between cellphones to keep track of who people come into contact with.

But Duterte's threat may be the boldest. "I will not hesitate my soldiers to shoot you," Duterte said in forceful tones Wednesday. "I will not hesitate to order the police to arrest and detain you. Now, if you are detained, I will leave it up to you to find food."

On Thursday, as often happens after Duterte makes these sorts of inflammatory public remarks, Filipino officials rushed to insist that the president was simply using hyperbole to communicate the gravity of the situation.

"Probably the president just overemphasized on implementing the law in this time of crisis," Philippine National Police Chief Archie Gamboa said, adding that officers understood that they were not actually being instructed to kill troublemakers.

---30---

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/evgeny-lebedev-its-not-racist-to-say.html

Shenzhen becomes first Chinese city to ban eating cats and dogs

BBC•April 2, 2020

Most Chinese people don't actually consume dogs and cats and never plan toShenzhen has become the first Chinese city to ban the sale and consumption of dog and cat meat.

It comes after the coronavirus outbreak was linked to wildlife meat, prompting Chinese authorities to ban the trade and consumption of wild animals.

Shenzhen went a step further, extending the ban to dogs and cats. The new law will come into force on 1 May.

Thirty million dogs a year are killed across Asia for meat, says Humane Society International (HSI).

However, the practice of eating dog meat in China is not that common - the majority of Chinese people have never done so and say they don't want to.

"Dogs and cats as pets have established a much closer relationship with humans than all other animals, and banning the consumption of dogs and cats and other pets is a common practice in developed countries and in Hong Kong and Taiwan," the Shenzhen city government said, according to a Reuters report.

"This ban also responds to the demand and spirit of human civilization."

The race to find the source of coronavirus in wildlife

Animal advocacy organisation HSI praised the move.

"This really could be a watershed moment in efforts to end this brutal trade that kills an estimated 10 million dogs and 4 million cats in China every year," said Dr Peter Li, China policy specialist for HSI.

However, at the same time as this ruling, China approved the use of bear bile to treat coronavirus patients.

Bear bile - a digestive fluid drained from living captive bears - has long been used in traditional Chinese medicine.

The active ingredient, ursodeoxycholic acid, is used to dissolve gallstones and treat liver disease. But there is no proof that it is effective against the coronavirus and the process is painful and distressing for the animals

Brian Daly, a spokesman for the Animals Asia Foundation, told AFP: "We shouldn't be relying on wildlife products like bear bile as the solution to combat a deadly virus that appears to have originated from wildlife."

EVGENY LEBEDEV: It's NOT racist to say China's vile markets are to blame for coronavirus and they MUST ban them

By EVGENY LEBEDEV FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY 21 March 2020

From the taiga snow forests of Russia’s far east to the savannahs of sub-Saharan Africa, I have been on the frontline of the fight against the illegal wildlife trade. With my publications, the Evening Standard and the Independent, we have campaigned for more than a decade against the horrors of animal poaching. Now coronavirus has emerged as yet another gruesome consequence of the way we treat animals.

It is clear now that Covid-19 first crossed over from another species, and one potential origin is the pangolin, or scaly anteater. This mammal is poached in Africa and Asia for use in traditional Chinese medicine and has the questionable honour of being the most hunted creature in the world.

As I saw only last week in Chad, they are majestic, beautiful animals in the wild. Yet in China, they are pathetic, caged things.

Source of the misery: Caged wild animals at the market in Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus pandemic originated

Pangolin meat is seen as a delicacy, but some Chinese also believe the scales, once dried and treated with urine, can tackle nervousness and excessive crying in children. I’m willing to wager there are more, not fewer, anxious children thanks to this peculiar tradition.

According to the Zoological Society of London, 75 per cent of new infectious diseases come from animals.

Why, then, does China continue to permit the existence of unhygienic live animal markets, where disease transmission is known to happen?

Why haven’t the Chinese authorities tackled poaching, animal cruelty and pseudoscientific ‘traditional’ medicine with the same ferocity that they have applied to Falun Gong religious group or Uighur culture?

Inside the coronavirus 'ticking time bomb': How illegal food...
Bat curry continues to fly off the shelves in Indonesian...

The Communist Party has passed laws banning the illegal wildlife trade and cracking down on live markets. But it did the same during the SARS outbreak of 2002- 2004 (another coronavirus), then quietly relaxed the ban a few months later.

The Chinese government appears desperate to avoid any blame for this outbreak. It is mobilising diplomats to spread conspiracy theories, and disingenuously relying on the Western language of anti-racism to avoid criticism. But criticism is all too necessary if things are to change.

It is not ‘racist’ to confront the medieval beliefs of so-called traditional medicine around the world. Culture is not a fixed thing, a museum for others to gawk at. It is a constantly evolving conversation and we have to be part of it.

If China fails to act, the rest of the world should take steps to force its hand.


It is clear that Covid-19 first crossed over from another species, and one potential origin is the pangolin (pictured: an ambulance drives by a street cleaner in Wuhan on January 22)

It is Chinese culture, after all, that is at the epicentre of a global crisis of animal rights.

It is what fuels the pitched battles between rangers and poachers in sub-Saharan Africa. It is Chinese money that lines the pockets of criminal traffickers and terrorists such as Boko Haram and AlShabaab. We all know how that money is spent.

And it is this same culture of barbarity that leads to filthy cages in filthier markets where miserable animals from snakes and bats to pangolins are imprisoned. Not even familiar domestic animals such as dogs are spared. They can be bludgeoned to death or cooked alive. In some areas their legs are hacked off while they are still alive.

The illegal wildlife trade corrupts everything it touches. African ecosystems have been destroyed, while elephant populations are only just beginning to recover thanks to organisations such as Space For Giants. And now we are seeing another horrifying facet of the corruption, as viruses spread from trafficked animals to humans.

It would be a sweet irony if this virus were the saviour of the critically endangered pangolin. If one good thing comes out of this terrible pandemic, let it be a reassessment of the atrocious and disgusting animal trade that has given us two coronaviruses this century alone.

In his novel The Plague, Albert Camus correctly identified that the sickness afflicting humanity was not simply a disease, but a result of the way man chooses to live his life.

I’ve seen the rotting, maggot infested carcasses of elephants murdered for their tusks in the savannah too many times.

It’s a sight no one should endure ever again.

Now nature has threatened us with the same fate, it’s time we finally listen.

Evgeny Lebedev is the proprietor of the Evening Standard and Independent publications. He is also patron of the conservation organisation Space For Giants.

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/shenzhen-becomes-first-chinese-city-to.html

Fauci Tamps Down Hype About Coronavirus Drug Based on ‘Not Very Robust Study’

Lindsey Ellefson,The Wrap•April 3, 2020



Dr. Anthony Fauci, a now-recognizable face in the country’s battle against the coronavirus, used a Friday morning appearance on “Fox & Friends” to caution against hyping up the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a cure for the virus.

Fox News’ Steve Doocy asked the doctor about a poll that found that 37% of doctors in the world believe is the most effective medicine against the coronavirus and mentioned strong support he’s seen from guests on the network, notably Dr. Mehmet Oz.

Fauci dismissed the study, saying it wasn’t very “robust.”

He went on, “But getting back to what you said just a moment ago, that ‘x’ percent — I think you said 37% — of doctors feel that it’s beneficial: We don’t operate on how you feel. We operate on what evidence is, and data is, so although there is some suggestion with the study that was just mentioned by Dr. Oz — granted that there is a suggestion that there is a benefit there — I think we’ve got to be careful that we don’t make that majestic leap to assume that this is a knockout drug.”

Brian Kilmeade, another co-host of the popular morning show, pressed Fauci on whether the drug could be useful in preventing the virus: “I would be very curious, Doctor, to see if anyone who was taking this for lupus or arthritis has gotten the coronavirus. That would be one way to go the other way to see about this study.”

“I mean, obviously this is a good drug in many respects for some of the diseases you mentioned, and the one thing we don’t want to happen is that individuals who really need a drug with a proven indication don’t have it available,” Fauci admitted, though he was still quick to caution that what some doctors think is still irrelevant.

Under cover of pandemic, Trump’s NLRB moves to make unionizing ‘nearly impossible for workers’

Published April 3, 2020 By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams


“The Trump NLRB takes this moment to publish a rule that will make it harder both for workers to unionize and to keep unions they have. Shameful does not even begin to describe this.”

The National Labor Relations Board finalized a rule this week that critics warn could make unionizing “nearly impossible for workers” at a moment when employees across the nation are fighting for stronger protections against the coronavirus pandemic.

The proposed rule change from the board—which is controlled by three appointees of President Donald Trump—was published in the Federal Register on April 1. The new rule would eliminate the NLRB’s “blocking charge policy,” which permits the delay of union election results if the employer is accused of unlawful coercion or other unfair labor practices.

“The board is effectively sealing off any viable path to unionization at a time when workers need a voice on the job more than ever.”
—Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO

The proposal would also allow employees to file for decertification of a union in as few as 45 days after the union is voluntarily recognized by an employer. Under the new rule, a petition for decertification could be filed if just 30% of employees in a bargaining unit support the move.

Opponents of the new rule said the changes could empower employees to illegally manipulate union election results and allow a minority of workers to decertify a union that a majority of workers voted to form.
The rule is set to take effect on May 31 after a 60-day public comment period.

Heidi Shierholz, labor economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), called the rule change “unbelievable.”

“The Trump NLRB takes this moment to publish a rule that will make it harder both for workers to unionize and to keep unions they have,” tweeted Shierholz. “Shameful does not even begin to describe this.”


UNBELIEVABLE. The Trump NLRB takes THIS moment to publish a rule that will make it harder both for workers to unionize and to keep unions they have. Shameful does not even begin to describe this. (For background, here are our comments on the proposed rule https://t.co/lbdCyqKUS6) https://t.co/DQ6zbvc8Gl
— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) March 31, 2020

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, said in a statement that “the board is effectively sealing off any viable path to unionization at a time when workers need a voice on the job more than ever.”

“Donald Trump’s caustic hostility to collective bargaining has manifested itself in the most anti-worker NLRB in America’s history,” said Trumka. “The labor movement will fight these actions with everything we have.”

The proposed rule comes as grocery store employees and other workers deemed essential amid the coronavirus outbreak are walking off the job and holding “sick outs” to protest unsanitary workplaces and lack of protective gear.

The new rule marks the second time in less than a month that the Trump administration has advanced a union-busting proposal.

Last month, as Common Dreams reported, unions accused Trump of exploiting the coronavirus crisis to attack organized labor after the Federal Labor Relations Authority issued a rule proposal that would allow federal employees to cancel union dues at any time after a year of membership, rather than in the annual 15-day window established under current law.

In a blog post on Tuesday responding to the NLRB proposal, EPI government affairs director Celine McNicholas wrote that “it is unconscionable that the agency responsible for ensuring workers have the right to a voice in the workplace has denied them the ability to exercise these rights.”

“Today and in the coming weeks, many workers will walk off the job over concerns for their health and safety in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,” McNicholas wrote. “These workers are risking their lives to deliver services that have been deemed essential to our nation.”

“At the very least,” said McNicholas, “we should demand that the federal agency responsible for ensuring these workers have the rights to a union and collective bargaining use our taxpayer dollars to conduct union elections for workers who want representation, as opposed to issuing rules that make it harder for workers to have a voice on the job.”

The U.S. economy is entering the 'deepest recession on record'

‘It’s not like we have a massive recession or worse,’ 

says Trump after millions lose their jobs
TRUMP REPLACES HOOVER AS WORST PRESIDENT TO PRESIDE OVER A DEPRESSION

Myles Udland Markets Reporter,Yahoo Finance•April 2, 2020

Jobless numbers are 'terrible' but that was anticipated: Expert

The U.S. economy is struggling right now.

BOOM GO CRASH

On Thursday, we learned that initial filings for unemployment insurance totaled a record 6.648 million for the week ending March 28, more than doubling the prior week’s reported total of 3.238 million that had also marked a record high. Distressingly, last week’s data was also revised higher on Thursday to 3.307 million.

And while the labor market fallout from the coronavirus-related economic hard-stop we’re experiencing has been the most abrupt and severe so far, economists at Bank of America Global Research believe the broader economic downturn we’re entering will result in the worst recession in modern U.S. history.

Read more: What is a recession? Here are the basics

“The recession appears to be deeper and more prolonged than we were led to believe just 14 days ago when we last updated our forecasts, not just in the U.S. but globally as well,” said BofA economists led by Michelle Meyer.

“We now believe that there will be three consecutive quarters of GDP contraction with the US economy shrinking 7% in 1Q, 30% in 2Q and 1% in 3Q. We expect this to be followed by a pop in growth in 4Q. We forecast the cumulative decline in GDP to be 10.4% and this will be the deepest recession on record, nearly five times more severe than the post-war average.” (Emphasis added.)

In 2008, the economy experienced a cumulative recessionary decline in GDP of 4%, the most since World War II. BofA is expecting the 2020 recession will be more than twice as severe in terms of the total GDP decline.

Economists at Bank of America expect that the GDP declines seen in the current recession will be the worst on record, more than doubling the drop seen during the financial crisis. (Source: Bank of America Global Research)

The labor market impacts are also expected to be eye-popping as the recession crests in the summer.

Bank of America expects that up to 20 million people will lose their jobs through the third quarter with the unemployment rate potentially peaking north of 15%.

“The shock is unlike anything we have experienced before with part of the economy effectively put into an induced coma,” BofA adds.

“The pain is sudden and acute. But we think there is a recovery on the other side. The first step is to solve the public health crisis and stop the spread of COVID-19. The next step is to slowly open the economy with businesses returning and people going back to work.”

Bank of America expects that GDP will pop 30% in the fourth quarter. But the firm still believes “this will be a slow recovery overall as many workers will be displaced and businesses adapt to a period of lost revenue.”

The consumer economy stumbles

AND FALLS FLAT ON ITS FACE, ALL THOSE CONSUMERS ARE NOW UNEMPLOYED 
Over the last few years, when questions about the Federal Reserve’s actions and the health of the global economy came into question, investors became accustomed to citing the strength and health of the U.S. consumer as the backbone of the bull market and economic expansion.

And indeed, just under 70% of GDP growth comes from consumer spending. Since the fourth quarter of 2013, no single quarter has seen U.S. consumer spending rise less than 3%.

But this trend looks set to come to an end.

Using its proprietary data that tracks spending from Bank of America debit and credit cardholders, Meyer and her team note that by the end of March about 20% of consumer spending categories had declined more than 40%.

The number of American workers filing for unemployment claims is exploding across the country.

“It makes sense that the consumer cut back [in March],” Meyer and team write.

“Part of the decline was ‘forced’ since non-essential businesses closed in many regions, automatically cutting sales. And as consumers sheltered at home, their needs change. But we also think it reflects a broader weakness for the consumer as they face job cuts and a significant negative wealth shock. This naturally leads to more cautious behavior.”

The debate around what the period after coronavirus will look like in the U.S. economy still centers on three letters: V, U, and L. Each letter outlines a path for the economic recovery post-virus.

But as Meyer’s commentary outlines, recessions change just about everything about consumer behavior. And boiling these changes down to one letter is futile. When recessions hit, workers that retain a job grow more worried about losing their job. Consumers with exposure to the stock market have seen their net worth decline. And the collective economic memory we all share shifts from recalling recent periods of relative prosperity to the darkest days of restaurants, bars, and shops closing overnight.

And all of these combine to create an environment in which consumers are more cautious and spending is restrained. To the extent that “animal spirits” powered increases in spending during expansions, a recession short circuits these trends.

In this March 13, 2020 file photo, unionized hospitality workers wait in line in a basement garage to apply for unemployment benefits at the Hospitality Training Academy in Los Angeles. More than 6.6 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, far exceeding a record high set just last week, a sign that layoffs are accelerating in the midst of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

Data challenges

Like most economists writing about the coronavirus-related slowdown, BofA also notes that capturing the extent of the economic fallout from the coronavirus poses several challenges.

That’s particularly true given the speed and magnitude of the changes mandated by lawmakers and the lag on which economic data is reported.

“There are two things to remember here,” Meyer’s team writes with respect to the data likely to be reported over the next months and quarters. “First, we are reporting the quarterly GDP figures as an annualized quarterly change. So don't be taken by the 30% drop in 2Q, it is really a 8.5% decline from one quarter to another rather than the economy shrinking by a third in one quarter.”

Yahoo Finance’s Rick Newman recently wrote about how to think about the annualized data set to be reported later this year.

“The other consideration,” Meyer writes, “is that it may be difficult for the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to capture the degree of weakness given the reliance on surveys and historical interpolations. During the last recession, it took several releases with downward revisions before the depth of the downturn was understood.”

Myles Udland is a reporter and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @MylesUdland

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