In Mexico autos town, labor rights falter despite U.S. trade deal

By Daina Beth Solomon 

© Reuters/Henry Romero FILE PHOTO: Mexican labor lawyer Susana Prieto leads a demonstration with supporters and workers outside an office of the Chihuahua state government in Mexico City

MATAMOROS, Mexico (Reuters) - After successfully staging a wildcat strike for higher wages in 2019, many workers at the Tridonex auto-parts plant in the Mexican city of Matamoros, across the border from Texas, set their sights higher: replacing the union that they say failed to fight for them.


Six workers at the factory, which refits second-hand car parts for sale in the United States and Canada, told Reuters they felt let down that their union, SITPME, did not back their demands for better pay. About 400 Tridonex workers protested outside a Matamoros labor court last year to be allowed to switch unions.

When the first protests broke out in 2019, many of the plant's roughly 4,000 workers earned just above the then-minimum wage of 176.72 pesos ($8.82) a day.

The Tridonex workers and thousands more at other Matamoros factories walked off the job demanding a 20% raise and 32,000-peso bonus, many without union backing. In nearly all cases, the companies conceded.

"This showed us what we were capable of," said Edgar Salazar, then a Tridonex employee. "We know we have rights, but the union just wants to cash in. It doesn't support us at all."

Jesus Mendoza, SITPME's long-time leader, said his union generated jobs and delivered perks to its members while maintaining harmonious relationships with employers.

However, Salazar and many of his Tridonex colleagues wanted to throw their support behind a new organization led by activist and attorney Susana Prieto.

But their efforts are failing, labor experts acknowledge.

Dismantling the power of Mexico's entrenched unions is proving a tough challenge, some labor activists say, with few signs that reforms promised under a new North American trade deal are yet charting an easier course.

Amid resistance from SITPME, the Tridonex workers' request to be represented by Prieto's union has still not been put to a vote. Legal challenges by attorney Prieto to replace unions at 45 other factories in the area have also stalled.

When Prieto urged strikes in January to again demand higher pay, just a few hundred people protested across a handful of companies.

"They're scared, because they don't have anyone to defend them," Prieto said. According to Prieto, about 600 of her supporters at Tridonex -- including Salazar -- were fired between April and October 2020. Reuters could not independently confirm this.

Cardone Industries, Tridonex's Philadelphia-based parent, did not respond to a question about allegations of retaliation.

It says layoffs were made due to reduced demand following pandemic lockdowns but did not provide further details. Cardone is controlled by Canadian company Brookfield Asset Management.

SLOW PROGRESS

Leftist President Manuel Andres Lopez Obrador passed a law in 2019 guaranteeing workers the right to independent unions. Though strong on paper, it does not come fully into effect until 2023.  AMLO IS A NEOLIBERAL

"The law in general is very good. But that doesn't mean we're going to get any change in Mexico anytime soon," said Kimberly Nolan, a labor scholar at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences research institute.

Some of the Matamoros workers are now looking to the United States for backing.

A new free trade deal between Mexico, the United States and Canada (USMCA) implemented last year enshrined workers' rights to choose which union administers their collective contract.

With Democrat Joe Biden now president, Mexico may come under close scrutiny to uphold the USMCA's pro-worker provisions, which were partly designed to prevent low labor costs from leeching more U.S. jobs.

Under the treaty, companies failing to ensure freedom of association for workers in Mexico could be sanctioned with tariffs and other penalties.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which runs U.S. trade policy, did not respond to a question of how the Biden administration would treat violations of the trade pact's labor measures.

But Katherine Tai, head of the agency, said last week she was "not afraid" to use the enforcement provisions of the USMCA, without specifying which issues could come under review.

The powerful U.S. union federation, the AFL-CIO, told Reuters in April it was drafting cases against companies in Mexico under USMCA, and would make details public in May.

Matamoros is one of a string of Mexican border cities which American firms were lured to by cheap labor in recent decades. Its factories supply parts for General Motors Co, Toyota Motor Corp, Stellantis and other automakers.

Booming trade with the United States has brought jobs to areas of northern Mexico but labor rights lag.

Companies in Mexico have commonly fired workers, among other tactics, rather than allow them to agitate for new unions, say activists, scholars and government officials.

"They fire them; they suppress them. They stop giving extra hours. They don't give bonuses. They change them to night shift," said Alfredo Dominguez, head of the Federal Center of Conciliation and Labor Registration, created under the labor reform to ensure collective contracts are legitimate.

One of the labor ministry's priorities is to eliminate so-called "protection contracts," signed between unions and employers without workers' prior consultation or knowledge, which Dominguez said make up at least 80% of all collective contracts in Mexico.

The labor reform, once implemented, will also do away with local panels blamed by labor activists for long delays in the process of establishing new unions like Prieto's. The boards will be replaced with tribunals reporting to the judicial branch.

NEW TACTICS

Frustrated by delays in setting up a new union, hundreds of Tridonex workers early in 2020 opted for a new tactic: declaring they no longer wanted to pay dues to the established union, SITPME. After several tense protests, Tridonex consented.

Then firings began, four workers told Reuters.

In March 2020, Efren Ruiz, who cleaned and assembled brake parts for Tridonex and was a vocal advocate of Prieto's union, was dismissed.

"This is reprisal," Ruiz remembered telling a supervisor, before security guards escorted him out, he said.

Three other workers also said they believed their union activism led to their dismissals. A government record seen by Reuters, dated October 30, 2020, shows Tridonex dismissed 717 people from April to October last year.

Reuters was unable to determine if any have been hired back since. Mexico's Social Security Institute, which tracks employment, said it could not comment on individual companies.

Prieto said the firings were retaliation by the company to protect SITPME and prevent more strikes for better pay.

SITPME leader Mendoza described complaints of retaliation as "lies." Cardone said in a statement the staff reduction was due to a drop in demand and was "managed through transparent and constructive discussions with employees and relevant trade unions."

SITPME - which extols membership perks such as medical and legal aid - said it lured back at least 3,000 people from different companies who had supported Prieto's breakaway group. Reuters could not independently confirm this.

Mendoza noted that he strives for dialogue with companies, not strikes: "What we do well is guarantee labor peace and efficiency in the workforce."

(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; additional reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit and David Lawder in Washington; Editing by Christian Plumb, Daniel Flynn and Alistair Bell)

NO TIME
Amazon is polling drivers about their bathroom breaks after apologizing for denying that workers pee in bottles. Drivers say the survey is missing a key answer.

ndailey@businessinsider.com (Natasha Dailey,Avery Hartmans) 

© Patrick Fallon/Getty Images 

Amazon asked its drivers in a survey if they're "able to find restrooms" on their routes.

The drivers said the question missed the point of their problem - that they don't have time to.

"They're giving us monster routes," one driver told Insider.

Amazon asked its drivers in a recent survey if they were "able to find restrooms" while making deliveries, but workers said the question was missing their main problem - that they don't have enough time.

Several Amazon delivery drivers shared a screenshot of the survey with Insider on Monday. It asked, "Are you able to find open restrooms for use while making deliveries?" And had four options for answers

.

Courtesy of Amazon delivery driver Amazon driver survey on May 3, 2021. 

"The funny part about this screenshot is that they don't provide an option for 'Do not have time to use the restroom,' which is the main problem," one Amazon driver told Insider. He asked to remain anonymous for fear of job repercussions for speaking publicly.

Insider has previously documented how Amazon drivers often pee in bottles, as well as poop in bags and change menstrual pads while driving, due to the time constraints of the job.

The company previously denied that its workers peed in bottles on Twitter, but then later apologized for the tweet. Calling the issue an industry-wide trend, it attributed the problem to rural routes, pandemic-closed restrooms, and traffic, and said it was working to come up with solutions.

Insider spoke with four drivers about the survey, three of whom asked for anonymity to protect their jobs. Amazon did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on the survey.

One driver said he selected the top choice, which read, "No I am not being allowed access to open restrooms," because drivers "frankly aren't given enough time to search for restrooms."

"They're giving us monster routes," he said. "If we so much as fall 10 minutes behind, Amazon will ask the dispatchers why we are behind," he said.

Read more: Jeff Bezos responds to employee question about his resignation as CEO, says Amazon can 'out-survive any individual in the company, including, of course, myself'

Amazon driver Robert Lupia said he receives surveys almost every morning. He told Insider he is expected to deliver 350 to 400 packages per day, and he's required to clock out for lunch breaks but doesn't have time to take the break.

"Yes we pee in bottles daily; it's part of the job," he said. "Places don't allow non-customers to use their bathrooms."

A driver based near Lansing, Michigan, said the "I don't know how to find a restroom" option was "a little condescending." But, he said, acknowledging the restroom issue "is at least a step in the right direction."
Read the original article on Business Insider

TORY LIBERAL CONTRACTING OUT FAIL
CRA rules against civil service union push to make Phoenix damages non-taxable

OTTAWA — Canada's biggest civil service union says it is considering taking legal action after the Canada Revenue Agency ruled that damages paid to federal employees in connection with the troubled Phoenix pay system are taxable.© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Public Service Alliance of Canada says it has received notice from CRA that the agency won't review the taxability of the payments.

The payments were part of a contract settlement dealing with the financial, mental and emotional harm caused to government employees who were overpaid, underpaid or not paid at all through the Phoenix system.

Payments of up to $2,500 each were issued in March to civil servants affected by the damages agreement, minus applicable income taxes and other deductions.

In a letter sent to the union, dated April 27, the tax agency turned down the union's request to review the taxation issue.

In part, CRA said the government agency responsible for paying civil servants didn't cooperate with its review.

"After numerous requests for Treasury Board’s cooperation, and direct appeals to (Treasury Board President Jean-Yves) Duclos, they have refused any and all cooperation on the matter," a portion of the letter provided to the union stated.

The review was contingent on both the union and Treasury Board Secretariat providing an agreed statement of facts.

The union accused the government of shortchanging the 140,000 federal employees it represents by deducting tax from the payments, arguing that damages settlements are not normally taxed.

The union and government reached a deal last summer to compensate PSAC members affected by failures in the Phoenix system.

The Treasury Board chose not to co-operate with the review out of spite, PSAC national president Chris Aylward said in a statement.

"It's clear they're still angry that PSAC forced them to deliver a better deal for our members," Aylward said.

"They're frustrated that they have to honour the top-up clauses signed with the other unions to match our general damages agreement, and now they're taking it out on PSAC members by sabotaging attempts to get a positive tax ruling."

Treasury Board officials were not immediately available to respond to a request for comment.

But a spokesman said in February that Treasury Board was not blocking a review of the CRA's initial decision on the matter by refusing to issue a joint statement of facts with PSAC, adding that the government had always intended that the damages payments would be subject to "applicable deductions."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2021.

Terry Pedwell, The Canadian Press

A restaurant manager who forced a Black man to work without pay owes him more than $500,000 in restitution, court rules

By Scottie Andrew, CNN 


A South Carolina man who was forced to work over 100 hours every week for years without pay and subjected to verbal and physical abuse was supposed to receive close to $273,000 in restitution after his former manager pleaded guilty.

© J. Reuben Long Detention Center via AP Bobby Edwards, a South Carolina restaurant manager, was sentenced to prison for 10 years.

But that initial amount was too low, an appellate court ruled in April. The man should have received more than double that amount -- closer to $546,000 -- from the manager to account for federal labor laws, according to the ruling.

John Christopher Smith was forced to work at a cafeteria in Conway without pay for years. His manager, Bobby Edwards, pleaded guilty to forced labor in 2018 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his abuse of Smith, a Black man who has intellectual disabilities.

A US District Court judge in 2019 ordered Edwards, who is White, to pay Smith around $273,000 in restitution, which represented Smith's unpaid wages and overtime.

But the court "erred in failing to include liquidated damages" in the restitution, a provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act that would've doubled the amount of restitution Smith received, according to the April ruling from the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals based in Richmond, Virginia.

The Fair Labor Standards Act's liquidated-damages provision holds that if failing to pay a worker's wages on time is so detrimental to that worker's "minimum standard of living," then they should be paid double that amount, the Supreme Court decided in 1945.

"When an employer fails to pay those amounts, the employee suffers losses, which includes the loss of the use of that money during the period of delay," the federal appeals court said.

The district court will now calculate the new amount Smith is owed.

CNN has reached out to the US Attorney's Office in South Carolina and the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, which ordered the original restitution payment, for comment.

Smith endured years of abuse

Smith started working at the cafeteria as a part-time dishwasher when he was 12, according to the recent ruling. His first 19 years of employment there, when the restaurant was managed by other members of Edwards' family, were paid.

But when Edwards took over the restaurant in 2009, Smith was moved into an apartment next to the restaurant and forced to work more than 100 hours every week without pay, according to the ruling.

"Edwards effected this forced labor by taking advantage of Jack's intellectual disability and keeping Jack isolated from his family, threatening to have him arrested, and verbally abusing him," the ruling reads.

Smith feared Edwards, who once dipped metal tongs into grease and pressed them into Smith's neck when Smith failed to quickly restock the buffet with fried chicken, the ruling says. Edwards also whipped Smith with his belt, punched him and beat him with kitchen pans, leaving Smith "physically and psychologically scarred," according to the ruling.

But Smith also feared what might happen if he attempted to escape, he told CNN affiliate WPDE in 2017.

"I wanted to get out of there a long time ago. But I didn't have nobody I could go to," he told the affiliate. "I couldn't go anywhere. I couldn't see none of my family."

The ruling says an employee's relative alerted authorities of the abuse in 2014, and the South Carolina Department of Social Services removed Smith from the restaurant that year.

"We are talking about enslavement here," Abdullah Mustafa, then the president of the local chapter of the NAACP, said at the time.

CNN has reached out to the Conway chapter of the South Carolina NAACP for comment.

Alberta NDP leader urges officials to enforce pandemic measures

Duration: 06:41 

Opposition leader Rachel Notley tells Power & Politics the provincial government must enforce pandemic measures already in place as the caseload continues to climb in Alberta.

CBC

Scarborough researchers found the link between multi-generational households and COVID-19. What it could change about housing in years to come


A new study by three Scarborough researchers shows that the places that have been hardest hit by COVID-19 are also the places where multiple working adults or families are all sharing a household.


The study by the Neighbourhood Change Research Partnership and the University of Toronto found that the maps that showed which areas in the GTA have high rates of COVID-19, shared a lot of overlap with areas that had the most households of what they call “mutually dependent adults.” One of those areas being Scarborough, where all three researchers reside.

The findings confirm some assumptions people have made about why COVID-19 has spread the way it has, disproved some others, and reinforced why information like this is crucial to an effective pandemic response.

But looking to the future it also shows that as more people live in bigger households like this, it’s time we get ahead of this issue, and build homes that can keep the people living inside healthy.

What does mutually dependent mean?

Using special-ordered Statistics Canada data from 2006 and 2016, the team parsed data on “mutually dependent adults” — combinations of households that could be a group of roommates, a grandparent living with a single mom, a family who rents out a room in their house — pretty much any situation where multiple working-age adults are living together under one roof, rather than independently, or as just a traditional couple.

Between 2006 and 2016 as housing costs skyrocketed, the amount of working-age residents living together and depending on one another also grew by about 13 per cent across the country.

The most being in the notoriously expensive Toronto and Vancouver, where in 2016 mutually dependent adults were 27 and 25 per cent of the population, respectively.

Multiple-family households and COVID-19

When broken down by neighbourhoods in Toronto, overall, the 10 with the highest rate of COVID-19 cases had just over twice as many mutually dependent adults at 37 per cent of the population. These were mostly found in Scarborough, northwest Toronto and some areas of York and North York.

Meanwhile neighbourhoods that had more independent households also had fewer COVID-19 cases.

The same held true in the GTA, with areas like Brampton. which has 37.2 per cent of adults in these kinds of households, and the highest average household size in the GTA — 3.5 people compared to Canada’s overall average 2.4. At the end of last year, Brampton also had 68 per cent of Peel Region’s COVID-19 cases.

John Stapleton, social policy expert and one of the study’s authors, said pooling resources in this way is both a solution to the high cost of living in Toronto, and to improve quality of living. It’s a way for people to potentially get more space — a house with a yard, for example, rather than living independently in smaller homes. But it created a higher risk for a virus like COVID-19.

“What it was doing was creating an accelerant for a pandemic of this particular sort,” Stapleton said.

Through the pandemic, Stapleton noted the assumptions that were made about why racialized people have seen disproportionate rates of COVID-19 — gathering for holidays like Diwali, language barriers. “It has very little to do with it,” he said.

“Having so many people in a household and a number of adults working ... and most likely working right in key sectors that you can’t do the work from home ... that means that those households will be more vulnerable to COVID spread,” said David Hulchanski, a housing and community development professor at U of T.

“It’s demonstrating in yet another way what is wrong with having such a huge gap in income and wealth, which then affects all aspects of our life,” Hulchanski said.

Seeing the overlap in the maps reaffirms that it is wise to focus treatment and resources in these highly-affected areas.

“In other words, it’s telling you, yes, you should have the vaccines (for) Scarborough. You should be doing this stuff by postal code,” Stapleton said.

Still with the vaccine rollout, Ontario only allotted 25 per cent of supply to hot spot areas despite its science table recommending 50 per cent, and only recently announced plans to up it to half as distribution has expanded.

Epidemiologist Colin Furness said that the province’s reluctance to collect demographic data and have it influence the response from the start of the pandemic, has been a huge downfall.

“The tail has really had to pull the dog along here and it really should not be that way,” he said.

Building a healthier future

While the high cost of housing is a factor at play here, Stapleton also notes that for some families, it’s more traditional and a choice to live together, rather than just affordability and circumstance.

And with this data in mind, and the cultural choice factor, both Furness and Stapleton see a takeaway being to make these kinds of multi-family households more livable and safe.

Furness said: “How do we make ourselves resistant to communicable disease in a home? No one talks about that. So, I think we might have some opportunities in terms of how we think about designing safe residences, given what we now understand both what living patterns are, and what the risks are associated with that.”

Furness said building codes, ventilation requirements, the ability for more separation in the household are all things that could be incorporated into creating living spaces that can keep people safe. And also considering sustainability, rather than plowing into farmland in Ontario to create more and bigger houses.

It’s a complex problem he said and it’s up to leaders to move the dial in this direction. Furness says he is “not optimistic.”

“What we learn from history is that we do not learn from history.”

Angelyn Francis is a Toronto-based reporter for the Star covering equity and inequality. Her reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. Reach her via email: afrancis@thestar.ca

Angelyn Francis, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Toronto Star

Low-wage workers and mothers of color lost more in the pandemic economy, Fed Chair Powell says

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell. Sarah Silbiger/Getty 

In a Monday speech, Jerome Powell discussed data on inequities from an upcoming Federal Reserve survey.

Black and Hispanic workers disproportionately suffered in the pandemic, especially mothers, he said.

A K-shaped recovery has taken shape, with higher-earning workers seeing job and income growth.

Low-wage workers and workers of color have seen a slower recovery than the rest of the labor force, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Monday.

In a speech for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Powell highlighted data from an upcoming Federal Reserve survey, showing how low-wage workers and workers of color bore a disproportionate blow from the pandemic's economic devastation.

For instance, Powell said, 20% of those in the lowest-earning group were still unemployed a year out from February 2020. Among the highest-earners, that number was 6%.

Workers of color and less-educated workers were also more likely to be laid off. According to that new survey, 20% of "prime-age adults" without a bachelor's degree were laid off, compared to 12% of their college-educated peers.

Over 20% of Black and Hispanic workers saw layoffs in a set period, compared to 14% of white workers.

Women - particularly mothers - have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, with wage gap progress and labor force participation set back substantially. According to Powell, labor force participation dropped by about 4% for Black and Hispanic women, compared to 1.6% for white women and 2% for men.

Research from the National Women's Law Center (NWLC) found that the unemployment rate for mothers doubled from 2019 to 2020, rising from 3.5% to 7.5%. The rate was higher from Asian, Black, and Latina mothers. And 575,000 mothers completely left the labor force - meaning that they aren't counted in unemployment rates.

Broadly, Powell said, 22% of parents had either paused working or worked less due to childcare needs. That number was far higher for Black and Hispanic mothers, coming in at 36% and 30%, respectively.

And the NWLC report found that, even prior to the pandemic, mothers saw a wage gap compared to white fathers. Black mothers lose $33,600 every year, and Latina mothers lose $38,000, showing how the pandemic exacerbated preexisting disparities.

All of the data shows a continued trend of unequal recovery, which economists - and President Joe Biden - call a "K-shaped" recovery. That's when high-earning workers see their jobs and incomes rebound and grow, while low-earning workers experience the opposite.

"We will only reach our full potential when everyone can contribute to, and share in, the benefits of prosperity," Powell said.

Jobs have rebounded somewhat, with jobless claims coming in at pandemic-era lows. However, millions of Americans still remain unemployed.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Women face significant jobs risk during Covid pandemic, UK analysis finds

Alexandra Topping 

THE GUARDIAN

MAY THE FOURTH

BE WITH YOU

Working women are facing a significant risk in the labour market, with far greater numbers being made redundant as a result of the pandemic than during the 2007 financial crisis, according to analysis seen by the Guardian.

© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

Women are experiencing much higher levels of redundancies during the Covid pandemic than in previous recessions, according to the Trades Union Congress. Female redundancies in the UK hit 178,000 between September and November 2020, according to its analysis – 76% higher than the peak reached during the height of the financial crisis when female redundancy levels hit 100,000.

In the same 2020 period 217,000 men were made redundant – 3% more than the peak of male redundancies during the financial crisis.

“Women are more likely to be on furlough than men and to work in sectors hit hardest by Covid, like retail and hospitality. And they bore the brunt of childcare while schools and nurseries were closed,” said Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the TUC. “Without ongoing support from ministers, many more women face losing their jobs.”

Experts say the jobs market looks particularly fragile for women, who often dominate the industries hardest hit by Covid. According to the TUC’s jobs monitor “there is a significant risk to women’s employment going forwards”. From the 12 months from December 2019 women accounted for six in 10 job losses in hospitality, six in 10 job losses in wholesale and retail and almost 60% of job losses in other services including hairdressers, beauty and care services.© Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images Women are more likely to be on furlough than men and to work in sectors hit hardest by Covid.

Soph Hudson was made redundant from her role as an assistant manager for a cafe and conference centre. Without an income, she focused on increasing the success of her “side hustle”: making gender-free children’s clothing into a fully fledged business. “I felt I had no other choice as we were still in the midst of the pandemic and I saw no increase in the jobs in that sector,” she said.

Related: Pregnant women need better Covid safety at work, say campaigners

While the number of female redundancies has slowed down since November last year, numbers remain at “crisis levels”, said the TUC. According to the latest official figures there were close to 94,000 female redundancies between December and February of 2021 – close to levels seen at the peak of the financial crash.

Economists said another wave of female redundancies was likely when the current furlough scheme ends in September, as women are more likely to have been furloughed than men. According to research from the Women’s Budget Group, 52.1% of women have been furloughed despite women only making up 47.3% of the overall UK workforce. By the end of February 2021, 2,337,900 women were furloughed compared with 2,144,700 men.

“Unfortunately, things are likely to get worse before they get better,” said Felicia Willow, the chief executive of the Fawcett Society. “When the furlough scheme ends, we expect to see employers in hospitality, retail, and other customer service industries lay off large numbers of employees. Because of the clustering of women in these sectors, we fear that redundancy rates of women will increase significantly.”

Mary-Ann Stephenson, the director of the Women’s Budget Group said the government plans to ‘build back better’ focus largely on construction projects, but WBG research showed that investment in care could create nearly three times as many jobs as similar investment in construction. “A care-led recovery would create more jobs for men, and many more for women, who are at greater risk of redundancy,” she said.

Why some older workers fared worse during Covid-19 than the Great Recession

Lorie Konish 

CNN 3/5/2021

AMERICAN HOWEVER THE GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT AGE RELATED TO RETIREMENT IS THE SAME IN CANADA

The Covid-19 pandemic has not disproportionately impacted older workers.
Yet when compared with the Great Recession, some ages 50 and up may have been hit harder than others.

New research finds that low earners in that age cohort are slightly worse off amid Covid-19 compared with the Great Recession.

Meanwhile, high earners age 62 and up are more likely to retire now compared with 2009.

© Provided by CNBC

It's no secret that the Covid-19 pandemic has hurt workers of all ages.

Yet when it comes to older workers — those ages 50 to 62 and up — some may have fared worse than they did during the Great Recession, according to recent research from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Just how older workers were affected depends on their age cohort, and whether they are ages 50 to 61 or 62 and up, according to the analysis of data from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey.

For those ages 50 to 61, the data shows that Covid-19 was harder on low earners than high earners.

Nineteen percent of those in the lowest earnings tercile were no longer working in 2020 compared with one year earlier, the data reveals. In comparison, in 2009 during the Great Recession, 17% of people in that category were no longer working.

Meanwhile, 9% of the highest earnings tercile were no longer working in 2020, compared with 11% in 2009.

"The big thing that stands out about any recession, including the Covid recession, is just the extent to which it hurts lower-income people more," said Geoffrey Sanzenbacher, research fellow at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Despite the negative consequences for people in this age cohort, there was not a noticeable increase in how many consider themselves to be retired. Part of that may be due to the fact that they are not yet 62, and thus unable to claim Social Security retirement benefits.

VIDEO What workers want post-pandemic

For those ages 62 and up, it's a different story.

Lower earners in that age cohort were still more likely to be not working. Yet when compared with the Great Recession, the unemployment rate was about the same, 38% in 2020 versus 37% in 2009.

However, high earners ages 62 and up were more likely to be unemployed. In 2020, 22% of those in the highest earnings quartile were no longer working compared with a year earlier, versus 18% who fell into that category in 2009 during the Great Recession.

High earners retired at a greater clip during Covid-19 than in the Great Recession. In 2020, 15% of that cohort were retired a year after working, versus 10% in 2009. Yet the rate at which lower earners retired stayed about the same, 26% in 2020 versus 25% in 2009.

The results compare data from December 2020 to December 2019. There would likely have been a more dramatic difference in unemployment rates had the data measured for earlier months in 2020, Sanzenbacher said.

Admittedly, the health risks tied to Covid-19 could have prompted some employers to encourage workers to retire.

"From the data, we can't really tell whether it's pure choice on the part of the employee or whether it's a joint decision of some kind," Sanzenbacher said.

As the pandemic wears on far longer than many expected, some workers who at first identified as unemployed may now say they are retired.

That decision could also prompt them to claim Social Security benefits early, which is a concern, Sanzenbacher said.

Generally, if you claim at 62, the earliest age at which workers are generally eligible, you take permanently reduced benefits. Ideally, workers will wait until full retirement age to get 100% of their benefits, or up to age 70 to get enhanced benefits by waiting to claim.

"The best thing you can do to have a retirement where you have a high income is to delay claiming Social Security," Sanzenbacher said.

First-ever image of COVID-19 variant supports faith in current vaccines, says UBC


VANCOUVER — The first images of a mutation on a COVID-19 variant of concern have been captured by researchers at the University of British Columbia who say the photos offer some reassurance about how the virus strain may react to current vaccines.© Provided by The Canadian Press

The University of B.C. says the researchers are the first to publish structural images of the mutation found on one portion of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

The spike protein is the part of the virus that opens the door to infection, while the mutation is the change believed partly responsible for the rapid spread of the variant first identified in the United Kingdom.

A team led by Dr. Sriram Subramaniam, professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at UBC's faculty of medicine, found the images show localized placement of the mutation allows it to enter human cells more easily.

The team's analysis, recently published in PLOS Biology, reveals that, once inside, the mutation can still be sidelined by antibodies from current vaccines.

Researchers say that adds to growing evidence that most antibodies generated by existing vaccines are likely to remain effective in preventing mild and severe cases of the B.1.1.7 variant.

The statement says its researchers are also using beams of supercooled electrons in powerful microscopes to visualize the detailed shapes of other COVID-19 variants that are 100,000 times smaller than a pinhead.

"It’s important to understand the different molecular structures of these emerging variants to determine whether they’ll respond to existing treatments and vaccines and ultimately find ways to control their spread more effectively," the statement says.

Variants under study at UBC include those first identified in India, California and South Africa, as well as the P.1 variant of concern first found in Brazil, which along with the B.1.1.7 mutation has accounted for a growing number of infections in Canada.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2021.

The Canadian Press