Interfaith Worker Justice

12/23/2020

One of Mr. Garcia’s nine children, a nurse at the hospital in Las Cruces where he died, was the only family member allowed to visit with him as he battled Covid-19.

12/13/2020

“The data show that the minimum wage has positive effects, especially in areas where the highest proportion of workers received minimum wage increases. We also found reduced household and child poverty in such counties.”

A $15 minimum wage has been talked about for some time — and some places have already started paying it. See what has been happening when workers are paid more.

12/12/2020

“Safe social distancing is not just ignored but discouraged. The richest man in America couldn’t care less about his workers. Make a ruckus.”

Social distancing is “discouraged” at a Brooklyn Whole Foods warehouse where six workers have tested positive for COVID-19 since October, according to former Secretary of Labor Robert R…

12/12/2020

"It would provide health insurance, retirement sick leave, and injured worker and unemployment compensation. It would be equitable and portable: A person working part-time for different companies would have robust benefits that travel with them from job-to- job."

Plan would have robust benefits for workers that travel with them from job-to-job.

12/11/2020

"Making a livable wage can be a lifelong struggle. The mounting costs of housing and basic necessities can quickly add up, leaving you scraping to make ends meet rather than saving and building wealth. And depending on where you call home, that situation can be considerably worse."

Depending on the cost of living in your state, your salary might not be enough to live comfortably. Here's a look at the living wage you need in every state.

11/30/2020

A new report finds that while Amazon, Dollar General and Walmart bring in record profits, they have not provided hazard pay for frontline workers in months.

11/26/2020

VIRTUAL VIGIL ON THANKSGIVING DAY: On Thanksgiving Day, Take Action to Support Poultry Workers & Halt the Trump Administration’s Last-Minute Move to Endanger Them
As you gather either in person or virtually with your loved ones, take a moment to reflect on the challenges of this past year and on the many workers who have been affected, including those who provide the food for our tables. As you light a candle in honor of these many workers say a prayer for the poultry workers who risk their lives and their safety on the processing lines.

Despite studies highlighting the dangers faced due to line speed, the Trump administration is attempting a last-minute effort to increase the production line speed from 140 to 175 birds per minute, a dangerous level when there are already injuries occurring at the current rate. The proposed speed-up rule presented by the USDA to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is available here, but you have the ability to stop the enactment of this dangerous change.

“We came to this country to make a living and survive, not to lose our lives in the poultry processing plants. The COVID-19 pandemic is already impacting poultry workers severely. There is no social distancing in the poultry plants and workers have to buy their own gloves and masks in a vending machine the company installed in the lunchroom,” said Nora Reyes, Director of Centro de Derechos Laborales in Bryan, Texas. It’s inhumane to increase the line speed to 175 birds per minute. Some workers have already been disabled due to the manual cutting of the chicken tenders and breasts with knives and scissors. Increasing the line speed will lead to more injuries and further spread of the virus. Reyes said.

Poultry workers are in peril. This Thanksgiving Holiday Take Action to support them and to thank them for their work!
Steps that you can take
· Write to the OMB at [email protected], and demand that they halt RIN:05083-AD85, Maximum Line Speed Under the New Poultry Inspection System. https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eoDetails?rrid=131360
· And/or request a virtual meeting at https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eo/neweomeeting to discuss RIN: 05083-AD85 and tell them that workers in the poultry processing lines already work shoulder to shoulder with no social distancing. Speeding up the line will further endanger these workers.

Most of the workers in the poultry plants are immigrants and people of color who are already disproportionately vulnerable to the health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In some of these plants, company supervisors are actually betting on how many workers will catch COVID-19!

On behalf of all of us at IWJ, we ask that, as you reflect on the last year, which has been so challenging for so many of us, you also keep these poultry workers and so many other essential workers in your thoughts and your prayers. We ask that you take these small steps that will mean so much to the safety of these poultry workers. They’re counting on you.

The Trump administration is rushing to approve dozens of eleventh-hour policy changes. Among them: The Justice Department is fast-tracking a rule that could reintroduce firing squads and electrocutions to federal executions.

11/03/2020

“Racist acts are sinful because they violate justice. They reveal a failure to acknowledge the human dignity of the persons offended, to recognize them as the neighbors Christ calls us to love.”

Archbishop Alexander Sample, archdiocese of Portland, recently visited Corvallis and conducted a meeting at St. Mary’s. One man asked him for guidance on how Catholics can respond to the issue

11/02/2020

“Amazon has not been honest and forthcoming,” employees at a warehouse in Staten Island, New York, told the judge handling their lawsuit, which claims the company’s “oppressive and dangerous” policies violated public-nuisance law and exacerbated Covid-19 hazards.

Amazon

Amazon.com Inc. has recklessly reinstated dangerous warehouse productivity quotas despite telling a judge that it was suspending them during the pandemic,

11/01/2020

“What gig workers are facing today is very reminiscent of the struggles we saw farm workers facing,” Pawel said. “It is a David and Goliath fight, where there is an effort by big industry to circumvent initiatives that would give workers more protections and allow them to organize."

When Maria Cardona organized in the 1960s, management hit back with Proposition 22. Now her grandson is tackling a new version of the measure

10/31/2020

"The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the economic perils still faced by Black, Hispanic and Native American workers as a result of their disproportionate employment in low-wage sectors of the labor market — jobs that while deemed invaluable “essential work” during this crisis often don’t pay a living wage. Making the minimum wage a living wage would match politicians’ rhetoric with actual public policy and would go a long way in making the lives of people of color materially better."

Diversity and inclusion programs for elites are tokens. A large wage increase that would most benefit the Black working class is far better.