#parent | #kids | #collegesafety | Trump orders meat plants to stay open, but won’t mandate safety protections


With help from Daniel Lippman

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— The Trump administration is forcing meat-processing plants to stay open amid the coronavirus pandemic, but it hasn’t made its safety guidance mandatory.

— Absent action from federal regulators, workers are looking to the courts and states to guarantee protections against the virus.

— House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hinted that the next round of coronavirus relief could include hazard pay for essential workers.

GOOD MORNING. It’s Wednesday, April 29, and this is Morning Shift, your tipsheet on employment and immigration news. Send tips, exclusives and suggestions to [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter at @RebeccaARainey, @IanKullgren and @TimothyNoah1.

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TRUMP TO ORDER MEAT PLANTS TO STAY OPEN: President Donald Trump will sign an executive order requiring meat-processing plants to continue operating, even though the United Food and Commercial Workers Union said 20 meatpacking workers have died of Covid-19, POLITICO’s Liz Crampton and Gabby Orr report. “Trump will use the Defense Production Act to order the companies to stay open. The government will also provide additional protective gear for employees as well as guidance,” they report.

“It’s unclear how the executive order will address worker safety as employees must stay on the job,” Liz and Gabby write. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration “has chosen not to impose mandatory safety rules and instead only issued recommendations.”

Late Tuesday night, DOL, in apparent response to criticism that it isn’t protecting meatpackers sufficiently, issued a statement saying “it is vitally important” in light of the president’s pending order that meat, pork, and poultry processors adhere to interim guidance for that industry that it issued last weekend with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (which consists of recommendations, not mandates). But DOL also emphasized that it “will take into account good faith attempts” to follow the guidance.

IN RESPONSE… Meatpacking workers and those in other industries are looking beyond the executive branch to keep them safe at work, your host reports with Liz.

A judge this week ordered major meat company Smithfield to follow OSHA safety recommendations at a plant in Missouri, and labor advocates hope to use the lawsuit as a model to force companies in other sectors to protect workers from the virus.

They also want lawmakers to include mandatory safety standards in the next coronavirus relief package. More than 200 workers’ rights, public health and consumer advocacy organizations are pressing lawmakers to pass H.R. 6559 (116), which would require OSHA to issue an emergency standard within seven days that would lay out mandatory protections companies must provide to their workers to prevent exposure to the coronavirus.

In Monroe, New Jersey, workers at a Barnes & Noble distribution center delivered a petition to Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday asking that he close the facility for two weeks after cases of Covid-19 were reported among employees.

In New York City, unions representing roughly 10,000 correction officers, captains and wardens planned to sue the city last week, arguing that it’s putting their health and safety in danger by requiring 24-hour shifts and making them return from sick leave without first getting a negative Covid-19 test.

And in cities throughout the country, dozens of McDonald’s workers organized by the union-backed Fight for $15 have gone on strike over a lack of protective equipment and sick leave.

MORE ON THAT — FIRST IN MORNING SHIFT: Fight for $15 will announce new demands today of McDonald’s, including that it pay for Covid-19 testing and treatment, provide paid sick leave, suspend lobby service and provide protective equipment for all workers. The union-backed group is also requesting that McDonald’s suspend dividend payments to its investors for the remainder of 2020, as dozens of other companies have.

RELATED:

— “Democrats press Trump administration on federal worker safety,” from POLITICO

— “New York Attorney General Scrutinizes Amazon for Firing Warehouse Worker,” from The New York Times

— “IRS providing face masks to recalled employees,” from POLITICO

ICYMI FROM OUR BEN WHITE: “Trump faces the risk of a coronavirus cliff”





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