Friday, April 10, 2020

They just don't care


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This is what happens when a corporate lawyer becomes Secretary of Labor. Eugene Scalia is actively hamstringing the implementation of the $2 trillion relief package and putting companies above workers:
— He’s been so slow to release congressionally-approved funds to bolster states’ unemployment insurance systems that even Lindsey Graham said Scalia needs to pick up the pace
— He’s narrowed the unemployment insurance eligibility requirements and made it exponentially harder for workers to qualify, so much so that the Maine Labor Commissioner said that “the standards we’re being held to are going to be incredibly difficult to adhere to"
— He’s made it easier for companies to exempt themselves from providing paid sick and family leave to employees, and doesn’t even require business to send the government any paperwork justifying why
— He’s prevented the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from doing more to protect healthcare workers and prevent companies from retaliating against employees who speak out against dangerous condition
Call me old fashioned, but aren’t labor secretaries supposed to protect working people? I never thought I’d see the day when someone holding my former position is helping companies skirt protections and laws at the expense of workers. In normal times, this would be disgraceful. During a pandemic that's left 16.8 million Americans out of work, it’s morally repugnant

1 comment:

Leanna said...

Until we either vote Trump out or someone personally takes him out, this will be the normal operating procedure of our hijacked government. Until we get a Democratic president into office and fumigate and clean out the crud that now resides, things will only get worse.
Personally, in the near future, it should be illegal for Republicans to hold any office in the government of the United States of America.