San José, CA – On Friday, November 5 the U.S. Department of Labor released its monthly employment report for October, as President Trump faced defeat in the presidential election. The number of long-term unemployed, who have been out of work for more than six months, jumped by more than a million to outpace those recently laid off for the first time. The number of people collecting long-term unemployment under the federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation or PEUC, and the state Extended Benefits, rose by almost 500,000 in the week of the unemployment survey alone.

The official unemployment rate fell to 6.9% from 7.9% in September. But this is still double the February unemployment rate of 3.5%. The official report, based on a survey of households, is also far lower than the number of people who are collecting government aid. In the same week that the survey for the unemployment report was taken, October 12-17, there were more than 21.5 million people who collected government aid, almost double the 11.1 million who said that they were unemployed.

As expected, the number of new jobs created continued to slow, with 638,000 new jobs created, down from 672,000 in September. But despite the large number of new jobs, more than 10 million workers remain out of work after having lost their jobs during the economic crisis. The jobs report showed that state and local public colleges and K-12 schools shed almost 160,000 jobs as they continue to cut back because of budget crisis despite the increasing demands that the pandemic has put on schools.

This past three days the pandemic continued to set record highs for new infections. The United States had more than 100,000 new cases for the first time ever on Wednesday, more than 120,000 on Thursday, and then more than 130,000 on Friday. Hospitalizations are also on the rise as are deaths, which have been more than 1000 per day for the first time since August, when the United States was in the midst of its second wave.

More and more state and local governments are re-imposing restrictions to try to contain the virus or slowing or stopping relaxation of restrictions. The combination of COVID-19, the cold weather of winter and growing economic distress are a particular danger to the leisure and hospitality industries including travel, hotels and restaurants. These industries added more than 271,000 jobs in November, or more than 40% of the total job gain. More of the job gains in November were also temporary jobs, which can most easily be cut by businesses.

The end of the year is also the deadline for the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance for self-employed and gig workers. If Congress does not act, more than 13 million people could lose their assistance in the last week of December. Forbearance on student loans is also set to end at that time, and more and more tenants will be timed out of the Centers for Disease Control eviction moratorium over the next two months.

#SanJoséCA #PeoplesStruggles #recession #COVID19PandemicAid

The Labor Department report released on Thursday, October 1 showed that there was no letup in the pace of layoffs. While the number of regular state unemployment insurance claims for the week ending September 26 fell by 36,000 from a week earlier, the number of new applications for the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance or PUA program for the self-employed and gig workers rose by almost 35,000, leaving the total virtually unchanged.

Even worse, the broadest measure of unemployment insurance, which includes the number of people collecting benefits from the regular state unemployment insurance program, the federal PUA, as well as the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation or PEUC and the Extended Benefits program, rose by almost half a million in the week ending September 12. The PEUC and EB programs are for the long-term unemployed who have exhausted their regular UI claims. Their combined numbers rose by 180,000, showing the continued growth of the long-term unemployed.

Earlier this week, and after the reporting period in the Department of Labor report, big businesses announced tens of thousands of layoffs were coming this month. The single largest on was by the Disney corporation, which will cut 28,000 workers as their theme park and movie businesses continue to be crippled by the pandemic. Airlines announced a total of more than 30,000 more layoffs as government aid runs out at the end of September and passengers are down by more than two-thirds since before the pandemic hit. Insurance companies will cut thousands, while businesses ranging from banks to high-tech rolled out job cuts that had been postponed because of the pandemic.

Hopes for help from the federal government continue to look dim. While the Democrats in the House of Representatives are ready to pass a slimmed down $2.2 trillion aid package, Republicans in the Senate still cannot pass a counterproposal. The reason why can be seen in the latest vote to extend current spending, where ten Republicans voting against the measure. These ten are so intent on cutting spending for domestic programs that are willing to shut down the federal government to get their way and are dead set against any more aid to people hit by the recession.

#SanJoséCA #doubleDipRecession #COVID19PandemicAid

The Milwaukee Area Labor Council's Young Workers Committee is hosting a rally on September 20 at 4 p.m. on 4th Street (Vel Phillips) and Michigan in downtown Milwaukee.

“Working people are struggling to get by while they wait for action from Trump and Congress as the pandemic drags on and nearly 200,000 people have died in the U.S. While we fight COVID, we are also fighting for racial justice, and against Trump's attacks on unions, the U.S. Postal Service, and the VA,” said Tracey Schwerdtfeger, a hospital nursing assistant. “The stakes in this election couldn't be higher for working-class people, Trump must be stopped.”

Speakers at the rally will include a USPS employee, a public transit driver, healthcare workers, an art museum worker and a factory worker.

#MilwaukeeWI #COVID19PandemicAid

San José, CA – The August jobs report released by the Department of Labor on Friday, September 4 showed that job growth continues to slow. The number of new jobs has gone from 4.8 million in June to 1.8 million in July to only 1.4 million in August. The August figure was even weaker because over 200,000 of these new jobs were temporary 2020 Census jobs. So far, the economy has gained back only half the jobs lost in March and April.

The total number of people collecting the regular state unemployment insurance or benefits, the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance for gig workers and the self-employed, the federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation for those whose regular unemployment insurance benefits have run out, and other smaller programs, was still at 29.2 million in mid-August when the jobs and unemployment surveys were done.

This is about 20% of the entire labor force, much higher than the official unemployment rate that fell to 8.4% in August. The total UI claims didn’t peak until June, with 31.5 million people getting benefits. This total fell by 1.3 million in July, and then another 1 million in July, showing a similar pattern of slowing gains. But both the PUA and PEUC benefits for the more than 20 million people who lost their jobs or livelihood at the beginning of the recession will start to expire in January, cutting off a lifeline for them.

There was also the continued rise in the number of jobless who said that their layoff was permanent. Those not on temporary layoff have gone from 11% of the unemployed in April to 30% in August. With more and more companies announcing layoffs, and more and more small businesses quietly shutting down, this proportion is likely to rise. People are also remaining unemployed for longer; the average period or unemployment has gone from two weeks at the beginning of the pandemic to over 20 weeks in August.

Higher unemployment rates for oppressed nationalities continued despite the job gains. While the official unemployment rate for white Americans fell below 10% in July, in August it was still higher for African Americans, Chicanos and Latinos, and Asian Americans.

African Americans still had the highest unemployment rate in August of 13%, while for the first time ever the unemployment rate for Asian Americans actually was higher than the rate for Chicanos and Latinos.

#SanJoséCA #economy #COVID19PandemicAid

San José, CA – On Saturday, August 8, President Trump signed four executive orders that he declared would “take care of, pretty much, the entire situation.” But jobless workers will get little or no help from the triple whammy of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic crisis and the recent loss of the additional $600 a week in unemployment benefits, known as the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, of FPUC.

Instead, Trump ordered $400 a week in additional payments, calling the cut in benefits “generous.” But he ordered the money to come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA. There is only enough money for about five weeks of additional benefits. This money would come out of FEMA’s budget just as the hurricane season is getting underway, with the recent hurricane Isaias causing the second longest power outage in New York history.

Even worse, Trump’s executive order would have the states chip in 25% of the payment. Almost all of the states have budget deficits and would have to cut spending to fund the payments. State and local governments have already cut over a million jobs in this recession, meaning that states could have to literally cut jobs to fund the payments for the unemployed. They would also have to set up a new system on top of their current systems, which are still at the point of collapse in many states, with more than a million unemployed not getting paid. This would probably take until at least September to do.

Worst of all, the Trump executive leaves out workers who are getting less than $100 a week in benefits. This means that many workers who were part time, low wage, or living in states with stingy unemployment benefits would get nothing. There is no reason for this except to hurt the poorest of the jobless.

But Trump’s theater got a positive response from the private, Trump-owned, Bedminster golf club members who paid up to $300,000 for membership fees. They appeared to be unaware that they were actually watching a remake of the TV show House of Cards, where the fictional president did the same executive order. As they crowded into the conference room, unmasked, they booed and hissed at reminders that they were supposed to be wearing masks. Why should they worry, when Trump repeated his view that the virus was “disappearing”?

The fact of the matter is that total confirmed COVID-19 cases have now topped 5 million, the highest in the world. This number has doubled since the end of June, showing that the pandemic is still growing, as we matched the first six months of the year in less than six weeks. More than 160,000 Americans have died, making this the worst disaster for the last hundred years. Just in the last two weeks alone, there has been a 40% rise in the number of children infected with COVID-19 in the United States, bringing the total to close to 250,000 children. One economist made a direct comparison between Trump’s handling of the pandemic and his executive orders on the economy, calling the executive orders the hydroxychloroquine of economic policy.

In addition, Trump’s so-called payroll tax cut is not a real cut. Trump does not have the power to cut taxes, which lies with Congress. What he did was to delay, or defer, collecting the tax until December. Trump has pledged to get a payroll tax cut if reelected, but he does not even have support of Republicans in the Senate much less the Democrats in the House of Representatives. This will lead many businesses to hang on to the taxes until then, as if the tax isn’t cut, they would be responsible for trying to get the back taxes from their workers.

Many people and organizations are also opposed, as the payroll taxes are used to pay for Social Security and Medicare. They have pointed out that this could open the door to cutting Medicare and Social Security.

The third executive order signed by Trump, on evictions, does not reinstate the eviction ban that was part of the CARES Act, which put a temporary ban on evictions of tenants in buildings where the landlords got federally-backed mortgages, and foreclosures on homeowners with mortgages backed by the federal government. It expired at the end of July the, along with the $600 a week in extra unemployment benefits. Instead, Trump’s executive order tells federal agencies to review all the ways that they prevent evictions and foreclosures, but doesn’t actually order a ban. With up to 40 million households at risk of eviction or foreclosure, this “review” will be of little help.

The last executive order does suspend payments and interest on federal student loans. This will aid about 35 million people with these loans but doesn’t help the 8 million with private loans.

#SanJoséCA #CapitalismAndEconomy #COVID19PandemicAid #BedminsterGolfClub #studentLoans

San José, CA – On Saturday, August 8, President Trump signed four executive orders that he declared would “take care of, pretty much, the entire situation.” But jobless workers will get little or no help from the triple whammy of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic crisis and the recent loss of the additional $600 a week in unemployment benefits, known as the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, of FPUC.

Instead, Trump ordered $400 a week in additional payments, calling the cut in benefits “generous.” But he ordered the money to come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA. There is only enough money for about five weeks of additional benefits. This money would come out of FEMA’s budget just as the hurricane season is getting underway, with the recent hurricane Isaias causing the second longest power outage in New York history.

Even worse, Trump’s executive order would have the states chip in 25% of the payment. Almost all of the states have budget deficits and would have to cut spending to fund the payments. State and local governments have already cut over a million jobs in this recession, meaning that states could have to literally cut jobs to fund the payments for the unemployed. They would also have to set up a new system on top of their current systems, which are still at the point of collapse in many states, with more than a million unemployed not getting paid. This would probably take until at least September to do.

Worst of all, the Trump executive leaves out workers who are getting less than $100 a week in benefits. This means that many workers who were part time, low wage, or living in states with stingy unemployment benefits would get nothing. There is no reason for this except to hurt the poorest of the jobless.

But Trump’s theater got a positive response from the private, Trump-owned, Bedminster golf club members who paid up to $300,000 for membership fees. They appeared to be unaware that they were actually watching a remake of the TV show House of Cards, where the fictional president did the same executive order. As they crowded into the conference room, unmasked, they booed and hissed at reminders that they were supposed to be wearing masks. Why should they worry, when Trump repeated his view that the virus was “disappearing”?

The fact of the matter is that total confirmed COVID-19 cases have now topped 5 million, the highest in the world. This number has doubled since the end of June, showing that the pandemic is still growing, as we matched the first six months of the year in less than six weeks. More than 160,000 Americans have died, making this the worst disaster for the last hundred years. Just in the last two weeks alone, there has been a 40% rise in the number of children infected with COVID-19 in the United States, bringing the total to close to 250,000 children. One economist made a direct comparison between Trump’s handling of the pandemic and his executive orders on the economy, calling the executive orders the hydroxychloroquine of economic policy.

In addition, Trump’s so-called payroll tax cut is not a real cut. Trump does not have the power to cut taxes, which lies with Congress. What he did was to delay, or defer, collecting the tax until December. Trump has pledged to get a payroll tax cut if reelected, but he does not even have support of Republicans in the Senate much less the Democrats in the House of Representatives. This will lead many businesses to hang on to the taxes until then, as if the tax isn’t cut, they would be responsible for trying to get the back taxes from their workers.

Many people and organizations are also opposed, as the payroll taxes are used to pay for Social Security and Medicare. They have pointed out that this could open the door to cutting Medicare and Social Security.

The third executive order signed by Trump, on evictions, does not reinstate the eviction ban that was part of the CARES Act, which put a temporary ban on evictions of tenants in buildings where the landlords got federally-backed mortgages, and foreclosures on homeowners with mortgages backed by the federal government. It expired at the end of July the, along with the $600 a week in extra unemployment benefits. Instead, Trump’s executive order tells federal agencies to review all the ways that they prevent evictions and foreclosures, but doesn’t actually order a ban. With up to 40 million households at risk of eviction or foreclosure, this “review” will be of little help.

The last executive order does suspend payments and interest on federal student loans. This will aid about 35 million people with these loans but doesn’t help the 8 million with private loans.

#OnSaturdayAugust8PresidentTrumpSignedFourExecutiveOrdersThatHeDeclaredWouldtake #CapitalismAndEconomy #COVID19PandemicAid #BedminsterGolfClub #studentLoans

Tenants in Milwaukee march and rally for an eviction freeze

Milwaukee, WI – On the evening of August 1, around 70 people gathered at the Washington Park Senior Center to demand an end to home evictions and to cancel the mortgages and rents. The action was organized by the recently formed Milwaukee Autonomous Tenants Union (MATU), a collection of tenants from around the city looking to fight back against the looming crisis of evictions brought on by loss of jobs and income due to the coronavirus pandemic.

MATU organizer Robert Penner gave a speech which highlighted the central role played by Berrada Properties and its owner, Youssef “Joe” Berrada, in the recent swell of evictions since the initial freeze was lifted in June. Nearly 20% of all evictions in the city since June have been tenants living in units owned by Berrada.

After the speech, protesters followed a modest car caravan through Washington Park and several blocks in the Washington Heights neighborhood. Chants of “Cancel the rents! Cancel the mortgages!” and “Tenant power is worker power!” rang through the streets as people came out onto their porches and the sidewalk to snap pictures and show support. At the front of the march, protesters carried a banner that had pictures of notorious Milwaukee slumlords painted on it, dubbed the “Landlord Wall of Shame.”

The march ended as the protesters came upon the lavish home of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Everyone gathered in the median in the shadow of Barrett’s house to listen to the story of Jacquee Clark, a leader with MATU and someone with intimate knowledge of the predatory practices of Berrada Properties. Clark was unfairly evicted from a unit owned by Berrada in 2019. She spent the better part of the last year trying to get back on her feet and was forced to pay double the security deposit at her current residence because of the eviction on her record.

“The event today is a long time coming. You know, Milwaukee has been known for their notorious eviction practices,” Clark said. “Now with the big pandemic it’s worse, and it’s just really not fair because, particularly, it impacts people of color and low-income and poor people in the city of Milwaukee. I would love to see the moratorium actually be reenacted. 60 days was not enough time.”

Clark continued, “In the city of Milwaukee, where we have the largest population of low-income people of color in Wisconsin, forcing people out of their houses, it’s not fair. Even those who own homes during this pandemic. It should not even be a question, you know? It should not even be a second thought. Stay in your homes until this pandemic is under some type of control.”

MATU has a list of five demands that they are organizing around. These include: 1) An indefinite evictions freeze with no late fees or back-rent; 2) The enforcement of state law against landlords harassing and retaliating against tenants; 3) Make charging double security deposits for people with evictions on their record illegal; 4) Creation of a tenants’ court separate from civil court to guarantee tenants’ rights and provide free council; and 5) Remove COVID-19 evictions from tenant’s records and all prior evictions that have been satisfied.

With the end of the $600 benefit provided to people on unemployment due to COVID as of July 26, more and more working-class people in Milwaukee – particularly predominantly Black and brown communities on the North and South sides – will be at the mercy of predatory landlords. The organizing being done by the Milwaukee Autonomous Tenants Union will only become more important over the coming weeks and months.

#MilwaukeeWI #HousingStruggles #tenantsRights #COVID19PandemicAid #MilwaukeeAutonomousTenantsUnionMATU #Slumlord

In addition to the $600 a week in extra unemployment benefits, another part of the CARES act protecting tenants is about to expire. There has been an eviction ban on all apartment buildings that are part of federal assistance programs, or whose landlords have federally insured mortgages. These come to more than one out of four rental units in the United States.

At this time, the job market seems to have bottomed out. The latest report on unemployment insurance benefits or UI released by the U.S. Labor Department said that in the week ending July 11, 1.3 million new claims were filed, down 14,000, or about 1%, from last week’s initial estimate. New claims for the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance or PUA, aimed at self-employed and gig workers, were about 930,000, for a total of new claims of 2.2 million, down slightly from 2.3 million the week before.

The broadest measure that includes regular state UI, the PUA, and the federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, for the week ending June 27, also dropped by about 1%, from 32.4 million the week before to 32 million. Since the recession began in February, there are now 30 million more people who have lost their livelihood because of the pandemic and are receiving government aid. While millions of people are lining up at food banks and more people are going hungry, the FPUC and eviction moratoriums have prevented a wave of evictions, foreclosures and loan defaults.

All that is set to end at the end of July. While the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives did pass another relief bill two months ago, the Republican-controlled Senate has done nothing but criticize the HEROES act – Senate leader Mitch McConnell said that it was “dead in the water.” Like the Republican’s attack on the Affordable Care Act, where they promised to “repeal and replace” where they never proposed a replacement, the Republicans are now saying that they will have a new relief act but don’t have a specific bill.

Part of the reason is that the Republicans really don’t care about working people or small business – just their big business buddies that fund their campaigns. But below this is the belief that government aid will keep the poor from working – thus their targeting of the FPUC, which allows two-thirds of the unemployed to take home as much or even more than they made before they lost their income.

In fact, people would like to work – but not at the risk of their and their family’s health and safety. Nor do they really want to work for the low-paying, no benefit, often part-time and/or temporary jobs that made up more and more of the jobs even before the recession hit.

If the FPUC was keeping people from jobs, we would see wages rising to entice more people to work. In fact, for the first time since the Great Depression in the 1930s, we are seeing more and more businesses cutting wages. Other businesses that increased wages right at the beginning of the pandemic have almost all eliminated these raises.

In addition to the FPUC’s ending, the pandemic itself is growing to new records. The latest daily infection count of more than 75,000 is up 50% in just two weeks. Hospitals in the hardest hit states of Florida, Texas and Arizona are again scenes of overflowing beds, staff shortages, shortages of personal protective equipment and medicines. Deaths are hitting record highs in the hard-hit states. In response, Republican Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia signed an executive order forbidding cities or counties from mandating masks and is suing the city of Atlanta for doing so.

But more and more cities, counties and states are rolling back their ‘reopening’ of the economy, which started too soon and went too far, laying the ground for the current resurgence of the pandemic. This is taking an inevitable toll on jobs, which like the infections themselves, may not show up for a few weeks. With the pandemic again bearing down on the economy, extending the FPUC is more important than ever.

#SanJoséCA #PoorPeoplesMovements #Labor #OppressedNationalities #Unemployment #US #Healthcare #PeoplesStruggles #DonaldTrump #COVID19PandemicAid #FederalPandemicUnemploymentCompensationFPUC

Legal immigrants and naturalized citizens tend to have lower incomes than native-born Americans. People whose income is low enough that they don’t have to file personal income taxes also will see their checks delayed and may be overlooked entirely, which will hit immigrants especially hard. More elderly immigrants live with their children and are dependent on them than with the native-born. They also will be left out, as the program only covers dependent children, not adults.

DACA recipients with work authorization can get Social Security, and will qualify for the $1200 benefit as long as they are not considered dependents of their parents. But many who are attending college are dependents and would not qualify.

The undocumented and many legal immigrants are most likely not to have health insurance provided by their job. Nor are they eligible of Medicaid, limiting their choice of testing to community clinics that are already straining to provide medical care day to day. Uninsured immigrants would also not get any help in paying the costs of COVID-19 treatment, which will keep many from seeking medical help. This will lead to more deaths and more infections.

So far the Border Patrol and ICE are not releasing undocumented immigrants and refugees from the large camps and prisons where they are held. These detention centers, like prisons, cannot practice social distancing and already have poor health care. The Trump administration is putting their lives at risk to further their anti-immigrant agenda.

These holes in the new COVID-19 acts need to plugged by Congress. ICE and the Border Patrol have to release all the immigrants and refugees being held in detention centers, whose only crime is to seek a safer and more secure life for themselves and their children. Those immigrants who do some of the hardest work who have lost their jobs, and others who still have jobs but whose health and lives are at risk working in hospitals and elder care facilities need to have their livelihood and health taken care of.

#SanJoséCA #CapitalismAndEconomy #OppressedNationalities #US #Healthcare #PeoplesStruggles #ChicanoLatino #immigrantRights #DonaldTrump #COVID19 #COVID19PandemicAid