Chicago, IL – Students in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) stayed home and learned remotely again on Thursday, January 28. The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) continued to demand that any return to in-person learning be done in a safe way. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot had ordered all teachers back to the classroom on Wednesday the 27th but was forced to backtrack and tell parents to keep their kids home again Thursday.

CPS has been demanding that 80% of school staff return in person and has refused to allow accommodations for staff who live in households with people who are in high-risk categories according to the Centers for Disease Control. CPS has also refused to provide weekly testing for unvaccinated staff and students at schools. In binding arbitration on October 2, CPS was ordered to allow school clerks and technology coordinators to work remotely, but the school system has yet to comply with that order.

The Chicago Teachers Union is seeking a health metric based on CDC guidance, a phased reopening, access to vaccinations for educators, and enforceable safety standards in school buildings, which have struggled to meet even basic needs for PPE, adequate ventilation and clean facilities. Because Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s CPS team has refused to offer vaccinations to educators before ordering them into school buildings, and has not been willing to agree to a phased-in resumption of in-person learning, the Chicago Teachers Union has now publicly called for mediation to resolve the impasse.

The teachers say that they continue to teach and want to continue to teach safely. To that end, their union has proposed critical precautions necessary for a safe return to in-person learning, but all of those precautions have been rejected by the Board of Education.

CTU President Jesse Sharkey said, “We are willing to keep teaching, but CPS has said they will lock us out. We are willing to keep negotiating, but CPS has refused to back down from insisting that 80% of educators and support staff return on February 1 to serve fewer than 20% of the students. Another 10,000 of our members became eligible for vaccinations on January 25. We can make schools safe with a phased reopening and enhanced COVID-19 testing for members of school communities.”

“It’s obvious to everyone but CPS and the mayor that parents aren’t sending their children back because they do not believe schools are safe or that COVID is under control,” said CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates. “This is especially true for Black and brown families. CPS does not need 80% of educators back in school to serve 19% of students. This makes no sense in a pandemic that continues to infect one in eight people in many of the Black and brown Chicago neighborhoods that have already shouldered a disproportionate burden of COVID disease and death. Our families want safety. Our educators want safety, yet CPS continues to refuse to negotiate an agreement that builds in that safety, and instead, has threatened to lock out tens of thousands of educators who have a right to safe workplaces to educate our schoolchildren.”

Only 19% of eligible students returned to pre-K and special education cluster programs on January 11, and in some cases teachers are being told to come in to schools in which not one family has opted in to the hybrid model in person learning, which shows that there is broad agreement in the community that the current CPS plan is not safe.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #teachers #union #TeachersUnions #CTU #pandemic #COVID

Hardest hit in December were restaurants and bars, which shed over 370,000 jobs as fear of the rising COVID-19 pandemic, government restrictions and colder weather slammed the sector. State and local government budget cuts also put another 51,000 workers out of their jobs. Local and state governments combined have laid off almost 1.4 million workers this past year, hit hard by the recession and the lack of federal government aid.

While the official unemployment rate stayed the same as in November at 6.7%, this number doesn’t count the millions of workers, mainly women, who have been forced to give up on looking for work and thus are not counted as unemployed. The percentage of jobless workers who are long-term unemployed continued to rise, to almost 40% of the total.

The job situation is likely to worsen in the January report. The survey for the report will be carried out next week, January 11 to 16. Just this past week two new records were made in the United States. On Wednesday, January 6 more than 4000 people died of the COVID-19, and then today there were more than 300,000 new cases in just one day. With the pandemic even worse than when the December survey was taken in mid-December, the job situation is also likely to get work.

But while this latest surge in the wake of the holidays was expected to peak by the end of the month, two recent developments threaten make this bad situation even worse. The vaccine rollout has transformed the Trump administration’s “operation warp-speed” into a vaccination snail’s pace. This is not simply a case of the Trump administration’s incompetence – which it is – but a problem with the decentralized, profit-guided U.S. health care system that has gutted public health starting with the Reagan administration in the 1980s. One deep-blue, well-to-do California County estimated that it would finish the first phase of vaccinating health care workers and institutionalized seniors by the end of February. Given that this is about 7% of the population, it would take 20 months, or until August 2022, to protect 70% of the population that could be enough to crush the virus.

Another problem is the potential spread of a new variant of the virus. Despite more stringent restrictions in Britain than in much of the United States, cases are rising even faster there as the new variant is estimated to be 60-70% more infectious. After a first round of “don’t worry, mutations happen all the time,” it is now coming out that the U.S. is behind most other countries in being able to even test for the new variant, which is spreading in the country from coast to coast.

#UnitedStates #Unemployment #economy #Covid19 #pandemic #EconomicReport

Half of the pre-K and special education cluster teachers in elementary and high schools scheduled to start teaching from school buildings refused to work in-person on January 4, electing instead to continue teaching students safely by remaining remote. Workers who did go in on Monday have also reported serious safety issues at their schools.

70% of Black and brown families continue to reject sending hundreds of thousands of their children back into unsafe school buildings. At the same time, a growing body of evidence shows that schools in neighborhoods with high COVID rates can increase spread of the virus. That’s a critical issue for families and educators, who fear both contracting the virus and inadvertently passing it along to elders or medically vulnerable household members.

A growing number of Local School Councils are also passing resolutions urging CPS to wait to reopen until the pandemic is under control. And more than 10,000 CTU members have pledged to oppose the mayor’s plan to reopen classrooms starting this week, with numbers increasing by the day.

Educators who returned to schools on Monday almost immediately began reporting problems with cleanliness, safety protocols, ventilation and more, with some members saying their rooms appeared not to have been cleaned since last March. Chicago Teachers Union members reported issues that ranged from no sinks or hot water sources for handwashing to lack of PPE and filthy classrooms.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #teachers #pandemic #Chicao #WFH

The official unemployment rate in the same report did fall from 6.9% in October to 6.7% in November. But this was entirely because of more people giving up or being unable to look for work. The same report showed that there were 326,000 fewer people out of work and looking for work than in October, but this number is less than 400,000 who left the labor force. Thus, the household survey showed 74,000 fewer people working in November than in October.

The day before, on Thursday, December 2, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that new claims for regular state unemployment benefits coming in at 712,000. This is still greater than the record high set before the recession at 695,000 way back in October 1982, and more than three times as high as the pre-recession levels near 200,000. Adding in the weekly new claims for the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance or PUA for the self-employed and gig workers, about 1 million people sought government aid in the recession in the latest week.

The total number of people receiving government unemployment benefits across all programs for the week ending November 14 was nearly 20.2 million. For the last seven months, there has never been fewer than 20 million people getting aid, which is more than 12% of the those who are working, or are not working and are looking for work. While new claims have been flattening out at a high level, there was a continued rise in the number of people claiming long-term benefits after their first six months of regular state unemployment benefits run out. The number of people receiving the federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation or PEUC and the State Extended Benefits programs rose by almost 140,000 in the latest week reported ending November 14.

More bad news on the economy came earlier in the week, with the report on October income and spending. Personal income sank 0.7% as compared to September. This was mainly due to less government unemployment aid, showing that many people who lost their jobs in April are losing their benefits, as opposed to getting jobs. Personal spending rose, but at less the half the rate of growth as September.

The trade deficit grew again in October after a small drop in September. The October trade deficit was $63.123 billion, more than 70% larger than the trade deficit in February of 2020, when the recession began. In a typical recession the U.S. trade deficit shrinks. For example, from 2008 to 2009 the trade deficit fell by almost 50% from $695 billion to $380 billion.

Weighing on the economy is the surging pandemic, with more than 217,000 new infections a day, a new record high. On December 3, more than 2800 Americans died of COVID-19, another new all-time high, greater previous record of more than 2700 daily deaths set in April. A record of more than 100,000 people are now hospitalized with the coronavirus, straining hospitals across the country. While many field hospitals are being built, the problem is lack of staff, especially those who are trained.

Across the country, state and local governments are imposing more restrictions on businesses in a last-ditch effort to slow the spread. But in Washington, D.C. the White House is planning more holiday parties. Trump’s efforts to deny the pandemic, his egging on dangerous practices, from not wearing a mask to holding large events, has contributed to the world’s greatest death toll for COVID-19, with almost 280,000 Americans dying from the coronavirus. At the same time the Republican leadership of the Senate continue to play hardball, holding up billions of dollars of aid desperately needed by the people. Almost two-thirds of all people collecting unemployment benefits, or more than 13 million people, face a financial cliff in a month. On December 26 the federal PUA and the federal PEUC will stop paying benefits.

The Trump administration is now cooperating to a degree with President-elect Biden in a transition. But they seem to be going out of the way to hurt the economy before the Trump administration ends. Last week, Trump’s Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin ordered the Federal Reserve to return billions of dollars to the Treasury. This money guarantees against any losses from three Federal Reserve lending programs. The Fed’s lending to large corporations, medium size businesses, and state and local governments backed by the Economic Stabilization fund will now have to wind down just as the economy turns down again and pandemic relief programs are coming to an end. So, even though economy has only recovered about half the jobs lost early on, this move objectively limits the Fed's ability to lend.

State and local governments also face hundreds of billions of dollars in budget deficits. They are estimated at $80 billion through June 2021, another $200 billion by June 2022, and another $300 billion by June 2023. State and local government spending is the only major type of spending that did not rebound after plunge in the first half of the year, and looks to be getting worse. These will lead to even more cuts and job losses, especially in public schools and colleges. Many states are considering cuts to Medicaid benefits for low-income households, putting even more people at risk of losing their health insurance after millions have already lost their jobs and employer-provided health insurance.

In addition, the moratorium on evictions and the forbearance of home mortgages are also running out with the new year. According to a survey earlier in November, there are almost 30 million tenants behind on their rent, which could lead to millions of evictions in 2021. Millions of renters are taking a last ditch stand by paying their rent with credit cards, and millions more own back rent and are at risk of eviction in 2021.

#SanJoséCA #Capitalism #economy #Trump #pandemic #EconomicReport #JobLoss

The official unemployment rate in the same report did fall from 6.9% in October to 6.7% in November. But this was entirely because of more people giving up or being unable to look for work. The same report showed that there were 326,000 fewer people out of work and looking for work than in October, but this number is less than 400,000 who left the labor force. Thus, the household survey showed 74,000 fewer people working in November than in October.

The day before, on Thursday, December 2, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that new claims for regular state unemployment benefits coming in at 712,000. This is still greater than the record high set before the recession at 695,000 way back in October 1982, and more than three times as high as the pre-recession levels near 200,000. Adding in the weekly new claims for the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance or PUA for the self-employed and gig workers, about 1 million people sought government aid in the recession in the latest week.

The total number of people receiving government unemployment benefits across all programs for the week ending November 14 was nearly 20.2 million. For the last seven months, there has never been fewer than 20 million people getting aid, which is more than 12% of the those who are working, or are not working and are looking for work. While new claims have been flattening out at a high level, there was a continued rise in the number of people claiming long-term benefits after their first six months of regular state unemployment benefits run out. The number of people receiving the federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation or PEUC and the State Extended Benefits programs rose by almost 140,000 in the latest week reported ending November 14.

More bad news on the economy came earlier in the week, with the report on October income and spending. Personal income sank 0.7% as compared to September. This was mainly due to less government unemployment aid, showing that many people who lost their jobs in April are losing their benefits, as opposed to getting jobs. Personal spending rose, but at less the half the rate of growth as September.

The trade deficit grew again in October after a small drop in September. The October trade deficit was $63.123 billion, more than 70% larger than the trade deficit in February of 2020, when the recession began. In a typical recession the U.S. trade deficit shrinks. For example, from 2008 to 2009 the trade deficit fell by almost 50% from $695 billion to $380 billion.

Weighing on the economy is the surging pandemic, with more than 217,000 new infections a day, a new record high. On December 3, more than 2800 Americans died of COVID-19, another new all-time high, greater previous record of more than 2700 daily deaths set in April. A record of more than 100,000 people are now hospitalized with the coronavirus, straining hospitals across the country. While many field hospitals are being built, the problem is lack of staff, especially those who are trained.

Across the country, state and local governments are imposing more restrictions on businesses in a last-ditch effort to slow the spread. But in Washington, D.C. the White House is planning more holiday parties. Trump’s efforts to deny the pandemic, his egging on dangerous practices, from not wearing a mask to holding large events, has contributed to the world’s greatest death toll for COVID-19, with almost 280,000 Americans dying from the coronavirus. At the same time the Republican leadership of the Senate continue to play hardball, holding up billions of dollars of aid desperately needed by the people. Almost two-thirds of all people collecting unemployment benefits, or more than 13 million people, face a financial cliff in a month. On December 26 the federal PUA and the federal PEUC will stop paying benefits.

The Trump administration is now cooperating to a degree with President-elect Biden in a transition. But they seem to be going out of the way to hurt the economy before the Trump administration ends. Last week, Trump’s Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin ordered the Federal Reserve to return billions of dollars to the Treasury. This money guarantees against any losses from three Federal Reserve lending programs. The Fed’s lending to large corporations, medium size businesses, and state and local governments backed by the Economic Stabilization fund will now have to wind down just as the economy turns down again and pandemic relief programs are coming to an end. So, even though economy has only recovered about half the jobs lost early on, this move objectively limits the Fed's ability to lend.

State and local governments also face hundreds of billions of dollars in budget deficits. They are estimated at $80 billion through June 2021, another $200 billion by June 2022, and another $300 billion by June 2023. State and local government spending is the only major type of spending that did not rebound after plunge in the first half of the year, and looks to be getting worse. These will lead to even more cuts and job losses, especially in public schools and colleges. Many states are considering cuts to Medicaid benefits for low-income households, putting even more people at risk of losing their health insurance after millions have already lost their jobs and employer-provided health insurance.

In addition, the moratorium on evictions and the forbearance of home mortgages are also running out with the new year. According to a survey earlier in November, there are almost 30 million tenants behind on their rent, which could lead to millions of evictions in 2021. Millions of renters are taking a last ditch stand by paying their rent with credit cards, and millions more own back rent and are at risk of eviction in 2021.

#SanJoséCA #Capitalism #economy #Trump #pandemic #EconomicReport #JobLoss

Fight Back! is circulating the following statement from the Wisconsin District of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Employers have launched an aggressive campaign in Wisconsin and several other states to reopen businesses amidst the COVID-19 pandemic that is killing thousands of people in the U.S. every day. Forcing people back to work before the pandemic is under control would have a catastrophic effect. Workers, both with or without unions, must organize and fight back against reactionary business owners and demand a safe, science-based pandemic response.

The fight over business closures

On April 16, Wisconsin’s Democratic Governor Tony Evers extended his “safer at home” order to May 26, which keeps non-essential businesses closed until the spread of COVID-19 is under control. In response, reactionary business owners are attempting to overturn closure orders which have proven to be effective at curbing the virus in Wisconsin and several other states with Democratic governors.

The first protest “against excessive quarantine” took place outside the Michigan state capitol on April 15. A small gathering of far-right wing groups including white supremacist and fascist organizations waved confederate flags, Trump signs and other white supremacist imagery. After Trump’s tweets and corporate media coverage amplified the protest, identical Facebook groups “against excessive quarantine” were launched for several different states. The Wisconsin group is planning a protest at the state capitol in Madison for April 24.

Following the announcement of a planned protest, Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled legislature said they would ask the Wisconsin Supreme Court to overturn Governor Evers’s “safer at home” extension. Earlier this month the Wisconsin Supreme Court and Republican leaders made national headlines for overturning Governor Evers’s postponement of in-person voting. Early data is suggesting a surge in new COVID-19 cases resulted from the in-person voting on April 7.

If the business owners succeed in using the court to prematurely reopen the state, it would force workers to leave the safety of their homes for a dangerous work environment, and create another surge in COVID-19 cases.

Protests backed by reactionary business interests

While the protests are portrayed as being in the interest of regular people who just “want to go back to work,” they are in fact a rich people’s protest by and for bosses who rely on the labor of their employees to make a profit.

With over 22 million people on unemployment, many workers are desperate to start getting a paycheck again. But going back to work in a pandemic puts everyone at greater risk, and is not in the interest of working people. Workers and unions need to demand that the government and corporations need to maintain pay for workers and keep us whole – keeping us financially stable and keeping as many people safe at home as possible.

Protests demanding the right to “go back to work” are funded by major right-wing foundations with links to the Trump administration. Billionaire backers of these foundations include the family of Betsy DeVos, a Trump cabinet member. Facebook groups “against excessive quarantine” in several states were created by the same Facebook account belonging to Ben Dorr, whose profile claims to work for “Minnesota Right to Life,” and other far-right lobbying groups.

A large April 18 protest in the extremely wealthy and conservative suburb Brookfield, Wisconsin demonstrated the class nature of the protests as business owners held signs reading “let the free market decide” and “LIBERATE Wisconsin,” a slogan inspired by a Trump tweet.

One attendee of the Brookfield protest was Dan Zierath, who owns four bars and restaurants in Milwaukee suburbs. Zierath said he will begin reopening his businesses on May 1, violating the state closure order. “I see no harm in it whatsoever,” Zierath told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Reactionary bosses like Zierath want to “liberate” employees out of the safety of their homes and into dangerous, exploitative working conditions without any regard for their health.

Reopening the economy will cost lives

Due to the catastrophic mismanagement of the pandemic response by Trump’s cabinet of business interests, the United States has become the epicenter of the virus, reaching nearly 40,000 deaths from COVID-19. The enormous death toll reflects the political priorities of the Trump administration and monopoly capitalist class who value corporate profits over human life.

Countries that were able to stop COVID-19 outbreaks relied on widely available testing, temperature checks at workplaces, free healthcare and sophisticated contact tracing. Wisconsin’s “safer at home” order has been successful in “flattening the curve,” but the virus is not yet controlled. Widely available testing and other measures will need to be in place before businesses can reopen safely, but the U.S. currently has none of these. If the economy reopens without safe measures in place and the pandemic under control, more people will die.

Essential workers on the front lines face the greatest risk of catching and spreading COVID-19. Oppressed nationalities such as Black and Latino workers who are more likely to have essential jobs and less likely to be able to work from home have been the hardest hit by the pandemic. Two of the most affected ZIP codes in Wisconsin are majority Black and Latino respectively. The disparate impact on oppressed nationality workers has been seen across the U.S. as a result of centuries of racist oppression.

The pandemic has exposed the contradictions inherent in the capitalist system. Workers' lives are being sacrificed for capitalist profits. Working people must fight back.

Only a fighting labor movement can win a safe pandemic response

Recent successful job actions have illuminated the source of worker power: collectively withholding our labor – the strike. Since the virus outbreak reached the U.S., we have witnessed a notable increase in worker struggle driven by workplace safety concerns. Thousands of workers have protested, petitioned and went on strike for safer conditions, and all across the U.S. workers who fight back are winning their demands for temperature checks, hazard pay, PPE, paid time off and safe working conditions.

As bosses threaten to reopen non-essential businesses, organized labor must act quickly to prevent them from forcing workers back to work in unsafe conditions. Organized labor is the only force with the potential to take on the capitalist class and ensure a humane pandemic response that saves lives – but quick, decisive and militant action is required to defeat the assault by business interests.

Labor must send the Wisconsin legislature, Supreme Court, and capitalist class a strong message, that we will not go back to work if the “safer at home” order is prematurely rescinded.

We call on Wisconsin’s unions to issue statements supporting work stoppages, and take strike authorization votes if the “safer at home” order is lifted prematurely. Workers in unorganized industries should talk to coworkers and collectively refuse to work in unsafe conditions.

We cannot wait for a fair deal from bosses who want to balance their desire for profit against our desire for health and safety. We must refuse to work in unsafe conditions.

#Wisconsin #WI #CapitalismAndEconomy #Labor #OppressedNationalities #US #Healthcare #AfricanAmerican #DonaldTrump #COVID19 #WisconsinFRSO #pandemic