AOC feigns ignorance about the vaccine mandate's effect on workers and parents

 

 NYC For Yourself

I had a very brief conversation with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently that drove this point home. It was at the end of one of her town hall meetings, which I often livestream on my reporting channel.

I have also been reporting on how New York’s vaccine mandates have affected people since 2021, and I’ve been trying to ask AOC about her position on this issue since New York City’s mandates were in full effect. Maybe I’ve missed something, but I have never heard her address the question of mandates in any forum.

AOC and her team have always exercised tight control over interactions with media. I know that because I’m one of her constituents and attended many of her public events before I started reporting on them, going back to her primary race in 2018. At public events like town halls, she takes questions from constituents by having people submit them on slips of paper as they enter. The time she gives to press has always been very limited. 

 So when I wanted to ask about her position on the mandates, I knew the drill. Here’s a question I submitted at a Bronx town hall in January of this year:

Ocasio-Cortez didn’t take my question at that town hall or any of the others where I had submitted it. So I decided to give it a try as a member of the press. At the end of the event, I explained to one of her press aides that I’m an independent journalist and wanted to ask a question.

AOC was simply out of time! she told me, but perhaps I could ask her my question and she could pass it along. I declined that offer and stood by as AOC gave a detailed response to a question from another reporter about whether it was tough to balance being a disruptor with getting things done.

Fate and the press aide smiled upon me a couple town halls later at the July 6 Hunts Point event, and I was granted the opportunity to ask “one question!” of the overscheduled congresswoman. Now my question wasn’t about the government mandates, which were no longer in effect. It was about whether she would support reinstating workers who had been fired for not being vaccinated.

I asked AOC this question for all the reasons you can hear me spell out in the video: Labor rights and civil rights are among her signature issues. She speaks frequently about the importance of bodily autonomy.

She touched on all of these topics at the July 6 town hall, as well as the financial hardships people are facing as they recover from the pandemic. My question was relevant to all of those issues. It should have been right in her wheelhouse.

I was honestly surprised by her inadequate response. Not only did she not answer the question about reinstatement that I had asked, but she seemed only vaguely aware of the facts about mandates in New York.

Her response was about whether there should still be “health care requirements” in place, and she seemed to be saying that she thought there probably should be in some sectors, especially health care and education. So I guess I finally got the answer to my question about her position on mandates.

How could someone who presents herself as an advocate for workers be so unaware of the facts about policies that put tens of thousands of people out of work in her state and forced thousands more to take a pharmaceutical product that they considered dangerous to keep their jobs? 

 Estimates are that nearly 2,000 people in the public sector were fired outright under New York City’s sweeping mandates, while many others were forced into resigning or taking early retirement. It’s impossible to know how many lost their livelihoods in the private sector. An estimated 34,000 health care workers lost their jobs under the state mandate.

Department of Buildings blew off vetting of laborers that led to blow ups of buildings

NY Post

The city Buildings Department is turning a blind eye to safety by allowing unlicensed or unqualified laborers to perform gas piping work in new or reconstructed developments, an explosive lawsuit filed by the plumbers union claims.

The Manhattan Supreme Court suit accuses the DOB of failing to comply with a city law that tightened up licensing requirements for gas piping installation following deadly explosions in East Harlem and the East Village in 2014 and 2015.

“DOB’s complete dereliction of its duty to enforce gas and welder qualification requirements has facilitated wholesale non-compliance with these safety rules throughout the City and created a public safety time bomb,” claims the suit, filed by Plumbers Union Local 1.

The 2020 law imposed restrictions on who can perform such hazardous “gas work,” making it illegal to do so without a DOB-issued Gas Qualification permit.

But the 45-page complaint cites examples alleging DOB approved of illegal gas work on taxpayer funded public projects, unlicensed workers performing piping installations and cases of “unverified inspections” by contractors.

Licensed union plumbers provided affidavits as part of the legal action, claiming they witnessed shoddy workmanship being performed in buildings and other workers without a “gas qualification” license.

The union claims the DOB is turning a blind eye while granting hundreds of gas approvals in large residential towers, schools, luxury hotels and other buildings, according to the suit.

It took 6 days...

 

 NY Post

Union leaders representing 350,000 city workers plan to file a legal action to stop Mayor de Blasio from implementing a vaccine mandate for Department of Education employees without their input.

“Many of the unions support and urge their members to be vaccinated. However, the city is required to collectively bargain the steps to be taken for implementing this policy” said Harry Nespoli, chair of the Municipal Labor Committee.

His group is filing an unfair labor practices complaint over the new directive.

“Our members’ bargaining rights in this situation must be preserved. We are willing to discuss the steps for implementation as well as situations where accommodations would be appropriate,” Nespoli said in the statement released just a few hours after de Blasio announced the new policy.

All 148,000 Department of Education workers, including people who are employed in the DOE’s central offices and contractors who work in schools, will be required to have at least one shot by Sept. 27, the mayor said at his daily press briefing Monday morning.

De Blasio said he’d implement the policy with or without the support of unions. But Nespoli threatened Monday afternoon that “unilateral action by the city will only lead to a delay in the implementation of a policy that is designed to protect the public and its employees.”

Henry Garrido, head of District Council 37 that represents school crossing guards, lunch aides and other DOE staff, said he does not believe the city has the legal authority “to change the terms and conditions of employment without bargaining.”

The MTA was unprepared for a pandemic despite an early plan to defend against it

THE CITY

Preparations for a pandemic have been taking shape for years at New York City Transit, with the agency outlining plans to protect workers and riders while stockpiling supplies.

But as the coronavirus crisis escalates — with seven MTA employees among those to die from COVID-19 — transit union leaders say workers are deeply concerned over a shortage of protective equipment.

“It looks good on paper, but in a lot of cases, it’s not happening — I have no wipes, I can’t get N95 masks and it’s crazy,” said JP Patafio, a vice president for TWU Local 100. “What good is a plan if you’re not going to take stuff off the shelf when you need it?”

THE CITY obtained a 2012 copy of New York City Transit’s pandemic plan to “prevent or minimize illness among employees,” to limit service disruptions and maintain “an environment that is safe for both our employees and our customers.”

But a former MTA chief safety officer said the plan — similar to ones transit agencies across the country put in place after the 2009 swine flu pandemic — assumed a “rapid national response.”

“These plans don’t contemplate, nor were they required to contemplate, a sustained nationwide response with the associated shortages of supplies that we are currently seeing,” said David Mayer, the MTA’s chief safety officer from December 2014 to June 2018. “I don’t think these plans expected the level of service cuts, nor the duration of response that we are experiencing.”

The “Pandemic Plan Policy Instruction” maps out the need for subway and bus service reductions due to rising absenteeism, instructs transit workers to limit face-to-face contact with the public and not shake hands.

 The 2012 plan includes keeping a six-week supply of protective equipment. MTA officials say they maintained the stockpiles, but workers have complained they can’t get protective equipment.

WCBS 880 

 The MTA confirmed Monday that five more employees have died due to complications from COVID-19. 

"This is a devastating day," NYCT Interim President Sarah Feinberg told WCBS 880.

The employees were identified as Scott Elijah, a 15-year track worker with the Combined Action/Emergency Response Unit based in Long Island City; Caridad Santiago,a cleaner for 13 years assigned to the Stations Department in the Bronx; Ernesto Hernandez, a bus operator for 15 years most recently working out of the Jackie Gleason Bus Depot; Victor Zapana, a supervisor in the Stations Department who worked from various locations throughout the subway system for almost 30 years; and Warren Tucker, a bus mechanic for almost five years at the MTA Bus Company, assigned this year to the Central Maintenance Facility in East New York.

“We are heartbroken at the passing of five heroic members of the New York City Transit family. Scott, Caridad, Ernesto, Victor and Warren were all inspiring and valued colleagues, well-loved and well-respected by their co-workers," Feinberg and Acting MTA Bus Company President Craig Cipriano said in a joint statement. "They dedicated their lives to serving the public and keeping New Yorkers moving. This is a tragic loss for the city. Their families and friends are in our prayers during this incredibly difficult and painful time.”

Last week, two transit workers passed away due to coronavirus and a third died trying to evacuate a train that was on fire in Harlem.

Development still goes on during coronavirus outbreak

NY Post

The Big Apple’s construction trades workers are still showing up for work — sometimes even while sick — putting new pressure on City Hall to close down job sites as it battles the spread of coronavirus, The Post has learned.

The developments come as construction union officials and sources told the paper that de Blasio is eyeing a shutdown of the industry, like what happened in Boston.

“If we knew that, they’d be escorted off the site if they were not going voluntarily,” said city Building Trades Employers Association president Lou Coletti, which represents 1,200 unionized contractors across the five boroughs.

He emphasized such action could only apply to union jobs.

“I had a bad fever the other day. I’m fine now, but I still gotta come to work,” a 45-year-old superintendent told a Post reporter while working a construction site of a high-rise near Union Square.

“We have extra wash stations, we’re taking precautions, but we can’t stop [working] unless the city stops us,” the person added. “There are contracts and unions; there’s a lot of things involved, but we all wish someone would make that decision already.”

Across the five boroughs, construction workers kept going about their business as usual.

“We have to take care of what we gotta take care of,” quipped Mario Morales, 33, who was working another job site in Manhattan. “We gotta work. We have our masks; we’re washing our hands, and taking the precautions.”

Some lawmakers — including Brooklyn Councilmen Brad Lander and Carlos Menchaca — are calling for the city to halt construction projects in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
When asked if the Mayor Bill de Blasio supports a construction moratorium, his spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein said in an email, “this is one of the many things we’re discussing. We’ll let you know as soon as we have update.”

Woodside Amazon warehouse worker tested positive for COVID-19, tells night shift to show up for work anyway

The Atlantic

Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Queens, New York, received a text Wednesday evening that they long feared might come: “We’re writing to let you know that a positive case of the coronavirus (COVID-19) was found at our facility today.”

This is the realization of a major threat to Amazon’s operations. Millions of people across the nation are cloistered inside their homes, many of them relying on the company to provide basic goods. 

Amazon is already struggling to meet demand, and some employees feel they’re being unfairly endangered by working in warehouses filled with other workers. It’s unclear how deliveries could continue if the workers who sort, pack, and ship Americans’ goods start getting sick in droves.

Though two office workers at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters have been diagnosed with COVID-19, this is the first confirmed case of the disease among the company’s hourly warehouse employees in the United States. These workers make up the majority of Amazon’s 600,000-strong workforce.
According to the text, which was sent by a member of a workers’ group called Amazonians United, management sent day-shift workers home in order to disinfect the sorting facility, known as DBK1. Jonathan Bailey, an employee who sorts packages at the Queens facility, told me that workers were not notified of the positive case by Amazon management; he learned of it from other employees. He said workers believed that they were still expected to report for their night shift. In an email to The Atlantic, Amazon denied this, saying that it notified all associates about the positive test, and that workers were not expected to come in for their night shift.

Rena Lunak, an Amazon spokesperson, confirmed to The Atlantic that there was a positive case at the facility, but did not reveal the person’s identity. “We are supporting the individual who is now in quarantine,” she said. “In addition to our enhanced daily deep cleaning, we’ve temporarily closed the Queens delivery station for additional sanitation and have sent associates home with full pay.”

The incident rattled some of the warehouse workers, who already feel they are being underpaid for a risky job: continuing to work in close proximity to others during a dangerous pandemic. “This clearly shows a disregard for our health and safety,” said Bailey, who is also a member of Amazonians United.

On March 11, Amazon announced that all employees diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed in quarantine would receive two weeks of sick pay. In addition, Amazon gave hourly workers unlimited unpaid time off through the end of March.

But some Amazon workers—including those in New York City, where positive cases have spiked sharply in the past 48 hours—have expressed concern that these measures have been insufficient to protect them from the coronavirus. As of this writing, there are 1,871 known cases of the coronavirus in the city, and officials expect that number to rise dramatically. What’s more, research suggests that the virus can live on cardboard for 24 hours, so there’s a possibility that packages sick employees send may be contagious.

Worker crushed to death at development site in Jamaica

CBS NY

 One construction worker is dead and another injured after a construction collapse in Queens Thursday.

Firefighters rushed to the site on 94th Avenue in Jamaica to try and save the workers after a wall collapsed at the site.

The Department of Buildings say it permitted demolition to take place at the the existing three story building where the collapse took place.

The DOB has issued a partial stop-work order at a neighboring lot, but that didn’t prevent Thursday’s demolition.

Staten Island Amazon warehouse workers demand fulfillment benefits, services and safety provisions

NY Post

Workers at Amazon’s Staten Island packing facility say Jeff Bezos deserves a lump of coal in his stocking for running roughshod over them, especially during the busy holiday season.

Over a hundred Amazon workers and their supporters gathered outside the facility on Monday to protest working conditions that they say only worsen as the e-tailing giant gears up to deliver a rush of packages ahead of Christmas and Hanukkah.

The workers, who gathered outside the warehouse around 5:30 p.m., carried signs, chanted slogans and demanded a manager emerge from the building to accept a petition signed by 600 people — and addressed to Amazon chief executive Bezos, tied for richest man in the world with Bill Gates.

Their petition demands longer work breaks and more dedicated MTA buses to the far-flung facility. It also protests newly released injury data showing that the rate of worker injury at the facility is three times higher than similar warehouse work.

“It has become clear that our safety is a secondary concern in your eyes, lagging far behind line speed,” the petition said. “There are only weak plans in place to prevent more pain, more injuries, and more deaths as we enter the hardest time of the year,” the letter said.

Amazon’s eyebrow-raising injury rates at the warehouse, which opened in 2018, where released Monday by labor advocacy group Make the Road New York based on Amazon’s own submissions to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Among the injuries reported were sprains and strains from pushing, pulling and lifting machinery and merchandise.

And because the facility is kept at an overly warm temperature, workers sometimes pass out from overheating, said Frank Kearl, staff attorney for Make the Road.

“There are serious structural problems in the way that facility is operating,” Kearl said.