COVID-19 CRISIS: Forced Labor Politics

The results of current GOP policies is to force workers prematurely back into the work place to the advantage of business, but not of labor.

• The GOP Senate and POTUS has fought against further recovery benefits for the most needy American families and workers: cutting SNAP benefits, cutting medical insurance benefits, pushing cancellation of Obamacare,
• Recovery spending has ended up in hands of the largest corporations;
• Black and brown workers have a unfair share of infections and deaths;
• State unemployment programs haven’t worked to meet all applicants. A seriously bad example is the state of Florida that has failed to approve many applications.
• GOP reluctance to increase taxes for the wealthy to pay for the worker benefit programs under the false premise of alleged excessive borrowing by the Federal government;
• GOP unwillingness to provide substantial funds for states to cover their costs for emergency response, paying for essential workers, implementing mitigation measuring, and making up for lost revenues;
• Limiting health liability for some corporations forces their workers back to work in the face of the companies’ failure to implement even weak OSHA regulations.

Miami-Dade should create citizen oversight board for police | Miami Herald

…county leaders will need to stand strong in the face of police unions, which have already come out swinging against any citizen oversight. Steadman Stahl, president of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association union, told the Herald, “They want to be totally independent. They answer to nobody. I think that’s kind of dangerous.”

Here’s what’s far more dangerous: cowardly politicians who create a lapdog panel and ensure that it is the police who answer to nobody. Out-of-control police officers are dangerous, too. It’s time to stop giving them cover.

Miami-Dade should create citizen oversight board for police | Miami Herald