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Here is your weekly news from the Texas Labor Movement. 

Today is May Day! Celebrate International Workers Day

Every May 1st working families around the world commemorate those who fought to advance our labor rights and protections. Amid this global pandemic, we need that solidarity now more than ever.

Unfortunately, the relief packages approved so far by lawmakers in Washington, D.C. leave many working families in Texas behind, including hardworking immigrants who provide essential services, pay taxes, support families, and contribute in countless other ways. Failing to protect them amid this crisis is wrong, and it puts us all greater risk.

We call on officials at all levels of government to ensure that we all have access to medical testing and treatment, safety supports when we are reporting to work, income replacement, cash payments and other vital benefits. Achieving our economic essentials requires the labor movement to continue to fight for all working people, regardless of immigration status. We are all in this together, and none of us will be safe until all workers have the protections we need and deserve.  

Workers Should Not Have to Choose Between Livelihoods and Safety as Texas Begins to Reopen 

Working people in Texas should be able to choose to stay home without penalty if their workplace does not meet widely accepted safety standards in the pandemic, Texas AFL-CIO President Rick Levy said yesterday:

  "Too many Texas workers who are receiving Unemployment Insurance benefits face a terrible choice, starting tomorrow, between risking their health at work and the twin disasters of losing their jobs permanently and losing benefits. Coupling a premature green light for restaurants, movie theaters, retail and other businesses with an absence of enforceable safety standards puts workers in an unacceptable, vulnerable position."

  "We appreciate that Gov. Greg Abbott recognized the need to allow working people to stay home without penalty when they are ill, at high risk, caring for a family member or lacking access to child care. But he left a giant hole. Texas working families need enforceable safety standards and adequate safety precautions before they are required to return to their workplaces."

   "This is particularly true in light of reports today that the Texas Workforce Commission is coaching employers on how to keep workers from getting benefits when faced with dangerous conditions. We call on the TWC to keep the focus on getting benefits to unemployed workers and abandon these misguided and offensive efforts."

   "No workers should have to choose between their livelihoods and their safety on the job. Today's order, while a step in the right direction, leaves too many workers with an unacceptable dilemma that could have life-and-death implications."

Join a Digital "May Day" Rally Today at 3PM CST 

Join the action at MayDay2020.TV

Let's honor the lives of essential workers: grocery store workers, domestic workers, nurses, farmworkers among so many others by demanding bold actions to improve their lives––regardless of immigration status–– through taking collective action. 

LCLAA and APALA are hosting a full day of activities from across the country–– from workers sharing their stories in the frontlines of this crisis and students fighting back against ICE, to movements in states visioning a just recovery during and after COVID-19. Don't miss it. 

Texas union activists - Karen Reyes (Texas AFT) and Carlos Rodriguez (NALC) will be featured speakers. 

Live Protest (Inside Your Car) Set for VA Hospital in Houston; Sign a Petition, Too

Do Something! In or around Houston and want to get out? American Federation of Government Employees Locals 1633 and 1454 are organizing a LIVE protest to call attention to the Veterans Administration's failure to provide adequate protections at hospitals. A news conference will precede the action.

The shortcomings around safety, of course, affect veterans and the general public as well as AFGE members. 

The event starts at 10:30 a.m. this Saturday, May 2, at Luby's, 2400 S. MacGregor Way. TAKE NOTE: You will be asked to remain in your car so that appropriate physical distancing is maintained. Plan is to circle the VA complex in your vehicles. Instructions on how to proceed will be provided at the gathering point.

Do Something Else! Whether you can attend or not, sign a petition calling for improved working conditions at VA hospitals.

Workers at Amazon, Whole Foods, Instacart, and Target Are on Strike and Need Your Solidarity

With the coronavirus pandemic turning from a health crisis into an economic crisis, workers in the United States are suffering more than they have in decades. Unemployment claims in recent weeks have hit 30 million — easily the highest on record. Lines at food banks are stretching on interminably. Businesses are shuttered — some, no doubt, indefinitely.

But some industries are doing just fine. Grocery stores, online retailers, and delivery services are booming. Since the pandemic reached the United States, Amazon announced it would hire nearly 200,000 new workers, and Instacart 550,000 new workers. And while these essential workers are lauded as “heroes,” the conditions at their workplaces show the profound lack of respect their employers actually have for them.

Today, workers at Amazon, Whole Foods, and Target are walking off the job. Their demands include compensation for all unpaid time off since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, hazard pay or paid sick leave, personal protective equipment (PPE) and cleaning supplies, and transparency on the number of cases in each workplace. The coalition of workers is also asking customers to boycott Amazon, Instacart, Whole Foods, and Target today.

Workers Say Dallas Meatpacking Plant Increases Production Despite COVID-19 Outbreak

Among the many front-line working people facing dangers during the pandemic, those who process meat have taken center stage as plants shut down because of COVID-19.

Now there is pushback by aggressive management and the White House. The Dallas Morning News reports workers at a local meat processor say the company is increasing production despite an outbreak of the disease at the plant. 

The plant does not have union representation. (Workers at an Amarillo-area meat packing plant in connection with a COVID-19 outbreak are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers, we are told.)

The Dallas episode took place just before President Trump ordered meat plants to stay open, a development that could prevent working people from suing the companies if they become ill.

Maintaining physical distancing, protective equipment and hygiene have never been more critical. The ability of working people to speak up together has never been a more important tool.

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Song of the Week - "Brothers in Arms " - Dire straits

Stay Safe And Healthy. We Can Do This.