Today, March 17, 2020, 90 percent of Detroit bus drivers stayed home over safety concerns related to COVID-19, forcing the bus system to shut down. The union negotiated a fare suspension! 

Here’s the statement from the City of Detroit:

Bus service to resume at 3:00 AM, Wednesday after Mayor and DDOT unions agree to new sanitization and safety protocols

All passengers will ride free of charge for duration of COVID-19 outbreak, Mayor Duggan announces

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan today stood with the leaders of the three unions representing Detroit Department of Transportation Employees to announce that bus service will resume at 3:00 AM, Wednesday, March 18th.

Duggan started his morning at 6 AM, meeting with DDOT staff throughout the day listening to legitimate concerns they had about their protection and that of passengers, including the need for more rigorous bus sanitizing practices, limiting close contact between passengers and drivers and the need for locations along their routes for restroom breaks.

For its part, the city will implement a series of changes (listed below) to protect the health and safety of DDOT Drivers and the public.

“This is what happens when the city and unions work together. The leaders of each of our unions took me through the buses and what they needed with supplies,” Duggan said. “Between 6 AM and 2 PM we were able to come up with something they could all feel comfortable taking back to their members.”

Understanding Between DDOT, AFSCME Local 312, ATU Local 26, and AFSCME Local 214 for protection of health of DDOT employees and the riders of the DDOT system

Effective March 18th, all DDOT fares are suspended in order to reduce the extent of close contact between drivers and passengers.

The Mayor’s Office will work diligently to make certain there are appropriate restroom facilities where they have been lost due to the recent business closure orders. Where replacement businesses have not yet been identified, temporary portable toilets with hand sanitizers will be installed by Thursday, March 19th.

Effective immediately, the following full cleaning schedule and staffing will be implemented (for each terminal):

• 10:30 am – 2:30 pm: 10 new cleaning staff. Will provide 10 minute clean for average load of 40 buses
• 5:30 pm – 2:00 am: 10 additional cleaning staff. Will provide 30 minute clean for average load of 120 buses

End of Line Cleaning Schedule effective March 18:

• 12 cleaning staff currently working one 12-hour shift will be increased to two 12-hour shifts of 20 cleaning staff each, providing 24 hour service

End of line cleaning will be done on the following routes: St John, Fairlane Mall, Northland, 3rd and Michigan, Beaubien and Jefferson, Rosa Parks, 8 Mile and Gratiot, State Fair Transit Center.

Cleaning protocols will require use of a new rag for each bus, with the sanitizing of high touch points with a 10 / 1 ratio disinfectant:

• The seat immediately behind the driver will remain vacant unless used by Transit Police officers.
• Drivers will be supplied a minimum of 2-5 pair of gloves and adequate number of disinfectant wipes at the beginning of each driver’s shift. We will provide masks upon request whenever available.
• Union/management coordination. Union leadership and management will work continually to address any health-related issues through the DDOT Safety Committee, which will be supported by the Mayor’s Office and the Detroit Health Department.

“We have nothing but the utmost consideration for our passengers. We didn’t want to get sick and infect the public and we didn’t want them to get sick,” said ATU Local 26 President Glenn Tolbert. “We felt the previous measures the city had taken weren’t enough but this pandemic is new to everybody. Now we’ve put some things in place that will allow us to go forward without any service interruptions. That’s always our goal.”

Joining the Mayor at the press conference today were:

• Glenn Tolbert, President ATU Local 26 (Drivers Union) ATU Local 26 Detroit
• Phil Douglas, President AFSCME Local 312 (Vehicle Maintenance Workers Union)
• June Nickelberry, President AFSCME Local 214 (Operators Supervisors)
• Hakim Berry, Detroit Chief Operating Officer
• Angelica Jones, DDOT Interim Director

SIGN PETITION: https://bit.ly/394k0Jy

Moratorium NOW! Coalition

Coronavirus/COVID-19 Demands

The COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe has exposed for the whole world to see the inhumanity and inadequacy of the U.S. healthcare system and the many injustices suffered by working and oppressed people living in this capitalist system. The current pandemic highlights the need for universal health care such as an enhanced Medicare for All. As the economy slows down, it is the marginalized communities, low-paid workers, immigrants, the incarcerated, schoolchildren and the elderly, who are impacted especially hard. It is a time for the U.S. government to launch a massive aid and stimulus program directed, first and foremost, towards working people and the poor.

To this end, we demand that:

• Every person, regardless of immigration status, must receive all of the health care they need without cost, including no-cost COVID-19 testing and vaccine, when it becomes available.
• Paid family and sick leave for all workers, as needed.
• Emergency shelters for those without housing.
• Moratorium on foreclosures, evictions, and utility shutoffs.
• Immediate restoration of electric, heating and water service for those without such services.
• With schools shutdown:

– Free school lunches.

– Free high speed internet service and technology, including computers, so all students can access online learning materials from home.

• Workers lost income be supplemented by

– Emergency unemployment assistance.

– Providing each adult with $750 /week plus $300 for each dependent child.

– Increasing balances on EBT cards.

– Expanded food assistance programs.

• Significantly reduce the jail and prison population by

– Ending cash bail and releasing those detained for not posting bond.

– Releasing all non-violent prisoners.

– Release all detainees from ICE detention centers, and re-unite parents with their children

– Immediate halt to ICE raids, immigration court proceedings and ICE check-ins.

While Senator Bernie Sanders has also released a program for dealing with some aspects of the current pandemic and calls for solidarity, his solidarity stops at the border. We call for international solidarity and demand further that:

• All sanctions against other countries be lifted. This includes sanctions against Iran, where a major outbreak of COVID-19 is occurring, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe, Syria, Myanmar, Russia, and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
• Patents and royalty payments on medical technologies and any other technologies need to fight the COVID-19 pandemic be suspended.

We urge all people to join in community efforts to offer aid to those most impacted by this current crisis.

Moratorium NOW! Coalition

https://bit.ly/2wXg93A

Host Johanna Hernandez was joined by Dr. Hillel Cohen for a conversation about the coronavirus pandemic and the United States lacking response. Dr. Hillel Cohen – is a Doctor of Public Health and Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx.

https://bit.ly/3d8MqW3

Bill Dores

March 15, 2020

The coronavirus stalks the land. Millions in the United States are without health insurance or paid sick leave. The White House has cut funds to the Centers for Disease Control. It’s also cutting food stamps. People are not getting tested for the virus because there are not enough kits.

But the Trump regime wants to bail out Wall Street and Big Oil. Not only with nearly $2 trillion, but with war and sanctions, with bombs, missiles and blood.

On March 12, U.S. planes carried out air strikes across Iraq, murdering members of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units battling ISIS and al-Qaida. An airport worker also died when the U.S. Air Force bombed a civilian airport under construction.

The Pentagon claimed it was retaliating for an attack on a US military base, Camp Taji, that killed two US and one British occupation soldier. On March 14, rockets struck the base again.

Iraq’s parliament and government have asked U.S. troops to leave their country. The Pentagon refuses to bring them home.

On March 11, U.S Marines invaded Yemen to back up Saudi-United Arab Emirates forces attacking that impoverished country. They are on the island of Socotra and in the port of Aden. Yemen is being ravaged by hunger and cholera due to the U.S.-backed Saudi blockade. The United Nations has called the situation there “the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.”

In Syria, Washington is trying to sabotage a ceasefire negotiated by Russia between the Syrian government and the invading Turkish NATO army. Turkey’s forces are backing al-Qaida terrorist forces in Syria’s Idlib province with U.S.-supplied F-16 fighter jets and Israeli Sabra tanks. U.S. troops occupy Syria’s oil fields, denying Syrians the use of their own oil.

“Turkey is a NATO ally,” said U.S. “special envoy to Syria” James Jeffrey. “We have a very, very big foreign military sales program; much of the Turkish military uses American equipment. We will make sure that that equipment is ready. As a NATO partner, we share information intelligence. … We are going to ensure that they have what they need there.”

On March 4, the White House approved a $2.4 billion deal to sell aerial tankers to the racist apartheid state of Israel. The tankers would extend the range of the 50 F-35 combat aircraft the U.S. is giving Israel, making it easier for the settler state to attack Iran.

This is while brutal U.S. sanctions hinder Iran’s fight against the coronavirus. Iran has called U.S. sanctions, which have killed thousands in the past two years, “medical terrorism.” China is defying U.S. sanctions to send medical aid-test kits, medicine, ventilators and protective gear to Iran.

The U.S. State Department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said the Israeli tanker sale “supports the foreign policy and national security of the United States by allowing Israel to provide a redundant capability to U.S. assets within the region, potentially freeing U.S. assets for use elsewhere during times of war. Aerial refueling and strategic airlift are consistently cited as significant shortfalls for our allies. In addition, the sale improves Israel’s national security posture as a key U.S. ally….”

https://aflcio.org/covid-19

11 Mar 2020

https://bit.ly/2TMr3lo

The US is the most profit-oriented, business-controlled society on Earth, and therefore the least able to cope with a national health emergency, which requires sacrifice of profit for the greater good.

“U.S. imperialism offers no solutions to address the coronavirus outbreak now that it has reached U.S. shores.”

The coronavirus outbreak in China has made its way across the world, infecting thousands in nations such as Iran and South Korea. While confirmed cases in the United States remain low (likely due to underreporting), a cloud of fear and racist hysteria hangs over the U.S. populace from centuries of imperialist aggression toward China and its people. Racist attacks against Asian Americans are on the rise . The corporate media has predictably used the outbreak to demonize China’s system of economic and political governance. Yet as fear of the coronavirus’ spread increases, it becomes clearer that U.S. imperialism is the true drag on humanity, not China’s market socialist model.

The U.S. corporate media has lamented over its assessment that China’s “authoritarian” government is behind why the country has been able to address the coronavirus outbreak with such strength and vigor. This is a cynical admission that the United States and its imperialist allies are not prepared to effectively address a similar outbreak. One person based in Miami has already reported receiving a bill of over $3,000 to get tested for the coronavirus.  A 2019 survey found that up to half of all participants avoided seeking medical care due to the cost of the for-profit healthcare system. This alone places a large section of the population at risk should the number of coronavirus cases increase as predicted.

“One person based in Miami has already reported receiving a bill of over $3,000 to get tested for the coronavirus….”

https://blackagendareport.com/

https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2020/03/13/a-peoples-response-to-covid-19-2/

By Greg Butterfield / March 13, 2020

We place no confidence in the anti-science, climate-change deniers of the Trump administration, the pathetically inadequate for-profit U.S. health care system, or Big Pharma and Wall Street to address the Covid-19 (novel coronavirus) crisis. The truth is that only a socialized health care system that provides equal access and quality care for all, regardless of ability to pay or immigration status, can address this situation, which is causing fear and anxiety for millions of people.

The Affordable Care Act of 2010 actually imposes financial penalties on those unable to afford health insurance; an estimated 27 million people still have no coverage. That’s not counting the millions more undocumented workers, and those whose coverage is so minimal as to be useless. The infrastructure required to contain and treat outbreaks such as Covid-19 exists in countries like China and Cuba, but is sorely lacking in the United States, the richest country in the world, where the disparity of rich and poor is also greatest.

In New York, workers at Chipotle restaurants have held picket lines and walkouts to protest the company’s refusal to honor sick days. In Ohio, police in riot gear attacked University of Dayton students with tear gas and pepper balls on March 11, when they protested being abruptly evicted from student housing as the college shut down. Housing activists in Boston rallied on March 12 to demand a moratorium on evictions.

In Baltimore, community organizations led by the Peoples Power Assembly held a news conference and rally on March 7 to outline a people’s response to the Covid-19 crisis and demand action from city officials to protect the poorest and most vulnerable. Two days later in New Orleans, activists from the Hospitality Workers Alliance disrupted a mayoral press event, demanding that workers be provided with paid sick leave, health insurance and free testing for the virus.

In Chicago, Augusta, Ga., and several California cities, National Nurses United held rallies at hospitals on March 11 to protest new CDC recommendations rolling back protections for health workers and patients.

Given the potentially life-or-death consequences, it’s no wonder that workers, students and communities are starting to take action across the country. What is urgently needed is to unite these local initiatives into a broad national movement whose demands address all the urgent needs of the workers and oppressed.

Can’t wait for November elections to respond ….

The money, people-power and technology exist to respond to the threat of the Covid-19 outbreak and future dangers to the health and well-being of the people. But those resources must be taken over and mobilized by the people and for the people, not for the interests of the profit-hungry 1% who have shown time and again that they don’t care if we live or die.

https://bit.ly/33cMhMx

The spread of COVID-19 has highlighted the economic consequences faced by working people when they lack access to paid sick days.

All people must be able to recover from illness without sacrificing a paycheck — or their job. Staying home when you’re sick or caring for a sick kid can’t just be a luxury for those who can afford it. We need a national paid sick days standard to help strengthen ALL workers’ economic security and improve public health, including during public health emergencies like the coronavirus pandemic.

In the United States, over 32 million workers lack access to paid sick days — and for low-income and hourly workers, it’s even worse.

We can’t have true reproductive freedom without the ability to care for ourselves and ensure our families are healthy and happy — we need to make paid sick days a reality for every body.

Add your name to call on Congress to pass paid sick leave now »

https://bit.ly/33cMhMx