Reader donations, many as small as just $1, have kept In These Times publishing for 45 years. Once you've finished reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support this work.
FOLSOM, CALIF. — After a pharmacist tells Maria Bernal in January she probably has Covid-19, Bernal goes to the Jack in the Box fast food restaurant where she works with a fever and chills. She can barely read the order screen, she’s so dizzy. To show her manager how sick she is, Bernal places her cold hands on her manager’s face.
The idea is that workers know what violations are occurring, and franchisees know how they’re being squeezed; the council could let them simultaneously bring their issues to corporate representatives and regulators, who have real power to change profit structures and working conditions.
“Don’t worry, everyone has it, you can still work,” the manager says, according to a complaint filed January 14 with the Sacramento County Public Health department. “Just wear a mask and don’t tell anyone.” Bernal says she worked a double shift that day and continued working with Covid over the next four days.
Three of Bernal’s coworkers have joined in the complaint, alleging Covid-related violations of public health guidelines. But such complaints are rarer than they should be. A January UCLA Labor Center study found 90 percent of fast food workers had Covid workplace concerns (or experienced an outbreak), but only 11 percent ever contacted the health department.
In...
US President Donald Trump made a series of “false” and “uncorroborated” claims about the Iran conflict and his foreign policy record during a recent press conference, according to a fact check by ...