Heroes

[Vrede too]

FIGHTING FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE & DEMOCRACY

Essential workers are on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic and they still don’t have the protective equipment they need to keep themselves safe. More and more essential workers are going to get sick and die if we don’t do something about this crisis.

Thank you for taking action and signing CWA’s petition demanding that President Trump use the National Defense Production Act to order companies to make desperately needed protective equipment. Together with other unions and organizations, we have collected almost 2 million petition signatures demanding workers get the protective equipment they need!

Today, we delivered a powerful message in Washington, planting 1000 signs - 800 Star of Life emblems, the international symbol for healthcare workers, and 200 selfies of frontline health care workers - on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol.



Each sign represents 18,000 healthcare workers in the United States who are putting their lives on the line every day this crisis continues - a total of 18 million people.

We delivered our petition signatures to Senator Chris Murphy from Connecticut, who has introduced legislation to force President Trump to use the Defense Production Act to centralize the manufacture and distribution of critical medical supplies during the COVID-19 emergency.

Check out the video of the petition delivery on Facebook. You'll hear from healthcare workers and an IUE-CWA member at GE who wants to use his skills to make ventilators. Can you share the video? It’s important to spread the word about the lack of protective equipment for essential workers so we can build up pressure on the Trump administration to act!

We will keep fighting to demand the protective equipment workers need to keep themselves, patients, their families, and communities safe! Thank you for taking action and I urge you to spread the word.

In unity,

Beth Allen
CWA Communications Director

[Vrede too]

Factory workers helping to make protective gear for COVID-19 go home after 28 days

More than 40 employees who spent nearly a month living at the facility where they were helping to make protective gear for health care workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic finally clocked out and went home to their families on Monday.

The crew at chemical company Braskem America in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, spent the last 28 days split between two 12-hour shifts as they worked to make polypropylene, a raw material used to make N95 masks, hospital gowns and sanitary wipes.

“There’s been a glow in everyone’s eyes,” Joe Boyce, operations shift supervisor, told Philadelphia ABC News station WPVI.

The only outside contact the workers had came from watching TV and seeing their family members drive by with signs of encouragement in hand.

Boyce spoke of the honor he feels to play a part in the fight against COVID-19.

“We’re truly honored to be able to give back and support people we will never meet in some way,” Boyce said.

He said that in some ways, the team’s departure from the facility is bittersweet.

“We’ve almost been the lucky ones, I’ll say, for the last 28 days, because I haven’t had to stand six feet from somebody. I haven’t had to put a mask on,” Boyce said.

The group will be getting a week off to recuperate from their near-month stint and Braskem America will be increasing their wages.

Boyce praised health care workers for all the work they’re doing.

“First responders, all the people on the front lines, we thank you for what you’ve done,” he said. “That’s what makes our job easy to do.”

x 40+.

[Vrede too]

Florida's scientist was fired for refusing to 'manipulate' COVID-19 data



The scientist who created Florida's COVID-19 data portal wasn't just removed from her position on May 5, she was fired on Monday by the Department of Health, she said, for refusing to manipulate data.

Rebekah Jones said in an email to the USA TODAY Network that she single-handedly created two applications in two languages, four dashboards, six unique maps with layers of data functionality for 32 variables covering a half a million lines of data. Her objective was to create a way for Floridians and researchers to see what the COVID-19 situation was in real time.

Then, she was dismissed.

"I worked on it alone, sixteen hours a day for two months, most of which I was never paid for, and now that this has happened I'll probably never get paid for," she wrote in an email, confirming that she had not just been reassigned on May 5, but fired from her job as Geographic Information Systems manager for the Florida Department of Health.

After USA TODAY Network first reported Jones' removal from her position in charge of the Florida COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard she created, she confirmed, as reported by CBS-12 in West Palm Beach that she was fired because she was ordered to censor some data, but refused to "manually change data to drum up support for the plan to reopen." ...

Repugs like DeSantis hate science and truth.

Any bets on how long it will be before some other responsible govt or business snaps her up?

[billy.pilgrim]

Florida's scientist was fired for refusing to 'manipulate' COVID-19 data



The scientist who created Florida's COVID-19 data portal wasn't just removed from her position on May 5, she was fired on Monday by the Department of Health, she said, for refusing to manipulate data.

Rebekah Jones said in an email to the USA TODAY Network that she single-handedly created two applications in two languages, four dashboards, six unique maps with layers of data functionality for 32 variables covering a half a million lines of data. Her objective was to create a way for Floridians and researchers to see what the COVID-19 situation was in real time.

Then, she was dismissed.

"I worked on it alone, sixteen hours a day for two months, most of which I was never paid for, and now that this has happened I'll probably never get paid for," she wrote in an email, confirming that she had not just been reassigned on May 5, but fired from her job as Geographic Information Systems manager for the Florida Department of Health.

After USA TODAY Network first reported Jones' removal from her position in charge of the Florida COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard she created, she confirmed, as reported by CBS-12 in West Palm Beach that she was fired because she was ordered to censor some data, but refused to "manually change data to drum up support for the plan to reopen." ...

Repugs like DeSantis hate science and truth.

Any bets on how long it will be before some other responsible govt or business snaps her up?

She should sue. I bet she keeps records.

[Vrede too]

She should sue. I bet she keeps records.

O Really, is refusing to do something unethical, but not illegal, grounds for a fired employee lawsuit?

[O Really]

She should sue. I bet she keeps records.

O Really, is refusing to do something unethical, but not illegal, grounds for a fired employee lawsuit?

Depends. Florida state employees do have some rights to due process, but Sleazy Scott did his best to weaken them as much as he could. But there will be more to this story from the other side, I'm sure. If the state can show that the instruction (order, etc.) was within the authority of the boss to give; that the instruction, although maybe objectionable, wasn't illegal or unsafe, then she'd have a hard time in Florida. The state will probably claim that (a) the instruction to [lie about] the data was a matter of how it is presented, not it's absolute accuracy; (b)the decision on how to present and publicize the data was the responsibility of the boss, and not hers; and (c) she has a record of ignoring instruction and doing things her way; and DeSantis wanted her gone because Trump. OK, so I made up the last two, but still.

If I were going to pick a state to bring a wrongful discharge lawsuit, one of the last would be Florida, where even back several years ago the public unions referred to the negotiation process as "collective begging."

[Vrede too]

Depends....

Thanks. I think she'll do okay, regardless. At least in a just world she would.

[O Really]

Depends....

Thanks. I think she'll do okay, regardless. At least in a just world she would.

I thought at first she'd do better with a wage theft claim since she said she wasn't paid for all the time, but her job title seems to be "manager" so she's probably overtime exempt. Thus, possibly another defence for the state would be that it wasn't her job to be doing all the programming anyway.

[billy.pilgrim]

Depends....

Thanks. I think she'll do okay, regardless. At least in a just world she would.

I sent an email SiL in the area to see if it's making local news.

[Vrede too]

I sent an email SiL in the area to see if it's making local news.

Sincere inquiry or a subtle jab at a con (nttawwt)?

[billy.pilgrim]

I sent an email SiL in the area to see if it's making local news.

Sincere inquiry or a subtle jab at a con (nttawwt)?

wife's sister

She has 2 liberal and one quiet sister.

[billy.pilgrim]

I sent an email SiL in the area to see if it's making local news.

Sincere inquiry or a subtle jab at a con (nttawwt)?

For now,, I'm sticking with Rebekah, but there could be more to the story


https://www.npr.org/sections/coronaviru ... -scientist

[Vrede too]

For now, I'm sticking with Rebekah, but there could be more to the story

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronaviru ... -scientist

Interesting, thanks. I agree with you. I'll stick with her until credible scientists dis her, not just pols and their appointees.

[Vrede too]

This is an AP article, so it appears lots of places. It's especially cool to see it shoved in Trumpette faces by Liarbart:

Watchdog who found hospital shortages unfazed by Trump barbs

The author of a federal report that found U.S. hospitals faced severe shortages of coronavirus test supplies and equipment says she is not intimidated by criticism from President Donald Trump, even after he moved to replace her as chief watchdog of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Christi Grimm, who has served as acting inspector general since January, told a House panel that there was no “chilling effect” from last month and his subsequent move to replace her.

“We are plowing ahead” with 14 new reports and audits on health spending, Grimm said via a videoconference during a briefing Tuesday with the House Oversight Committee.

Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier of California asked Grimm if she believes there was a “chilling effect” from Trump’s criticism: “If you say something or do something that is offensive to the president that you will be removed from office?”

Grimm said no, adding: “I personally and professionally cannot let the idea of providing unpopular information drive decision-making in the work that we do.”

Congress can be assured that 14 pending reports and audits of health spending related to the virus outbreak will continue unfettered ”to protect people, to protect funds, to protect infrastructure and to ensure effectiveness,” Grimm said. “We are operating as we did on May 1” when Trump nominated a new inspector general to replace Grimm.

Jason Weida, an assistant U.S. attorney in Boston, must be confirmed by the Senate before assuming the position. Grimm remains in charge of the office as principal deputy inspector general while Weida’s nomination is pending.

With cases skyrocketing, the inspector general’s office reported April 6 that a shortage of tests and long waits for results were at the root of mounting problems faced by hospitals.

Trump called the report, based on a late March survey of 323 hospitals nationwide, “just wrong” and suggested that its conclusions were skewed by politics.

“Give me the name of the inspector general,” Trump said. “Could politics be entered into that?”

Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York, who chairs the Oversight panel, said Tuesday that Grimm “should not have had to endure these senseless personal attacks just for doing her job.” Maloney thanked Grimm for “tolerating” Trump’s attacks “with dignity while she continues serving the American people.”

Grimm, a career government manager who has served under four presidents, took over the acting IG post in January. She told lawmakers she has long been aware that she can be replaced at any time and does not let that fact affect her work.

“I do think independence is the cornerstone of what any office of inspector general does,” Grimm said. ”That allows us to be impartial in the work we do … letting the facts take us where they may.” ...

Hero.

[neoplacebo]

Two heroes for the price of one.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/96-old-veter ... 29533.html

[billy.pilgrim]

For now, I'm sticking with Rebekah, but there could be more to the story

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronaviru ... -scientist

Interesting, thanks. I agree with you. I'll stick with her until credible scientists dis her, not just pols and their appointees.

It didn't even take credible scientists to discredit her, a glance at her past says more than enough.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... times.html

[Vrede too]

It didn't even take credible scientists to discredit her, a glance at her past says more than enough.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... times.html

Hmmm, sure looks ugly but:

Relationships are weird;
I don't automatically trust the Daily Mail on anything;
I'm not sure that there's any relevance to FL data management.

[O Really]

Here's what makes all that sort of stuff muddy: She may have been an awful, sleazy person, a bad wife and a lying wench, but still got run off for refusing to fudge the numbers. She may have been "disruptive," but was so because they were trying to make her fudge the numbers. Her personality traits that led to previous bad behaviour might have been the same ones that let her refuse to fudge the numbers when others in her job might have rolled over.

Or...she may be generally a rogue sort who was never actually asked to fudge the numbers, but whose work was criticized for some reason and off the rails she went. Too much smoke, too many mirrors, and nobody will ever likely investigate and publish the truth.

[Vrede too]

Florida's scientist was fired for refusing to 'manipulate' COVID-19 data

Repugs like DeSantis hate science and truth.

Any bets on how long it will be before some other responsible govt or business snaps her up?

She hasn't exactly quit her state gig yet.

Fired Florida scientist builds coronavirus site showing far more cases than state reports

[billy.pilgrim]

Florida's scientist was fired for refusing to 'manipulate' COVID-19 data

Repugs like DeSantis hate science and truth.

Any bets on how long it will be before some other responsible govt or business snaps her up?

She hasn't exactly quit her state gig yet.

Fired Florida scientist builds coronavirus site showing far more cases than state reports

You beat me to it


There's really not much difference in the numbers less than 10% total cases and less than 3% deaths.

But still