Ohio Capital Journal
Unionized fast-food, nursing home and janitorial workers in Toledo and Cleveland picketed Monday in solidarity with the Strike for Black Lives, a national day of action confronting systemic racism.
SEIU District 1199 — a union that represents workers in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio — was one of more than 50 major national labor organizations that participated in the 25-city strike, honoring Black people killed by police and demanding better working conditions for COVID-19 frontline workers.
“Workers are standing together because employers across our economy have failed to protect workers,” Samara Knight, an executive vice president with SEIU District 1199, said in a press release. “This pandemic has ravaged Black and brown communities across the country. We’re going to keep joining together and speaking out until health care employers and so many others respond with actions that protect their employees.”
Strikes and protests also took place in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, New Martinsville, New York City, Oakland, Orlando, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Seattle and St. Louis.
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Also from Ohio Capital Journal:
Border officials did not follow guidelines on migrant children’s health care, government investigators find
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has not consistently followed new guidelines for medical care of migrant children and spent some of the agency’s money designated for “medical care” on unrelated items like printers, speakers and its canine program, according to a new federal investigation.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office, an independent “congressional watchdog,” found gaps in care across border facilities. Border officials also chose to go against a recommendation from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to give the flu vaccine to children who crossed the border into the United States.
The GAO released the findings Wednesday, as members of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee held a hearing as part of an ongoing investigation of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) policies in light of the deaths of two children at the border in December 2018.
The children, 8-year-old Felipe Alonzo-Gomez and 7-year-old Jakelin Caal, were both Guatemalan and died in different CBP holding facilities in New Mexico and Texas.
“The simple reality is that children shouldn’t be locked up by our government,” U.S. Rep. Val Demings of Florida said in an email. “This administration’s anti-immigrant hysteria has led to deeply inhumane treatment of asylum seekers and others who are seeking legal status here in the United States.” READ MORE
