Minnesota workers walk off the job at Pilgrim’s Pride outside of St. Cloud, Minnesota (Greater Minnesota Workers Center)
Folks,
Greetings from the Burgh. It’s not quite Payday yet, but we’re switching from our weekly newsletter format to daily strike updates.
Before, we’d see 2-3 strikes in a week; hence a weekly newsletter made sense. Now, we’re dealing with at least 2-3 strikes a day. So, Payday will publish regular, often daily afternoon round-ups of the strike and other major labor activity.
151 Strikes Across the U.S. since March 1st
Our strike tracker is now up to 151 strikes across the U.S. (Check it out here). You’ll see many of the strikes listed here and others.
Trump Orders Meatpacking Plants to Stay Open, but Workers Have Other Ideas
Earlier today, Trump announced that he intended to use the power of the federal government and the Defense Production Act to keep meat processing plants open throughout the United States.
The move comes as massive outbreaks with hundreds of workers have hit meatpacking plants throughout the U.S. As a result, scores of meatpacking plants have closed because of outbreaks.
Strikes and mass sickouts at a dozen meatpacking plants throughout the U.S. have led to the closure of additional plants.
It’s unclear how Trump intends to use the Defense Production Act to force meat packing processing workers back into the assembly line.
Organized labor immediately denounced the move.
“We only wish that this administration cared as much about the lives of working people as it does about meat, pork, and poultry products. When poultry plants shut down, it’s for deep cleaning and to save workers’ lives,” said Stuart Applebaum, president of Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. “If the administration had developed meaningful safety requirements early on as they should have and still must do, this would not even have become an issue.”
In Defiance of Trump, Nebraska Meatpacker Walks Off the Job at Smithfield
The prospect of meat shortages, which increasingly seem likely according to experts as dozens of plants have been shut down by outbreaks or strikes, would be politically embarrassing to Trump.
Shortly after Trump announced his intention to issue his executive order, more than 50 meatpackers walked off the job after 48 co-workers tested positive for COVID-19 at Smithfield’s plant outside of Lincoln, Nebraska.
Over 100 Meatpackers Walk Off the Job in Minnesota
The Nebraska action follows a wildcat strike Monday night at Pilgrim’s Pride meatpacking plant in Cold Spring, Minn.
Workers remain frustrated that the company hasn’t done enough to inform them of co-workers testing positive for COVID-19.
With workers going on a strikeout fearing for their lives, it’s unclear how Trump will stop these workers from shutting down more plants.
(Check out the St. Cloud Times for more)
Pennsylvania National Guard Called In to Replace Striking Nurses
Trump and some governors may call in the National Guard to replace frontline workers.
After 19 patients died of COVID-19 at a nursing home in Northampton County, Penn., nurses went on strike to protest unsafe conditions.
Today, Democratic Governor Tom Wolfe sent the P.A. National Guard to man the facility, a threat that could be applied to other facilities where nurses are striking.
(For more check out the Morning Call)
Illinois SEIU Healthcare Threatens to Strike at 40 Nursing Homes on May 8th
In a sign of how widespread nurse strikes might become, SEIU Illinois Healthcare announced that they overwhelmingly passed a strike authorization vote to go on strike on May 8th.
“My co-workers and I have told our management that we need more PPE, and we need to know who has the virus in our facilities so we can help keep everyone safe, but they seem more focused on protecting their profits than protecting people,” said Francine Rico at Villa of Windsor Park in Chicago in a news release […]
The Most Revolutionary Act 
Pingback: Defying Trump’s Order, Nebraska Meat Packers Strike – And Other Strikes | The Most Revolutionary Act | AGR Daily News
Other than reading you and a few blogs, I’m on strike too in support of all these brave warriors!
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Good for you, Trace. The only way anything will change in the US is when workers withdraw their labor.
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DEAREST HEROIC VERCINGETORIXIAN MADAM.
You’re SUPER.
The “zylonic” (from the Science Fiction Movie “Starship Galactica”) Age – the actual Age of ROBOTS – starts with Humanity adopting Communism as follows:
… lenin murdered the good Trotzki, so lenin simply didn’t ever correctly interprete, nor enact correctly Karl Marx, but lenin acted injustly, evilly, like “KING” “david” did, some mere thousands of years ago.
We must just see this, but as a whole humanity. and that mao and jiang zemin were like Hitler inadvertendly due to many others telling him nonsense, and due to the simply likewise fascist anti-homosexual and against Women opressive and toward reason and science ignorant “orthodox” type of “jews”, who rather excel simply – maliciously, but so dumbly innoently, but simply evilly – at “anti-Satanism”, which is fanaticism, simply –
we must see, that hitler merely BELIEVED in nonsense, and ended up doing simply the same, and if under a different flag, as what mao and jiang zemin simply did, which was massmurder, evil – against INNOCENT People, – and not quite good, did mao nor hitler nor lenin do, crucially – and massively.
So, in relation to how yet the US government is now yet too conservatively led, rather misled, but not centrally by Trump, He’s merely the Administrator of another Agenda, which He simply doesn’t know, which would be some hinderlast villains, who want to unite the countries’ governments against me – against Jack Megatron, communist WMP. G oes NUHT! I AM BUSS of thish PLANET – “from behind”, from the rearmost Rear, – REALLY! REARLY! 🙂 Btw: Shakey meant “REAL” by “LEAR”, LOL. As in “lazy due to lack of information”, LOL, there bout enemies, LOL. 🙂
But Bernie gon fix this. After Bernie, the “bad” part of the US Line IS broken. And then, USA doesn’t lie in SHAMBLES anymore. It then just doesn’t LIE anymore. As in, it won’t makes LIES anymore, nor will it “GROVEL”, which even A ROBOT once so critically goodly psychologically told me NOT to do: NOT to be “DESPERATE”, nor DEPRESSIVE, simply.
You’re Somebody like Noam “Arthur” as I call Him, Chomsky, LOL, truly. I like You personally more, than I like Amy Goodman, but I agree to most of her Points, politically, – politically, She’s great, isn’t She. Also Al Jones IS ok, LOL, n NUHT a “big”, not a “STARK” “anti-Satanist” – LAVEY and REGARDIE be thanked, as He might yet learn about Them, mayhap! ON THE JOURNEY – English is SO NICE, NICEN, JA, REALLY! 🙂 HEIL or HASTA, as it fits. LOL, as it fittethe, hehe. JA? Cölnl KLINK UH KLINGON HIER JA. 🙂 Megatron happy n Over for now, good Madam, thanks a lot, that You care, n that You see things in perspective, in relation, within so brilliant real Objectivity.
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Thank you for your very kind comment, Megatron. I’m flattered to be compared to Vercingetorix. In my view, he was the real hero. The Romans were pigs.
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