A 2014 report warned that reforms to the NHS would make it vulnerable to pandemics – by making staff redundant, undermining public health and defining spare capacity as waste. It was ignored.
“Sick… guess we didn’t move quick enough after all…” — Stephen King, The Stand.
The Covid-19 Shock Meets an Impending Economic Recession
As of March 2020, the world is back to the future. The global financial crisis of 2007-08, which escalated into a global financial meltdown in September 2008, was supposed to be the big bang crisis, a once in a lifetime event. And yet, here we are again.
Some Canadian organizations are asking the federal government to focus any bailout of the oil industry on workers and families, not corporations.
The request comes in an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, released Tuesday morning and signed by environmental organizations, faith and labour groups that the signatories say represent about 1.3 million people.
“Giving billions of dollars to failing oil and gas companies will not help workers and only prolongs our reliance on fossil fuels,” the letter says.
“CONSTRUCTION WORKERS AREN’T SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS.”
– ANDREW MERCIER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE B.C. BUILDING TRADES COUNCIL
Construction workers are vital to maintaining critical infrastructure and must be kept safe, says BCBT
Construction workers from across B.C. say they are at risk because their working conditions do not allow them to follow basic health, hygiene and safety regulations.
Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau Hon. John Horgan
Prime Minister Premier of British Columbia
House of Commons West Annex, Parliament Buildings
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0H6 Victoria, BC., V8V 1X4 justin.trudeau@parl.gc.cajohn.horgan.mla@leg.bc.ca
Detroit bus drivers collectively declared Tuesday morning that they weren’t going to work without safety precautions. Bus service was canceled throughout the city because of “the driver shortage,” as city officials put it.
The drivers’ union backed them up and their brief work stoppage, less than 24 hours, won all their demands. Fares will not be collected for the duration of the coronavirus crisis.
“‘There is a rich man’s tuberculosis and a poor man’s tuberculosis. The rich man recovers and the poor man dies.’ This succinctly expresses the close embrace of economics and pathology.” – Dr. Norman Bethune, 1932
The pandemic is teaching us about what really matters — and has been possible all along
Before anything else I want to acknowledge what is unfolding in Canada and around the globe as a human tragedy. Even as this crisis offers an object lesson and has things to teach us, it is important to never lose sight of the scale of calamity in terms of suffering and loss of life.
