tv Americas Pandemic Workers Al Jazeera June 23, 2020 2:33am-3:01am +03
2:33 am
in the water what's been the result in poaching significantly informed opinions there has been a very aggressive political rhetoric that has become very normal in israeli society in-depth analysis of the day's global headlines it's time for new policy and say on the street that he cannot all be seen to grady what he's written in this the leading to over all continues inside story on al-jazeera. in march much of america went on lockdown the coded 1000 pandemic was surging the number of dead from the virus growing exponentially. only workers deemed essential were asked to report to work. over the last several months it's all for them to open their lives to us through video diaries and interviews. today is going to be a busy day for me i picked up quite a few shops a mother who shops for people who don't want to risk going to the store there's
2:34 am
only so much you can do whenever you're not aisle that's only like 4 feet across and scared for sure it sucks because we're not really getting what we need from shit my parents asked me all the time why do you do it because i don't have a choice i have to you know i still have to pay. to solve any empty well unless something more side working got only one job of the kind of 41. i can build and i know i'd like it it's $689.00 being out here being at the list of 2 options either i can ill do it the less 60 or i can choose the. alicia a father who drives her goober and left in an empty city trying to pay the bills. start a 16 hour shift. this virus is destroying people's lives. to get some of. this virus when it hits it's really something we're never seen before . feeling
2:35 am
a little bit don't want to go to work. but i want to go to work we have to get a 1st responder attempting to save lives fighting a novel virus that could kill him too. there was a positive corona virus case at amazon we were demanding that amazon shut down for 2 weeks and pay us all. or attacking us and having a complete disregard for our lives and that means we need to defend ourselves and we need to do everything in our power to change this system completely and an amazon worker who's fed up with corporate power. we want to inform you that last night we learned of a case of a contractor in ormoc. if i could be individuals like mark. if i could bring undergoing in here. and we're. starting
2:36 am
in late march workers at an amazon facility in chicago held a series of walkouts after hearing of coworkers testing positive for covert 19. they were demanding the company shut down their warehouse until they could guarantee it was sanitized and safe for them to return we just got another come on the case why are they still resisting the plane is the only make you think we've all learned. we have people. we have people that love. we don't want to get anybody this job 7 is not luck if we run this place. then i will say oh don't listen to any of our people wrong. we'll just be above that. place. man. that's all. right thank.
2:37 am
you but you really do not want to know there were nothing like the fault lines amazon said quote our top concern is ensuring the health and safety of our employees if you're not sorry you'll come on a night shift here. with so many sheltering at home and shopping online workers like christian were busier than ever that the money that is more valuable that are out there still greedy you know you. often are not us in our help us and our safety nothing. amazon would later and up 26 percent over this time last year and their stock value hit an all time high most of the stocks are seen as non-essential goods you know their sam's was being opened. because it's an essential. business. they should only be shipping essential goods. in the company when you know her inspiration bringing going to 175000 new people in mostly warehouse and delivery. just like solidarity of our neighbors our community.
2:38 am
even scab you know rat showdown was trying to bring. i'm exposed to. a lot on the ship shopper i am in the grocery store every morning at 8 am and i don't leave until around 4 pm i hustle hard. business was booming for shopping services too like insta car and shipped. my husband is a mechanic he works for a ford dealership their commission he's making about half of his normal pay luckily i haven't been able to make up the difference even as an employment in the us had nearly 15 percent in april these companies were bringing on thousands of new workers each day it is totally up to us to take your clubs are expensive they're like $10.00 a box a box in the last 3 days so actually i'm going to pan over here to mine so i have
2:39 am
my snacks and everything for the day i have a box of gloves over here my clorox wipes that i'm running low on but all of that down there is just. i have this mask that a friend of mine made for me. this one half as i think it's like 6 layers. in order to help protect me so when i get it and try to get this done quickly today wish me luck. to. ringback them. i have been a stay at home mom since before my daughter was born and so the 1st few days of shifting was so hard on me. this is where it gets really hard for me to talk about because it sucks. when i get home in order to protect my family the best i can
2:40 am
i don't want my daughter hurt me when i come in the door. she would run up to me and want to give me a hug and all i could do is no stop stop don't touch me baby i got to go take a shower of germs arnie what really sucks is that i could be doing that and still be caring cobe it is i and store every single day. so listen you could lose your numbers and we have in. i nor i have a commodity to pay the bills when you miss the most forceful. recess he said has unfortunately lost. 3 to 4 hours i didn't even got a single job i'm missing school now missing school. like staying at
2:41 am
all let the only thing i can try to pay my balance to come out and work if i come out and vote and there's no work. i don't know what to do i believe don't. as my life ali tries for hooper in lived in philadelphia he and other driver saw work try up overnight stay at home waters went into effect . also have to make payments. for the least elisa's guard and as an independent contractor like so many in the cook economy they tell themselves with no safety net install needing to pay high overhead cost. and i have not just ignored by news about any of them sold. us so saying. as you can see that is slow to leave no one out so all that i was also doing at home getting calls home phone and their asking me different questions what they
2:42 am
should do more so would a board be you a but not me unemployment assistance all of them are waiting when it will come and we daily. so finally i got the job i got the job for $1.00 it would take me about 10 minutes. the job promised them in the prices $3.80 what i would get. after driving for so long as your sentence is super duper quiet i was not. see all those blogs and so i would just close. the cans on the off of it post people don't want to hear it and not going to another job lesley and hope that this one more good comes on. you know i'm in for another 16 i don't know what's we expect things are. crazy.
2:43 am
people are tired. by april the us was the epicenter of the pandemic and new york had the most dust of any state by far you have wonderful mts america but they're also young and inexperienced. and i think about that because this is going to weigh on them. to see this much death. i'm also woman's house. this woman's husband was to take care of his mom. passed away now the mother passed away you know or are these later. of course she's seen them freeze all covered. in this house where 2 people died. the mother and son. in about 2 months the number of deaths in new york was surpassed 30000. hospitals or more overflowing with patients and bodies to be a paramedic this some of the most amazing people into paramedics you know the be
2:44 am
one you have to have some type of reservoir who does something down there that. you're able to dip into that keeps you hopeful. with this pandemic that reservoirs empty. you know your messages from people who say they're drinking too much when they go home but they can't sleep they have nightmares. and one this weekend tell me they were they were killing themselves i'm sure there's others. there's a tough tour. of the tour just kind of sit on the beach and they're the authority . and we get paid $35000.00 less than the firefighters and cops. e.m.'s over the last 4 years as lost 60 percent of its workforce they leave because they're that making any money here in the benefits and you need
2:45 am
people with experience in regular times to manage this stuff. why are the best members a struggle here we are trying to you know fight this enemy that you know this is a losing so much against and then we. can even pay the rent. ok everyone really needs to work. with. them is on to not shut down they're worried about making money they're worried about moving the packages. as the weeks went on the company began texting christian of his coworkers to notify them of the latest kovi cases in their warehouse. despite additional safety measures that amazon added like temperature checks thorough cleaning and protective equipment the techs kept coming doesn't feel great to go in but you know many of my coworkers are also in this same situation and so you know we need to go
2:46 am
in here and and we need to fight and so here i am. that's what. we have been news today actually one of our coworkers that is a part of our organizing committee she entries she just got diagnosed positive with called the 19. this what we were trying to prevent now she has it is basically very angry as far as we've been told we have 4 no 4 come from cases but we know there's more we know than amazon is and timing is about everything this is completely unacceptable very angry and it's also it's also kind of scary you know. according to news reports there have been 8 known deaths of amazon employees in the u.s. from cope at 19. amazon to not give us an interview but in a statement they told us they've spent more than $800000000.00 in the 1st half of the year koeppen $1000.00 related safety measures. these attacks point just being sent to workers in chicago recover. did in fact bring you here not be taken
2:47 am
in protest or an only happening outside of amazon and that robot i met bankers across the country were demanding more this is the time that we need to make changes this is the time that we need to get organized. and. when you. route instead of grass. i have took the day off yesterday to try to help my daughter with some homework trying to just get a little bit a one on one time with her. because she's really missing me being at home with her it was a day of like normal for us which was nice. morning everyone so so this morning i woke up to the stimulus check of my bank account which makes me feel really good it just went straight into our savings account because i don't have
2:48 am
health insurance and putting myself at risk every single day is 7 40 in the morning ashley is also an independent contractor not an employee mind theory for her contractors can help save companies money because they are required to pay a minimum wage overtime offer health insurance sick leave family wait for compensation if someone gets injured on the job. i'm warner's. done employees also don't have the legal right to form a union in the co shape for better contract so if they don't like the terms the companies can say they're free to go. i still do not have tracking on my protective equipment there's still no i and for many cars are pain so i can at least pay for my own equipment or not getting what we need or we're asking for and we're not really asking for a lot. on april 7th should they get home and protest asking for hazard pay $5.00
2:49 am
for water and company provided protective equipment people for every shopper. and the we were we were going to get. there providing us oxen and a 6 hour ties or if i didn't have to do this for the money that i'm getting paid to do it i wouldn't be. just because of the risk that is going into it. has been ian's my health and that's what going to do i would rather help my family financially and go through my day feeling unappreciated and underpaid then to lose everything that my husband has worked so hard for for our family. finally received. yesterday in late april ashley told us she got one box of gloves and 2 small bottles
2:50 am
a hand sanitizer from shipped in the mail. she also got a small bonus but so far there's no hazard pay this is what we're getting shipped to condor requests for an interview card we've shipped shipped as a same day service for the instant heart grab. all these different services where somebody is working for a company and providing a special service is a typical service i am on my way to the same ship the chances are they're getting paid less than minimum wage the whole point of a gig service is that the company can make x. amount of dollars whenever they only have to pay their employees very very little because the tip of. the line. for good
2:51 am
workers like ashley and ali some relief came with the passage of a law in late march called the cares act it allowed contractors to apply for unemployment insurance a benefit they would normally be excluded from only was able to apply for this at the end of april so i'm here. on employment so it is. i am receiving it on a $45.00 every week also the drivers have to make weekly car. shows so with this. kind of $45.00 i'm getting it we must need $500.00 just to pay for our cars then we left with $300.00 from this be us money. so the question is is that enough to pay more goods bills and food and clothes both and but no it's not enough. the situation is critical we don't know what will happen in future keep our fingers crossed.
2:52 am
i mean i. just finished a nother 16 hour shift. and. it was busy another busy day. fortunately this morning i got news last night when the e m t's in the bronx who has about a year and a half on the job another young kid dealing with an unprecedented amount of people dying in the streets killed himself. and his own life. it sounds fine western queens the medics who found him in the street transformed the bellevue when it was nothing that you do. the last few months without trouble coping with what he's seeing with paul but. he's probably not going to be the last there's going to be more.
2:53 am
2:54 am
america was be the best rated as would you and so. far from it. everybody dropped well. by june more than 100000 people had died from the crown of ours in the us. and one in 4 american workers had filed for unemployment. more than 40000000 people. what's of young. made it june 2020 it's the halfway point of this new year of the sub 3rd decade of the new millennium could hear helicopters. all day long to find out. the protests are going to happen not too far. just as chronic
2:55 am
cases were starting to slow hundreds of thousands of americans lost their homes and flooded the streets in a wave of civic actions demanding an end to police violence and justice for george floyd one of the latest unarmed black men to be killed by police. and we're still dealing with coded. the counting of coronavirus tests revealed that like the police it too was disproportionately killing black people. this moment also revealed that essential workers are disproportionately people of color and the lowest paid we've now had at least 10. cases. d.c.h. one management has notified us about. the time the pandemic and we know that the country will be different. but we don't know is how. now. june
2:56 am
amazon has decided to take away or to dollar hazard they have deemed we no longer need. because. everything to return to normal you know this is making a lot of my coworkers angry and it's making a lot of folks. usually don't get angry you know. i have officially. about. 3 weeks that. i want to say 2 or 3 weeks of the pandemic tips were really good but then as the years started to settle and people were asking her to get out then start going down i'm getting paid i have some of my shops only $7.00 and a shop to our house so i got paid $7.00 which is not even minimum wage for an hour's worth of work it just became not worth it anymore. no walkout in my
2:57 am
opinion was successful and to 8 weeks in fact we're not going to get all our demands at one time and still all those things happen i won't go back unless i have to tell all man because i will not be taken advantage of and i will not be treated like an disposable i will not work for pains and die as a good book i have realized that. we are one of the big part of this economy but we didn't have anywhere for direction our biggest fight will be against us all these big companies to make sure we get our rights only now but for future. protests need to happen to me to be reform maybe needs to be all torn down so that
2:58 am
we can start over again because the system we have is being. called will happen people can go one paycheck. one peach or that's a system that's failed america's america look at salt in the mirror and do it you know where it's when we've won as a country to be like chip in this. religious belief that we only to play our part in making this world a better place to live in our bodies mass movements make a change right now they're getting out into the streets we're organizing marches that's the basis of how it is that we're going to create change in the society.
2:59 am
is the. kenyan journalists in pursuit of press freedom and justice i have the feeling faint esp a situation where someone says but they cannot afford being cool and investigating government corruption and the national health care system the more they can't function testing i think the collapse. of money that is unexplained to africa uncensored and publish those things up people don't want to publish even if it doesn't mean that the us truth is it anyway on al-jazeera. a
3:00 am
diverse range of stories from across the globe from the perspective of our networks journalists on al-jazeera. the arab. a spike in u.s. colonial virus cases in states that east restrictions but that's not stopping new york city from reopening for business. i'm about as and this is obviously a live from doha also coming up french president emmanuel blackhole slams turkey's role in the libyan conflict as calls grow for a political solution to the crisis. the 1st migrant rescue ship allowed to dock and it's only since the pan.
19 Views
Uploaded by TV Archive on
