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Indybay Feature
ILWU & Migrant Organizations Defend Grand Princess Crew & US Workers
The Bay Area ILWU and migrant rights organizations joined together to support the Grand Princess crew health and safety as. well as the health and safety conditions of longshore workers and all port workers. They also discussed the fight of all working people to defend and protect their health and safety rights.
An Injury To One Is An Injury To All: IWLU/Migrant Organizations Defend Grand Princess Crew & All Workers
ILWU and IBU unionists joined with migrant community activists to call for the repatriation of the Grand Princess crew as well as proper healthcare for port and all US workers.
Speakers also reported the Cal-OSHA has only 1 doctor and 1 nurse for 19 million workers and they have not been able to. go on the ship to see what the safety conditions are.
There are less that 200 OSHA inspectors for California workers.
Speakers at the event included:
— Robert Irminger, Chair of the ILWU Inlandboatmen’s Union Bay Area
— Jack Heyman, chair of the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, retired ILWU longshoreman and former Ship Inspector for the International Transport Workers Federation.
— Trent Willis, President of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 representing dockworkers in the port of Oakland and San Francisco.
— Ricky Cox, Vice President of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 34 representing ship clerks in the port of Oakland and San Francisco.
— Terry Valen, Director, Filipino Community Center, and President, National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON)
— Jenabi Pareja, Spokesperson, Migrante Norcal
— Steve Zeltzer, WorkWeek KPOO, Pacifica Labor Correspondent
— Dr. Nayvin Gordon, Medical Advocate for Poor & Working People
The ILWU also reported that the PMA has refused to provide proper protection for their members who work on the port.
This event was sponsored by United Public Workers For Action
http://www.upwa.info
&
The Transport Workers Solidarity Committee.
http://www.transportworkers.org
Additional media:
"Prisoners On The Grand Princess Petri Dish” Will The Crew Be Quarantined To Die On The Sea?]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0ZwWb6cieE&t=208s
Feds say they will evacuate, quarantine passengers from Grand Princess but not the crew
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/feds-say-they-will-evacuate-quarantine-passengers-from-grand-princess-but-not-the-crew/ar-BB10RZN6
518 Filipinos among the crew members of the Grand Princess
6 Filipinos aboard Grand Princess cruise ship reportedly test positive for COVID-19
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1238166/who-6-filipinos-aboard-grand-princess-cruise-ship-reportedly-test-positive-for-covid-19#ixzz6GOigslZW
Coronavirus, Worker Dangers & Crisis In CA with Dr. Larry Rose Former Medical Director Cal-OSHA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8VZ6EuI6kQ
"When Nurses Aren't Safe, Patients Aren't Safe" UCSF NNU-CNA Nurses Rally On Coronavirus Pandemic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTbtM_5p9jY
National Nurses United Response To COVID-19
https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/covid-19
UCSF Nurses Say We Are Not Prepared For Ebola! NNU CNA Nurses Demand Mandatory Protocols
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIIEnJuMhl4
Production of Labor Video Project
http://www.laborvideo.org
International Dockworkers Council
Coordination Office C/Mar,97-4o·08003Barcelona·Spain ■ Ph:+34932252528 ■ Fax:+34932216588 coordination [at] idcdockworkers.org
March 13, 2020
Call for medical attention for the crew of the Grand Princess cruise
The cruise ship Grand Princess, finally docked in the port of Oakland, California, after four days in front the coast of Sant Francisco waiting for the final decision of the officials, is unloading all of its passengers on board.
Passengers are being redirected to various US military bases for quarantine or put into charter flights in case of non-US citizens; while the more than one thousand members of the crew are retained inside the Grand Princess.
Of these crew members, 19 have tested positive for covid-19, but are still not receiving the same treatment as the passengers, being quarantined on board, in isolated chambers.
Princess Cruisers has declared the infected crewmembers as "asymptomatic", apparently enough reason not to treat them as the passengers, with the risk this entails for their own health and the one of their colleagues. On the contrary, passengers infected of covid-19, have been sent to hospitals.
The International Dockworkers Council (IDC) calls on the competent authorities and the cruise line to provide immediate medical attention in hospital conditions to those affected and to carry out the necessary checks to ensure that the rest of the crew is not infected.
In the face of a humanitarian crisis such as the one described, we must show solidarity and provide the necessary means, including repatriation if necessary, rather than acting in a discriminatory and, in our view, negligent manner.
In solidarity,
International Council of Dockworkers -IDC-
ILWU and IBU unionists joined with migrant community activists to call for the repatriation of the Grand Princess crew as well as proper healthcare for port and all US workers.
Speakers also reported the Cal-OSHA has only 1 doctor and 1 nurse for 19 million workers and they have not been able to. go on the ship to see what the safety conditions are.
There are less that 200 OSHA inspectors for California workers.
Speakers at the event included:
— Robert Irminger, Chair of the ILWU Inlandboatmen’s Union Bay Area
— Jack Heyman, chair of the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, retired ILWU longshoreman and former Ship Inspector for the International Transport Workers Federation.
— Trent Willis, President of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 representing dockworkers in the port of Oakland and San Francisco.
— Ricky Cox, Vice President of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 34 representing ship clerks in the port of Oakland and San Francisco.
— Terry Valen, Director, Filipino Community Center, and President, National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON)
— Jenabi Pareja, Spokesperson, Migrante Norcal
— Steve Zeltzer, WorkWeek KPOO, Pacifica Labor Correspondent
— Dr. Nayvin Gordon, Medical Advocate for Poor & Working People
The ILWU also reported that the PMA has refused to provide proper protection for their members who work on the port.
This event was sponsored by United Public Workers For Action
http://www.upwa.info
&
The Transport Workers Solidarity Committee.
http://www.transportworkers.org
Additional media:
"Prisoners On The Grand Princess Petri Dish” Will The Crew Be Quarantined To Die On The Sea?]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0ZwWb6cieE&t=208s
Feds say they will evacuate, quarantine passengers from Grand Princess but not the crew
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/feds-say-they-will-evacuate-quarantine-passengers-from-grand-princess-but-not-the-crew/ar-BB10RZN6
518 Filipinos among the crew members of the Grand Princess
6 Filipinos aboard Grand Princess cruise ship reportedly test positive for COVID-19
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1238166/who-6-filipinos-aboard-grand-princess-cruise-ship-reportedly-test-positive-for-covid-19#ixzz6GOigslZW
Coronavirus, Worker Dangers & Crisis In CA with Dr. Larry Rose Former Medical Director Cal-OSHA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8VZ6EuI6kQ
"When Nurses Aren't Safe, Patients Aren't Safe" UCSF NNU-CNA Nurses Rally On Coronavirus Pandemic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTbtM_5p9jY
National Nurses United Response To COVID-19
https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/covid-19
UCSF Nurses Say We Are Not Prepared For Ebola! NNU CNA Nurses Demand Mandatory Protocols
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIIEnJuMhl4
Production of Labor Video Project
http://www.laborvideo.org
International Dockworkers Council
Coordination Office C/Mar,97-4o·08003Barcelona·Spain ■ Ph:+34932252528 ■ Fax:+34932216588 coordination [at] idcdockworkers.org
March 13, 2020
Call for medical attention for the crew of the Grand Princess cruise
The cruise ship Grand Princess, finally docked in the port of Oakland, California, after four days in front the coast of Sant Francisco waiting for the final decision of the officials, is unloading all of its passengers on board.
Passengers are being redirected to various US military bases for quarantine or put into charter flights in case of non-US citizens; while the more than one thousand members of the crew are retained inside the Grand Princess.
Of these crew members, 19 have tested positive for covid-19, but are still not receiving the same treatment as the passengers, being quarantined on board, in isolated chambers.
Princess Cruisers has declared the infected crewmembers as "asymptomatic", apparently enough reason not to treat them as the passengers, with the risk this entails for their own health and the one of their colleagues. On the contrary, passengers infected of covid-19, have been sent to hospitals.
The International Dockworkers Council (IDC) calls on the competent authorities and the cruise line to provide immediate medical attention in hospital conditions to those affected and to carry out the necessary checks to ensure that the rest of the crew is not infected.
In the face of a humanitarian crisis such as the one described, we must show solidarity and provide the necessary means, including repatriation if necessary, rather than acting in a discriminatory and, in our view, negligent manner.
In solidarity,
International Council of Dockworkers -IDC-
For more information:
https://youtu.be/VBNx0ZxIGiY
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Filipino crew of coronavirus-hit cruise ship not going home yet – DFA
https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/3/9/Coronavirus-Grand-Princess-cruise-ship-repatriation.html?fbclid=IwAR0TDGffT2TkKGQjVuW6r0yx32d32nX2UCFx3bZ0hTbAHzR93LVP7yekodg
By CNN Philippines StaffPublished Mar 9, 2020 3:38:07 PM
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 9) — The passengers of coronavirus-hit Grand Princess cruise ship will be disembarking on Tuesday (Philippine time), but the hundreds of Filipino crew members won't be able to go home yet, a foreign affairs official said Monday.Over 2,800 passengers including nine Filipinos on board the ship docked in San Francisco, California are set to disembark in Oakland. But Department of Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Ed Meñez said 529 Filipino crew members and hundreds of their colleagues have to stay behind to complete quarantine requirements."Tomorrow, ibababa na ang passengers. There will be a quick disembarkation tapos lalabas ulit ang ship. Ang crew doon muna sila sa ship for quarantine procedures," he said.[Translation: Tomorrow, the passengers will quickly disembark, then the ship will go out again. The crew will stay on the ship for quarantine procedures]DFA said it prefers to bring home the Filipinos instead of staying inside the ship to prevent a repeat of the fate of Diamond Princess cruise ship, which is criticized for its lapses in stopping the spread of coronavirus."Kung ano ang recommendations ng US authorities, we will follow that. But of course if there are no restrictions, ang gobyerno natin gusto pauwiin kaagad ang mga kasamahan natin — subject to the recommendation of our own DOH," Meñez said.[Translation: We will follow the recommendation of US authorities. But of course if there are no restrictions, our government would like send home our countrymen, subject to the recommendation fo our own DOH]Of 46 people on the ship so far tested, 21 were found infected, US authorities announced on Monday. Of the 21 people who tested positive, 19 were crew members of the ship and two were passengers.The Health Department is scouting for other options where repatriated Filipinos may be quarantined. The Filipinos previously brought home from China's Wuhan province were quarantined in the New Clark City in Tarlac. Over 400 Filipino crew members from the Diamond Princess cruise ship are set to complete their 14-day quarantine on March 11 in the same facility.The Grand Princess has been docked since Thursday when US officials learned a California man who traveled earlier on the same ship last month died of coronavirus.
International Transport Workers' Federation Letter On Grand Princess
ITF House
49-60 Borough Road
London SE1 1DR
Telephone 44 (0)20 7403 2733
Fax 44(0)20 7357. 7871
Following the information that the cruise vessel Grand Princess has safely berthed in Oakland, California and the disembarkation operation of the passengers and crew are underway, the ITF wants to put on record our appreciation for the work of all those involved and those that have been directly or indirectly affected.
The unprecedented and unexpected developments brought on by the rapid spread of coronavirus (COVID- 19) has had a major impact on the health of the world’s population, but it has also had a significant impact on the global economy, in particular the cruise industry has been negatively affected by the virus along with tourism in general.
Whist governments are implementing measures to limit the spread and the scientific community is working towards providing a vaccine, the ITF want to acknowledge the exceptional professionalism, spirit and sacrifice of the seafarers working relentlessly to ensure the health and safety of the passengers while themselves being under tremendous pressure and uncertainty.
The seafarers working on cruise ships are from all over the world and from all different cultures. They have left their family and friends in order to earn a living, but their excellent work, sacrifice and the fundamental role they play to ensure the success of the cruise industry are seldom acknowledged or recognised.
ITF affiliates globally and our ITF Inspectorate are working closely together to ensure continuous communication with the cruise line, the relevant authorities and the seafarers to secure that the necessary protection is given and equal consideration on health and care is provided to both crew and passengers on board.
The ITF commends our affiliates and Princess Cruises for all their work and efforts to find solutions for the seafarers on board the Grand Princess and also for all crew on board Princess Cruise’s fleet as a consequence of the dramatic, but responsible and necessary decision taken by the company yesterday to temporarily suspend all of their cruises.
The ITF urges the relevant authorities, both the flag state, the port state and the company to facilitate the transit and repatriation of the seafarers so that they are able to get home quickly and safely. The ITF also wants to remind governments and companies that seafarers have the right to the same level of health care and protection as the passengers.
Our thoughts and solidarity are with all the seafarers and their families affected. Whilst the hope is for the cruise industry to recover quickly since it is an important workplace for thousands of seafarers worldwide, it is vital that common sense prevails and that due consideration and assistance is given to ensure the health and wellbeing of seafarers especially those that might be stranded in a foreign port.
California Workers Health & Safety Under Threat By Attacks on Ca-OSHA Program, Only 1 Doctor & 1 Nurse At Cal-OSHA
"Because of internal administrative changes over the last 20 years, Cal/OSHA has almost lost the capacity to conduct “health” inspections related to worker exposure to chemicals, noise, biohazards, radiation, and ergonomic hazards."
California Future of Work Commission San Francisco Hearing – March 12, 2020
Statement by Garrett Brown, MPH, CIH, former staff of Cal/OSHA (1993-2014) Compliance Safety and Health Officer and Special Assistant to the Chief of the Division
A critical element for the future of work, and the future of workers and their families in California, is a fully-staffed and fully-resourced workplace health and safety agency that can protect the health, safety and legal rights of the state’s 19+ million workers.
This critical element is missing today, has been missing for years now under both Republican and Democratic Administrations, and Cal/OSHA must be rebuilt as soon as possible. The best regulations and standards in the world – and California has led the way in promulgating many of these – are not worth the paper they are written on unless there is a strong and credible enforcement agency able to establish a “level playing field” that will recognize the efforts of responsible employers and hold accountable employers who gamble with the lives and futures of their workforce.
Cal/OSHA’s severe understaffing
There is a staffing crisis at Cal/OSHA – the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or DOSH – today. According to the agency’s Organization Charts for February 2020:
• Out of 244 funded positions for field enforcement inspectors (CSHOs), there are 52 vacant positions – a vacancy rate of 21.3%;
• Some regions of the state are especially hobbled: the San Francisco Bay Area (Region I) has a vacancy rate of 41% -- with a vacancy rate of 64% in the Fremont District Office, 43% in the San Francisco, and 33% in the Oakland office;
• There are only 192 CSHOs available statewide to conduct inspections for a workforce of more than 19 million workers and more than one million workplaces;
• There are huge gaps in DOSH’s leadership capabilities with two of six Regional Manager positions vacant, and five District Offices without a Manager.
The standard international measure of enforcement capability is a ratio of the number of enforcement inspectors to workers. The state of Washington has a ratio of one inspector for every 28,000 workers, while the state of Oregon has a ratio of one inspector for every 22,000 workers. The ratio in California is one inspector for every 104,000 workers.
Surely the workforce of California deserves the same level of protection as the workers in Oregon and Washington.
Moreover, Cal/OSHA has only 186.5 workplace safety inspectors actually available for field inspections, fewer than the 250 Fish & Game Wardens employed by the state. Surely California’s workers deserve the same level of protection as the state’s wild life.
At the same time, because of internal administrative changes over the last 20 years, Cal/OSHA has almost lost the capacity to conduct “health” inspections related to worker exposure to chemicals, noise, biohazards, radiation, and ergonomic hazards. DOSH has only a handful of “industrial hygienists” that are trained to evaluate and control health hazards like the Coronavirus, or airborne silica or lead exposures, or other toxic chemicals. Cal/OSHA is not currently capable of protecting of the “health” portion of worker health and safety.
Cal/OSHA also has almost no bilingual capacity among its field enforcement inspectors. Only 28 CSHOs are certified by the state as bilingual inspectors – 26 in Spanish, one in Cantonese and one in Vietnamese. It is estimated that more than 5 million workers in California speak languages other than English, with many monolingual in their native tongues.
Lastly, California’s record in protecting whistle-blowers reporting unsafe and illegal working conditions is simply shameful. It is not Cal/OSHA but rather a sister agency, the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE), that is responsible for investigating reports of employer retaliation and reprisals against whistle-blowers. DLSE has only five investigators for the entire state and it takes more than a year for complaints to be resolved. The Federal government has repeatedly rebuked California for failing to protect whistle-blowers against firings and blacklisting by employers.
Why the staffing crisis?
The hollowing-out of Cal/OSHA to its current state of weakness is not due to lack of allocated resources. DOSH is funded by the Federal government, by a surcharge on worker compensation premiums paid by employers, and by special funds such a fee on refinery operations by the state’s 15 oil refineries. In fact, multiple California Administrations have “left money on the table” by failing to spend the funds available for DOSH.
It has been primarily a failure of political will give provide Cal/OSHA with the staffing and resources it needs to protect the state’s workers. One administration after another has been more concerned about keeping corporate campaign contributors and business interests happy than with preventing injuries, illnesses and deaths on the job.
The recent level of vacancies – generated by a wave of retirements – has occurred in large part because the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR, Cal/OSHA’s parent agency) has been stripped of its ability to hire and promote internally without the supervision by the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR). CalHR’s oversight means an already lengthy hiring process has slowed to an absolute crawl.
The CalHR oversight was imposed because of the misconduct of former DIR Director Christine Baker. Both the State Auditor and State Personnel Board found that Baker had engaged in nepotism at DIR and then retaliated against employees who reported the malfeasance. In response, DIR’s lost its ability to directly hire and promote internally.
How to begin fixing the problem
The following immediate and longer term steps need to be taken now by the current Administration to reverse the crisis situation at Cal/OSHA and to ensure that the state has the capability to protect workers in the 21st century:
• Restore DIR’s ability to hire and promote internally;
• Work with CalHR and DIR to streamline the hiring process and focus on the skills and
experience needed to do Cal/OSHA’s work;
• Work with CalHR to adjust the inspector classifications in Cal/OSHA so that industrial
hygienists needed for the workplace “health” program can be hired and supported;
• Ensure that the state-generated funding for DOSH – including the worker comp fees and
the refinery fee – are fully available to and used by the agency, and not returned to
employers; and
• Develop a step-by-step plan to expand Cal/OSHA’s staff – consultants, medical unit,
standard-setting as well as enforcement – to meet at least the levels of neighboring states like Oregon and Washington.
California has the fifth largest economy in the world, it is the home of global technological innovation, its filmmakers create the dreams of people the world over – and yet California’s workers do not have the protections today enjoyed by working people in other US states, let alone in other advanced industrial countries.
The future of work in California – as elsewhere – depends on a workforce whose right to speak and act in their own name without fear of reprisal, and whose right to go home at the end of the day without injury and disease is protected by state agencies that have the staffing and resources to do their job. This is not the case in California today.
The future is ours for the making, and I urge this Commission to make the recommendations that will reverse this situation and make California the national model in workplace health and safety it deserves to be.
Attachments:
• Summary chart of DOSH compliance safety and health officer staffing (3 pages)
• Copies of the DOSH monthly Organization Charts for February 2020 (6 pages)
Submitted by:
Garrett Brown
info [at] insidecalosha.org
"Prisoners On The Grand Princess Petri Dish" Will The Crew Be Quarantined To Die On The Sea?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BAlHwbUSRY
The contaminated Grand Princess ship is now docked in the Port of Oakland. While the passengers are being evacuated, the crew is being told that they are be quarantined out at sea when the passengers are evacuated.
With the ship now a petri dish similar to the Diamond Princess in Okinawa will these crew members now be sent out on a death ship leaving many of them to die at sea?
California Governor Newsom at a press conference on the evacuation of the ship said he was only concerned about the passengers even when pressed by reporters about the right to evacuation by the crew.
This is the question that was addressed by former ITF Port Agent Jack Heyman who is a retired member of ILWU Local 10.
He discusses the labor rights of the crew including the right to be repatriated to their country. Over 500 of the workers are Filipinos and the racist attacks by Pence and Trump aimed at workers in other countries is connected to how these workers are being treated according to Jack Heyman. This interview was done on 3/11/20.
Additional media:
Feds say they will evacuate, quarantine passengers from Grand Princess but not the crew
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/feds-say-they-will-evacuate-quarantine-passengers-from-grand-princess-but-not-the-crew/ar-BB10RZN6
518 Filipinos among the crew members of the Grand Princess
6 Filipinos aboard Grand Princess cruise ship reportedly test positive for COVID-19
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1238166/who-6-filipinos-aboard-grand-princess-cruise-ship-reportedly-test-positive-for-covid-19#ixzz6GOigslZW
WorkWeek
https://soundcloud.com/workweek-radio
Production of Labor Video Project
http://www.laborvideo.org
"When Nurses Aren't Safe, Patients Aren't Safe" UCSF NNU-CNA Nurses Rally On Coronavirus Pandemic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTbtM_5p9jY
UCSF NNU CNA nurses rallied and spoke out about the growing dangers facing frontline healthcare workers.
They reported that they are having to re-use masks and that the CDC has downgraded health and safety
protections for nurses and other healthcare workers.
UCSF NNU CNA nurses also discussed the serious understaffing of the hospital threatening proper
protection and safety for the staff and and patients even without the pandemic. The World Health
Organization on the same day labeled this a world pandemic which is the first pandemic since 1919.
The UCSF management according to the nurses has refused to provide information about the serious
issues facing the nurses and also refused to comment to the media about the re-use of masks and other issues.
Additional media:
National Nurses United Response To COVID-19
https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/covid-19
UCSF Nurses Say We Are Not Prepared For Ebola! NNU CNA Nurses Demand Mandatory Protocols
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIIEnJuMhl4
WorkWeek
https://soundcloud.com/workweek-radio
Production of Labor Video Project
http://www.laborvideo.org
19 crew members on the Grand Princess cruise ship docked in Oakland tested positive for the coronavirus but are not being taken off because they're 'asymptomatic,' the company said
Crew members were especially at risk, since they still had to share cabins, bring food to passengers, and eat together in a mess hall.
https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-infected-crew-members-kept-on-grand-princess-cruise-ship-2020-3
Coronavirus, Worker Dangers & Crisis In CA with Dr. Larry Rose Former Medical Director Cal-OSHA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8VZ6EuI6kQ
Dr. Larry Rose, former CA-OSHA Medical Director talks about the danger to workers and the public with coronavirus and the massive staffing crisis in California with only one doctor and one nurse for the 19 million workers of California. According to Dr. Rose, the lack of staffing at Cal-OSHA prevents the agency from protecting workers and the public in the growing coronavirus pandemic in California and the world.
Cal-OSHA is tasked with investigating health and safety violations and has only around 200 inspectors in California to enforce California OSHA regulations.
He reports that workers could also be fired by bosses for wearing masks on job to protect their safety.
Rose also talks about the corruption of the former Division of Industrial Relations DIR Christine Baker who bullied Cal-OSHA workers and colluded with companies to limit enforcement and liability on corporations. She also engaged in fraud putting her daughter in a no-show job at $120,000 a year. She was forced to resign after a state audit but former governor Jerry Brown before he left office appointed her to the California Fraud Assessment Commission FAC and Governor Gavin Newsom let her take this position.
This interview took place on 23/7/20 by Pacifica correspondent Steve Zeltzer who also produces WorkWeek on KPOO.
Pacifica Correspondent
WorkWeek
https://soundcloud.com/workweek-radio
Labor Video Project
http://www.laborvideo.org
Cancellations due to coronavirus drive fear among cruise workers about being sent home without pay
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/03/12/filipino-cruise-workers-coronavirus-pay/
Cruise Ship Owners Cover-up, Coronavirus pandemic tests clout of cruise industry and its long-standing ties to Trump
As the coronavirus crisis unfolded, the industry began a public-relations campaign aimed at reassuring people that cruises are safe and sanitary.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/coronavirus-pandemic-tests-clout-of-cruise-industry-and-its-long-standing-ties-to-trump/2020/03/12/3f79a1ba-63aa-11ea-912d-d98032ec8e25_story.html
Huddled with donors at his private Mar-a-Lago Club on Friday, President Trump told supporters that he was intent on protecting the cruise industry from the fallout of the coronavirus crisis — even as top health officials and other key advisers were privately pushing him to keep the public off the ships.
Two days later, the State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned U.S. citizens, particularly those with medical issues, not to travel by cruise ship, sending the industry into a panic, according to people familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions.
The administration’s whipsawing posture has led to an intensive behind-the-scenes lobbying effort by cruise executives to mitigate the financial fallout from the virus, which has infected passengers and crew members on at least two Carnival-owned Princess Cruise ships.
The coming days will test the clout of the industry, which has long-standing connections to Trump, including through Carnival Corp. chairman Micky Arison, a friend whose company helped sponsor Trump’s reality show franchise “The Apprentice” over the years.
The cruise lines have raced to get ahead of further government action, voluntarily suspending a small number of voyages this week and pitching to the White House a plan to safeguard passengers.
But stock value of cruise companies has plummeted as the industry struggled to deal with the infections on the two ships and warnings from health experts about the risks of such travel.
Cancellations due to coronavirus drive fear among cruise workers about being sent home without pay
Trump appears sympathetic and has said he wants to help the cruise lines. At the donor event Friday, the president brought up the industry and said he did not want it to shut it down or for it to suffer job losses, according to three people familiar with his remarks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the closed-door event.
A White House spokesman declined to comment.
Trump echoed that sentiment publicly Monday, saying at a White House news conference that he was concerned that cruise lines and airlines “will be hit.”
“We’re working with them very, very strongly,” he said. “We want them to travel.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday that the administration was considering emergency assistance for affected industries. “This is not a bailout. This is considering providing certain things for certain industries. Airlines, hotels, cruise lines,” he said.
But at the same time, several top health officials and members of the administration’s coronavirus task force have been pushing for a tougher stance and wanted to impose a temporary ban on Americans going on cruise ships, according to people familiar with the conversations.
They included Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma and Surgeon General Jerome Adams, the people said.
The advisories from the State Department and the CDC were recommended by the White House coronavirus task force, according to an administration official who said Trump and Vice President Pence knew about them in advance.
Cruise industry, an economic engine in Florida, could be hit hard by coronavirus advisories
There has been mounting frustration with the cruise industry’s handling of the crisis among top administration officials, including in the office of Pence, according to people with knowledge of their thinking.
The lack of a clear mitigation plan for ships with outbreaks has forced the government to handle the expensive and complicated logistics of evacuating and quarantining thousands of potentially infected passengers this week aboard the Grand Princess in Oakland, an operation that has drawn in the National Guard and the Defense Department, among other agencies.
On Thursday, Princess Cruises announced that it was voluntarily canceling trips on its 18 ships worldwide through May 10, following a similar temporary suspension by Viking. Carnival, which owns Princess Cruises as well as Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line and several other lines, has not announced whether others will follow suit.
In its proposal, the industry said it plans to deny boarding to anyone older than 70 unless they have a doctor’s note, said people familiar with the plan. People who are obviously ill won’t be allowed to board. The plan also addresses testing passengers for the virus while they are on ships and how cruise lines will pay for the care of sick passengers or crew members.
However, some administration officials do not think the proposal goes far enough to screen passengers or deal with an outbreak, the people said.
Bari Golin-Blaugrund, a spokeswoman for the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the industry’s trade group, said the industry is focused on the health and safety of its guests and crew.
“CLIA has participated as-invited in briefings with policymakers since the emergence of the crisis which culminated with a meeting with Vice President Pence,” she said in a statement. “We have submitted an industry-funded plan to the government consistent with input from government officials that doesn’t come with a price tag for taxpayers. Some plan details include more stringent boarding procedures, additional onboard medical protocols, monitoring capabilities, quarantine arrangements and shoreside care for guests and crew in the event of detection of COVID-19.”
Carnival spokesman Roger Frizzell declined to comment on any discussions executives may have had with the White House, but said the company is not seeking a bailout.
“We are working as part of an industry-wide group of cruise line leaders with Vice President Pence to develop proactive initiatives from the cruise industry to enhance our health and safety measures,” he said.
At the center of the storm
Medical personnel tend to passengers as they disembark from a Grand Princess cruise ship at the Port of Oakland in California on Monday. (Josh Edelson/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)
Two Princess ships became central characters in the global spread of the disease when they were found to be carrying infected people and forced to quarantine passengers before they were allowed to disembark.
Trump was infuriated when he learned last month that U.S. authorities had brought coronavirus-infected Americans home from a ship in Japan, as The Washington Post previously reported. He said last week that he would have preferred to leave Americans aboard the second ship docked in California because he did not want the coronavirus numbers to rise in the United States.
About 700 people aboard the Diamond Princess became infected while the ship was moored for weeks off the coast of Japan. Of 3,500 people on a second ship, the Grand Princess, at least 21 have tested positive, and the vessel remains docked in Oakland as tests continue.
Passengers who have been permitted to leave the ship have been sent to military bases in California, Georgia and Texas for quarantine.
For Trump, the coronavirus crisis is all about the numbers — and they don’t look good
Before leaving the Grand Princess, two passengers from Florida filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking more than $1 million in damages for being put at “serious risk of imminent harm.” The company said it is committed to the well-being of its passengers and declined to comment on pending litigation.
A third ship, the Caribbean Princess, was forced to cut short a voyage Sunday and head back to U.S. waters from Costa Rica to test two crew members for the coronavirus.
As the pandemic has grown, health experts have warned that cruise ships could facilitate infections.
“Cruises inherently have conditions that can promote infectious disease spread,” said Henry Wu, assistant professor of infectious diseases at Emory University School of Medicine and director of the Emory TravelWell Center. “Shared facilities, such as common bathrooms, cafeterias, are of particular concern. Infected crew members or incomplete environmental cleaning can also lead to continuation of outbreaks on subsequent voyages.”
Some lawmakers are pushing for an industry shutdown.
Cruise companies should immediately stop launching new voyages, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), adding that “if they won’t do it voluntarily, we should look at mandatory measures.”
“Cruise ships are small cities at sea, isolated from professional medical facilities. They compel people to be in very crowded situations,” he told The Post. “They seem to bring together people in almost exactly the way we are trying to avoid at the moment.”
CLIA said that cruise lines work diligently to sanitize ships, screen passengers and train crew members in safety procedures. Ships also undergo inspections by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The cruise sector supports about 422,000 jobs in the United States, more than a third of which are in the key political battleground state of Florida, the trade group said.
But the major cruise lines are incorporated overseas and pay virtually no federal taxes. A patchwork of weak international laws governs the industry, critics say.
In 2016, Princess Cruise Lines agreed to plead guilty to seven felony charges and pay a $40 million penalty for polluting the ocean and then trying to cover it up — the largest criminal penalty involving deliberate pollution by a ship at sea. Princess Cruises was ordered to pay an additional $20 million criminal penalty last year for violating the terms of its probation and deliberately discharging plastic in Bahamian waters. At that time, Arison pledged that his company was “totally committed” to curbing pollution.
Trump’s personal connections to the industry date back more than a decade.
Arison, a billionaire and donor to both political parties, has known Trump for years. The two were photographed in 2005 at a game of Arison’s Miami Heat basketball team with their wives, and Trump sent Arison a congratulatory tweet in 2012 when the team won the NBA championship. Arison returned the favor by congratulating Trump on renovations and new steakhouse at the Trump National Doral golf club in Miami, near Carnival’s own headquarters. (One of Arison’s tweets about Trump was deleted Wednesday after a Post reporter highlighted it.)
Their franchises joined forces at times. In 2005, Trump presided over the launch of a Carnival “Apprentice Legend Cruise” from New York to the Caribbean featuring cast members from “The Apprentice,” his NBC reality show. And in 2017, shortly after his inauguration, Carnival sponsoredthe two-part finale of “The New Celebrity Apprentice” in which the company’s chief executive appeared in one episode.
Miami Heat owner Micky Arison and his wife, Madeleine Arison, join Donald Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, at the Miami Heat game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Dec. 25, 2005, in Miami. (Eliot J. Schechter/Getty Images)
Trump has other ties to the cruise industry. His wife, Melania Trump, christened one of the Norwegian Cruise Line’s newest ships in 2005 and was dubbed the vessel’s “godmother.” The company made a $100,000 donation to Trump’s charitable foundation that year.
At a 2017 conference in South Florida, Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings chief executive Frank Del Rio was widely quoted as crediting what he called “the Trump effect” for a booming stock market, and he said the administration’s pro-business, anti-regulatory posture was good for business.
And some of the president’s top allies have represented the industry, which spent $3.6 million last year on federal lobbying, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Brian Ballard, a major Trump fundraiser, and former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, who helped defend Trump during his impeachment trial, were registered federal lobbyists for Carnival North American from February to August last year, lobbying records show.
Tandy Bondi, Bondi’s sister-in-law, remains registered as a federal lobbyist for Carnival North America, records show, and has tried to help the company deal with the virus fallout, according to a person familiar with her role. Tandy Bondi declined to comment.
Crisis leads to a scramble
As the coronavirus crisis unfolded, the industry began a public-relations campaign aimed at reassuring people that cruises are safe and sanitary.
Executives scrambled to convince the administration that it could handle the situation. On Saturday, Pence met with corporate leaders at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, including Del Rio of Norwegian, Carnival chief executive Arnold Donald and Royal Caribbean Cruises chief executive Richard Fain.
A day earlier, two Floridians tested positive for the coronavirus, including one who worked as a guide for cruise companies.
“We made it very clear that we needed cruise lines to be safer; to establish and to embrace new protocols; screening onboard, screening off; new medical protocols; shipboard processes for evacuating people that may contract coronavirus or a serious illness,” Pence later told reporters.
The stern message came after a number of government agencies have been deployed to help those stuck on the cruise ships, officials said.
The Health and Human Services Department has provided health screenings for anyone on the Grand Princess with medical concerns, going door to door on the ship, and is delivering any needed medication to those in quarantine. The Defense Department worked to arrange housing for passengers on four military bases, providing private rooms and bathrooms for the cruise patrons for two weeks while they self-isolated, while also keeping the U.S. military forces separate and protected. In addition, officials are helping to coordinate meals, weather-appropriate clothing and children’s activities.
First, China. Then, Italy. What the U.S. can learn from extreme coronavirus lockdowns.
The State Department’s advisory that Americans should not travel by cruise ship a day after the Pence meeting stunned and angered industry executives, according to people familiar with their responses.
A police boat passes in front of the Grand Princess cruise ship docked at the Port of Oakland on Monday. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News)
By Tuesday night, the industry had delivered its proposal, hoping to get the administration’s backing and a green light to keep cruising.
But some members of the White House task force are concerned that the cruise lines have not done enough to prepare for more infections, and think the public would be safer staying off the ships, said a senior administration official familiar with the conversations.
How the administration responds will be crucial for an industry that considers its future on the line.
In the past, the industry has batted down attempts by Congress to better protect the passengers’ health and safety, including proposals that would have required that more crew members be trained in emergency procedures.
Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) is co-sponsoring legislation that she said would strengthen requirements for crime reporting and video surveillance on cruise ships, raise medical standards and hold cruise lines responsible for crimes at sea. The bill builds on a 2010 law that mandates that cruise vessels that visit U.S. ports meet certain security and safety requirements, including rail heights of at least 42 inches and reporting certain criminal allegations to the FBI.
But Matsui said the industry has largely managed to avoid such strict regulation because most ships are flagged overseas.
“We didn’t know how tough it was going to be to fight the cruise lines,” she said. “The industry has been very successful.”
Yasmeen Abutaleb, Tom Hamburger and Hannah Sampson contributed to this report.
https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/3/9/Coronavirus-Grand-Princess-cruise-ship-repatriation.html?fbclid=IwAR0TDGffT2TkKGQjVuW6r0yx32d32nX2UCFx3bZ0hTbAHzR93LVP7yekodg
By CNN Philippines StaffPublished Mar 9, 2020 3:38:07 PM
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 9) — The passengers of coronavirus-hit Grand Princess cruise ship will be disembarking on Tuesday (Philippine time), but the hundreds of Filipino crew members won't be able to go home yet, a foreign affairs official said Monday.Over 2,800 passengers including nine Filipinos on board the ship docked in San Francisco, California are set to disembark in Oakland. But Department of Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Ed Meñez said 529 Filipino crew members and hundreds of their colleagues have to stay behind to complete quarantine requirements."Tomorrow, ibababa na ang passengers. There will be a quick disembarkation tapos lalabas ulit ang ship. Ang crew doon muna sila sa ship for quarantine procedures," he said.[Translation: Tomorrow, the passengers will quickly disembark, then the ship will go out again. The crew will stay on the ship for quarantine procedures]DFA said it prefers to bring home the Filipinos instead of staying inside the ship to prevent a repeat of the fate of Diamond Princess cruise ship, which is criticized for its lapses in stopping the spread of coronavirus."Kung ano ang recommendations ng US authorities, we will follow that. But of course if there are no restrictions, ang gobyerno natin gusto pauwiin kaagad ang mga kasamahan natin — subject to the recommendation of our own DOH," Meñez said.[Translation: We will follow the recommendation of US authorities. But of course if there are no restrictions, our government would like send home our countrymen, subject to the recommendation fo our own DOH]Of 46 people on the ship so far tested, 21 were found infected, US authorities announced on Monday. Of the 21 people who tested positive, 19 were crew members of the ship and two were passengers.The Health Department is scouting for other options where repatriated Filipinos may be quarantined. The Filipinos previously brought home from China's Wuhan province were quarantined in the New Clark City in Tarlac. Over 400 Filipino crew members from the Diamond Princess cruise ship are set to complete their 14-day quarantine on March 11 in the same facility.The Grand Princess has been docked since Thursday when US officials learned a California man who traveled earlier on the same ship last month died of coronavirus.
International Transport Workers' Federation Letter On Grand Princess
ITF House
49-60 Borough Road
London SE1 1DR
Telephone 44 (0)20 7403 2733
Fax 44(0)20 7357. 7871
Following the information that the cruise vessel Grand Princess has safely berthed in Oakland, California and the disembarkation operation of the passengers and crew are underway, the ITF wants to put on record our appreciation for the work of all those involved and those that have been directly or indirectly affected.
The unprecedented and unexpected developments brought on by the rapid spread of coronavirus (COVID- 19) has had a major impact on the health of the world’s population, but it has also had a significant impact on the global economy, in particular the cruise industry has been negatively affected by the virus along with tourism in general.
Whist governments are implementing measures to limit the spread and the scientific community is working towards providing a vaccine, the ITF want to acknowledge the exceptional professionalism, spirit and sacrifice of the seafarers working relentlessly to ensure the health and safety of the passengers while themselves being under tremendous pressure and uncertainty.
The seafarers working on cruise ships are from all over the world and from all different cultures. They have left their family and friends in order to earn a living, but their excellent work, sacrifice and the fundamental role they play to ensure the success of the cruise industry are seldom acknowledged or recognised.
ITF affiliates globally and our ITF Inspectorate are working closely together to ensure continuous communication with the cruise line, the relevant authorities and the seafarers to secure that the necessary protection is given and equal consideration on health and care is provided to both crew and passengers on board.
The ITF commends our affiliates and Princess Cruises for all their work and efforts to find solutions for the seafarers on board the Grand Princess and also for all crew on board Princess Cruise’s fleet as a consequence of the dramatic, but responsible and necessary decision taken by the company yesterday to temporarily suspend all of their cruises.
The ITF urges the relevant authorities, both the flag state, the port state and the company to facilitate the transit and repatriation of the seafarers so that they are able to get home quickly and safely. The ITF also wants to remind governments and companies that seafarers have the right to the same level of health care and protection as the passengers.
Our thoughts and solidarity are with all the seafarers and their families affected. Whilst the hope is for the cruise industry to recover quickly since it is an important workplace for thousands of seafarers worldwide, it is vital that common sense prevails and that due consideration and assistance is given to ensure the health and wellbeing of seafarers especially those that might be stranded in a foreign port.
California Workers Health & Safety Under Threat By Attacks on Ca-OSHA Program, Only 1 Doctor & 1 Nurse At Cal-OSHA
"Because of internal administrative changes over the last 20 years, Cal/OSHA has almost lost the capacity to conduct “health” inspections related to worker exposure to chemicals, noise, biohazards, radiation, and ergonomic hazards."
California Future of Work Commission San Francisco Hearing – March 12, 2020
Statement by Garrett Brown, MPH, CIH, former staff of Cal/OSHA (1993-2014) Compliance Safety and Health Officer and Special Assistant to the Chief of the Division
A critical element for the future of work, and the future of workers and their families in California, is a fully-staffed and fully-resourced workplace health and safety agency that can protect the health, safety and legal rights of the state’s 19+ million workers.
This critical element is missing today, has been missing for years now under both Republican and Democratic Administrations, and Cal/OSHA must be rebuilt as soon as possible. The best regulations and standards in the world – and California has led the way in promulgating many of these – are not worth the paper they are written on unless there is a strong and credible enforcement agency able to establish a “level playing field” that will recognize the efforts of responsible employers and hold accountable employers who gamble with the lives and futures of their workforce.
Cal/OSHA’s severe understaffing
There is a staffing crisis at Cal/OSHA – the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or DOSH – today. According to the agency’s Organization Charts for February 2020:
• Out of 244 funded positions for field enforcement inspectors (CSHOs), there are 52 vacant positions – a vacancy rate of 21.3%;
• Some regions of the state are especially hobbled: the San Francisco Bay Area (Region I) has a vacancy rate of 41% -- with a vacancy rate of 64% in the Fremont District Office, 43% in the San Francisco, and 33% in the Oakland office;
• There are only 192 CSHOs available statewide to conduct inspections for a workforce of more than 19 million workers and more than one million workplaces;
• There are huge gaps in DOSH’s leadership capabilities with two of six Regional Manager positions vacant, and five District Offices without a Manager.
The standard international measure of enforcement capability is a ratio of the number of enforcement inspectors to workers. The state of Washington has a ratio of one inspector for every 28,000 workers, while the state of Oregon has a ratio of one inspector for every 22,000 workers. The ratio in California is one inspector for every 104,000 workers.
Surely the workforce of California deserves the same level of protection as the workers in Oregon and Washington.
Moreover, Cal/OSHA has only 186.5 workplace safety inspectors actually available for field inspections, fewer than the 250 Fish & Game Wardens employed by the state. Surely California’s workers deserve the same level of protection as the state’s wild life.
At the same time, because of internal administrative changes over the last 20 years, Cal/OSHA has almost lost the capacity to conduct “health” inspections related to worker exposure to chemicals, noise, biohazards, radiation, and ergonomic hazards. DOSH has only a handful of “industrial hygienists” that are trained to evaluate and control health hazards like the Coronavirus, or airborne silica or lead exposures, or other toxic chemicals. Cal/OSHA is not currently capable of protecting of the “health” portion of worker health and safety.
Cal/OSHA also has almost no bilingual capacity among its field enforcement inspectors. Only 28 CSHOs are certified by the state as bilingual inspectors – 26 in Spanish, one in Cantonese and one in Vietnamese. It is estimated that more than 5 million workers in California speak languages other than English, with many monolingual in their native tongues.
Lastly, California’s record in protecting whistle-blowers reporting unsafe and illegal working conditions is simply shameful. It is not Cal/OSHA but rather a sister agency, the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE), that is responsible for investigating reports of employer retaliation and reprisals against whistle-blowers. DLSE has only five investigators for the entire state and it takes more than a year for complaints to be resolved. The Federal government has repeatedly rebuked California for failing to protect whistle-blowers against firings and blacklisting by employers.
Why the staffing crisis?
The hollowing-out of Cal/OSHA to its current state of weakness is not due to lack of allocated resources. DOSH is funded by the Federal government, by a surcharge on worker compensation premiums paid by employers, and by special funds such a fee on refinery operations by the state’s 15 oil refineries. In fact, multiple California Administrations have “left money on the table” by failing to spend the funds available for DOSH.
It has been primarily a failure of political will give provide Cal/OSHA with the staffing and resources it needs to protect the state’s workers. One administration after another has been more concerned about keeping corporate campaign contributors and business interests happy than with preventing injuries, illnesses and deaths on the job.
The recent level of vacancies – generated by a wave of retirements – has occurred in large part because the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR, Cal/OSHA’s parent agency) has been stripped of its ability to hire and promote internally without the supervision by the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR). CalHR’s oversight means an already lengthy hiring process has slowed to an absolute crawl.
The CalHR oversight was imposed because of the misconduct of former DIR Director Christine Baker. Both the State Auditor and State Personnel Board found that Baker had engaged in nepotism at DIR and then retaliated against employees who reported the malfeasance. In response, DIR’s lost its ability to directly hire and promote internally.
How to begin fixing the problem
The following immediate and longer term steps need to be taken now by the current Administration to reverse the crisis situation at Cal/OSHA and to ensure that the state has the capability to protect workers in the 21st century:
• Restore DIR’s ability to hire and promote internally;
• Work with CalHR and DIR to streamline the hiring process and focus on the skills and
experience needed to do Cal/OSHA’s work;
• Work with CalHR to adjust the inspector classifications in Cal/OSHA so that industrial
hygienists needed for the workplace “health” program can be hired and supported;
• Ensure that the state-generated funding for DOSH – including the worker comp fees and
the refinery fee – are fully available to and used by the agency, and not returned to
employers; and
• Develop a step-by-step plan to expand Cal/OSHA’s staff – consultants, medical unit,
standard-setting as well as enforcement – to meet at least the levels of neighboring states like Oregon and Washington.
California has the fifth largest economy in the world, it is the home of global technological innovation, its filmmakers create the dreams of people the world over – and yet California’s workers do not have the protections today enjoyed by working people in other US states, let alone in other advanced industrial countries.
The future of work in California – as elsewhere – depends on a workforce whose right to speak and act in their own name without fear of reprisal, and whose right to go home at the end of the day without injury and disease is protected by state agencies that have the staffing and resources to do their job. This is not the case in California today.
The future is ours for the making, and I urge this Commission to make the recommendations that will reverse this situation and make California the national model in workplace health and safety it deserves to be.
Attachments:
• Summary chart of DOSH compliance safety and health officer staffing (3 pages)
• Copies of the DOSH monthly Organization Charts for February 2020 (6 pages)
Submitted by:
Garrett Brown
info [at] insidecalosha.org
"Prisoners On The Grand Princess Petri Dish" Will The Crew Be Quarantined To Die On The Sea?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BAlHwbUSRY
The contaminated Grand Princess ship is now docked in the Port of Oakland. While the passengers are being evacuated, the crew is being told that they are be quarantined out at sea when the passengers are evacuated.
With the ship now a petri dish similar to the Diamond Princess in Okinawa will these crew members now be sent out on a death ship leaving many of them to die at sea?
California Governor Newsom at a press conference on the evacuation of the ship said he was only concerned about the passengers even when pressed by reporters about the right to evacuation by the crew.
This is the question that was addressed by former ITF Port Agent Jack Heyman who is a retired member of ILWU Local 10.
He discusses the labor rights of the crew including the right to be repatriated to their country. Over 500 of the workers are Filipinos and the racist attacks by Pence and Trump aimed at workers in other countries is connected to how these workers are being treated according to Jack Heyman. This interview was done on 3/11/20.
Additional media:
Feds say they will evacuate, quarantine passengers from Grand Princess but not the crew
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/feds-say-they-will-evacuate-quarantine-passengers-from-grand-princess-but-not-the-crew/ar-BB10RZN6
518 Filipinos among the crew members of the Grand Princess
6 Filipinos aboard Grand Princess cruise ship reportedly test positive for COVID-19
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1238166/who-6-filipinos-aboard-grand-princess-cruise-ship-reportedly-test-positive-for-covid-19#ixzz6GOigslZW
WorkWeek
https://soundcloud.com/workweek-radio
Production of Labor Video Project
http://www.laborvideo.org
"When Nurses Aren't Safe, Patients Aren't Safe" UCSF NNU-CNA Nurses Rally On Coronavirus Pandemic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTbtM_5p9jY
UCSF NNU CNA nurses rallied and spoke out about the growing dangers facing frontline healthcare workers.
They reported that they are having to re-use masks and that the CDC has downgraded health and safety
protections for nurses and other healthcare workers.
UCSF NNU CNA nurses also discussed the serious understaffing of the hospital threatening proper
protection and safety for the staff and and patients even without the pandemic. The World Health
Organization on the same day labeled this a world pandemic which is the first pandemic since 1919.
The UCSF management according to the nurses has refused to provide information about the serious
issues facing the nurses and also refused to comment to the media about the re-use of masks and other issues.
Additional media:
National Nurses United Response To COVID-19
https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/covid-19
UCSF Nurses Say We Are Not Prepared For Ebola! NNU CNA Nurses Demand Mandatory Protocols
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIIEnJuMhl4
WorkWeek
https://soundcloud.com/workweek-radio
Production of Labor Video Project
http://www.laborvideo.org
19 crew members on the Grand Princess cruise ship docked in Oakland tested positive for the coronavirus but are not being taken off because they're 'asymptomatic,' the company said
Crew members were especially at risk, since they still had to share cabins, bring food to passengers, and eat together in a mess hall.
https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-infected-crew-members-kept-on-grand-princess-cruise-ship-2020-3
Coronavirus, Worker Dangers & Crisis In CA with Dr. Larry Rose Former Medical Director Cal-OSHA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8VZ6EuI6kQ
Dr. Larry Rose, former CA-OSHA Medical Director talks about the danger to workers and the public with coronavirus and the massive staffing crisis in California with only one doctor and one nurse for the 19 million workers of California. According to Dr. Rose, the lack of staffing at Cal-OSHA prevents the agency from protecting workers and the public in the growing coronavirus pandemic in California and the world.
Cal-OSHA is tasked with investigating health and safety violations and has only around 200 inspectors in California to enforce California OSHA regulations.
He reports that workers could also be fired by bosses for wearing masks on job to protect their safety.
Rose also talks about the corruption of the former Division of Industrial Relations DIR Christine Baker who bullied Cal-OSHA workers and colluded with companies to limit enforcement and liability on corporations. She also engaged in fraud putting her daughter in a no-show job at $120,000 a year. She was forced to resign after a state audit but former governor Jerry Brown before he left office appointed her to the California Fraud Assessment Commission FAC and Governor Gavin Newsom let her take this position.
This interview took place on 23/7/20 by Pacifica correspondent Steve Zeltzer who also produces WorkWeek on KPOO.
Pacifica Correspondent
WorkWeek
https://soundcloud.com/workweek-radio
Labor Video Project
http://www.laborvideo.org
Cancellations due to coronavirus drive fear among cruise workers about being sent home without pay
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/03/12/filipino-cruise-workers-coronavirus-pay/
Cruise Ship Owners Cover-up, Coronavirus pandemic tests clout of cruise industry and its long-standing ties to Trump
As the coronavirus crisis unfolded, the industry began a public-relations campaign aimed at reassuring people that cruises are safe and sanitary.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/coronavirus-pandemic-tests-clout-of-cruise-industry-and-its-long-standing-ties-to-trump/2020/03/12/3f79a1ba-63aa-11ea-912d-d98032ec8e25_story.html
Huddled with donors at his private Mar-a-Lago Club on Friday, President Trump told supporters that he was intent on protecting the cruise industry from the fallout of the coronavirus crisis — even as top health officials and other key advisers were privately pushing him to keep the public off the ships.
Two days later, the State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned U.S. citizens, particularly those with medical issues, not to travel by cruise ship, sending the industry into a panic, according to people familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions.
The administration’s whipsawing posture has led to an intensive behind-the-scenes lobbying effort by cruise executives to mitigate the financial fallout from the virus, which has infected passengers and crew members on at least two Carnival-owned Princess Cruise ships.
The coming days will test the clout of the industry, which has long-standing connections to Trump, including through Carnival Corp. chairman Micky Arison, a friend whose company helped sponsor Trump’s reality show franchise “The Apprentice” over the years.
The cruise lines have raced to get ahead of further government action, voluntarily suspending a small number of voyages this week and pitching to the White House a plan to safeguard passengers.
But stock value of cruise companies has plummeted as the industry struggled to deal with the infections on the two ships and warnings from health experts about the risks of such travel.
Cancellations due to coronavirus drive fear among cruise workers about being sent home without pay
Trump appears sympathetic and has said he wants to help the cruise lines. At the donor event Friday, the president brought up the industry and said he did not want it to shut it down or for it to suffer job losses, according to three people familiar with his remarks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the closed-door event.
A White House spokesman declined to comment.
Trump echoed that sentiment publicly Monday, saying at a White House news conference that he was concerned that cruise lines and airlines “will be hit.”
“We’re working with them very, very strongly,” he said. “We want them to travel.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday that the administration was considering emergency assistance for affected industries. “This is not a bailout. This is considering providing certain things for certain industries. Airlines, hotels, cruise lines,” he said.
But at the same time, several top health officials and members of the administration’s coronavirus task force have been pushing for a tougher stance and wanted to impose a temporary ban on Americans going on cruise ships, according to people familiar with the conversations.
They included Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma and Surgeon General Jerome Adams, the people said.
The advisories from the State Department and the CDC were recommended by the White House coronavirus task force, according to an administration official who said Trump and Vice President Pence knew about them in advance.
Cruise industry, an economic engine in Florida, could be hit hard by coronavirus advisories
There has been mounting frustration with the cruise industry’s handling of the crisis among top administration officials, including in the office of Pence, according to people with knowledge of their thinking.
The lack of a clear mitigation plan for ships with outbreaks has forced the government to handle the expensive and complicated logistics of evacuating and quarantining thousands of potentially infected passengers this week aboard the Grand Princess in Oakland, an operation that has drawn in the National Guard and the Defense Department, among other agencies.
On Thursday, Princess Cruises announced that it was voluntarily canceling trips on its 18 ships worldwide through May 10, following a similar temporary suspension by Viking. Carnival, which owns Princess Cruises as well as Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line and several other lines, has not announced whether others will follow suit.
In its proposal, the industry said it plans to deny boarding to anyone older than 70 unless they have a doctor’s note, said people familiar with the plan. People who are obviously ill won’t be allowed to board. The plan also addresses testing passengers for the virus while they are on ships and how cruise lines will pay for the care of sick passengers or crew members.
However, some administration officials do not think the proposal goes far enough to screen passengers or deal with an outbreak, the people said.
Bari Golin-Blaugrund, a spokeswoman for the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the industry’s trade group, said the industry is focused on the health and safety of its guests and crew.
“CLIA has participated as-invited in briefings with policymakers since the emergence of the crisis which culminated with a meeting with Vice President Pence,” she said in a statement. “We have submitted an industry-funded plan to the government consistent with input from government officials that doesn’t come with a price tag for taxpayers. Some plan details include more stringent boarding procedures, additional onboard medical protocols, monitoring capabilities, quarantine arrangements and shoreside care for guests and crew in the event of detection of COVID-19.”
Carnival spokesman Roger Frizzell declined to comment on any discussions executives may have had with the White House, but said the company is not seeking a bailout.
“We are working as part of an industry-wide group of cruise line leaders with Vice President Pence to develop proactive initiatives from the cruise industry to enhance our health and safety measures,” he said.
At the center of the storm
Medical personnel tend to passengers as they disembark from a Grand Princess cruise ship at the Port of Oakland in California on Monday. (Josh Edelson/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)
Two Princess ships became central characters in the global spread of the disease when they were found to be carrying infected people and forced to quarantine passengers before they were allowed to disembark.
Trump was infuriated when he learned last month that U.S. authorities had brought coronavirus-infected Americans home from a ship in Japan, as The Washington Post previously reported. He said last week that he would have preferred to leave Americans aboard the second ship docked in California because he did not want the coronavirus numbers to rise in the United States.
About 700 people aboard the Diamond Princess became infected while the ship was moored for weeks off the coast of Japan. Of 3,500 people on a second ship, the Grand Princess, at least 21 have tested positive, and the vessel remains docked in Oakland as tests continue.
Passengers who have been permitted to leave the ship have been sent to military bases in California, Georgia and Texas for quarantine.
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Before leaving the Grand Princess, two passengers from Florida filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking more than $1 million in damages for being put at “serious risk of imminent harm.” The company said it is committed to the well-being of its passengers and declined to comment on pending litigation.
A third ship, the Caribbean Princess, was forced to cut short a voyage Sunday and head back to U.S. waters from Costa Rica to test two crew members for the coronavirus.
As the pandemic has grown, health experts have warned that cruise ships could facilitate infections.
“Cruises inherently have conditions that can promote infectious disease spread,” said Henry Wu, assistant professor of infectious diseases at Emory University School of Medicine and director of the Emory TravelWell Center. “Shared facilities, such as common bathrooms, cafeterias, are of particular concern. Infected crew members or incomplete environmental cleaning can also lead to continuation of outbreaks on subsequent voyages.”
Some lawmakers are pushing for an industry shutdown.
Cruise companies should immediately stop launching new voyages, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), adding that “if they won’t do it voluntarily, we should look at mandatory measures.”
“Cruise ships are small cities at sea, isolated from professional medical facilities. They compel people to be in very crowded situations,” he told The Post. “They seem to bring together people in almost exactly the way we are trying to avoid at the moment.”
CLIA said that cruise lines work diligently to sanitize ships, screen passengers and train crew members in safety procedures. Ships also undergo inspections by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The cruise sector supports about 422,000 jobs in the United States, more than a third of which are in the key political battleground state of Florida, the trade group said.
But the major cruise lines are incorporated overseas and pay virtually no federal taxes. A patchwork of weak international laws governs the industry, critics say.
In 2016, Princess Cruise Lines agreed to plead guilty to seven felony charges and pay a $40 million penalty for polluting the ocean and then trying to cover it up — the largest criminal penalty involving deliberate pollution by a ship at sea. Princess Cruises was ordered to pay an additional $20 million criminal penalty last year for violating the terms of its probation and deliberately discharging plastic in Bahamian waters. At that time, Arison pledged that his company was “totally committed” to curbing pollution.
Trump’s personal connections to the industry date back more than a decade.
Arison, a billionaire and donor to both political parties, has known Trump for years. The two were photographed in 2005 at a game of Arison’s Miami Heat basketball team with their wives, and Trump sent Arison a congratulatory tweet in 2012 when the team won the NBA championship. Arison returned the favor by congratulating Trump on renovations and new steakhouse at the Trump National Doral golf club in Miami, near Carnival’s own headquarters. (One of Arison’s tweets about Trump was deleted Wednesday after a Post reporter highlighted it.)
Their franchises joined forces at times. In 2005, Trump presided over the launch of a Carnival “Apprentice Legend Cruise” from New York to the Caribbean featuring cast members from “The Apprentice,” his NBC reality show. And in 2017, shortly after his inauguration, Carnival sponsoredthe two-part finale of “The New Celebrity Apprentice” in which the company’s chief executive appeared in one episode.
Miami Heat owner Micky Arison and his wife, Madeleine Arison, join Donald Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, at the Miami Heat game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Dec. 25, 2005, in Miami. (Eliot J. Schechter/Getty Images)
Trump has other ties to the cruise industry. His wife, Melania Trump, christened one of the Norwegian Cruise Line’s newest ships in 2005 and was dubbed the vessel’s “godmother.” The company made a $100,000 donation to Trump’s charitable foundation that year.
At a 2017 conference in South Florida, Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings chief executive Frank Del Rio was widely quoted as crediting what he called “the Trump effect” for a booming stock market, and he said the administration’s pro-business, anti-regulatory posture was good for business.
And some of the president’s top allies have represented the industry, which spent $3.6 million last year on federal lobbying, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Brian Ballard, a major Trump fundraiser, and former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, who helped defend Trump during his impeachment trial, were registered federal lobbyists for Carnival North American from February to August last year, lobbying records show.
Tandy Bondi, Bondi’s sister-in-law, remains registered as a federal lobbyist for Carnival North America, records show, and has tried to help the company deal with the virus fallout, according to a person familiar with her role. Tandy Bondi declined to comment.
Crisis leads to a scramble
As the coronavirus crisis unfolded, the industry began a public-relations campaign aimed at reassuring people that cruises are safe and sanitary.
Executives scrambled to convince the administration that it could handle the situation. On Saturday, Pence met with corporate leaders at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, including Del Rio of Norwegian, Carnival chief executive Arnold Donald and Royal Caribbean Cruises chief executive Richard Fain.
A day earlier, two Floridians tested positive for the coronavirus, including one who worked as a guide for cruise companies.
“We made it very clear that we needed cruise lines to be safer; to establish and to embrace new protocols; screening onboard, screening off; new medical protocols; shipboard processes for evacuating people that may contract coronavirus or a serious illness,” Pence later told reporters.
The stern message came after a number of government agencies have been deployed to help those stuck on the cruise ships, officials said.
The Health and Human Services Department has provided health screenings for anyone on the Grand Princess with medical concerns, going door to door on the ship, and is delivering any needed medication to those in quarantine. The Defense Department worked to arrange housing for passengers on four military bases, providing private rooms and bathrooms for the cruise patrons for two weeks while they self-isolated, while also keeping the U.S. military forces separate and protected. In addition, officials are helping to coordinate meals, weather-appropriate clothing and children’s activities.
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The State Department’s advisory that Americans should not travel by cruise ship a day after the Pence meeting stunned and angered industry executives, according to people familiar with their responses.
A police boat passes in front of the Grand Princess cruise ship docked at the Port of Oakland on Monday. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News)
By Tuesday night, the industry had delivered its proposal, hoping to get the administration’s backing and a green light to keep cruising.
But some members of the White House task force are concerned that the cruise lines have not done enough to prepare for more infections, and think the public would be safer staying off the ships, said a senior administration official familiar with the conversations.
How the administration responds will be crucial for an industry that considers its future on the line.
In the past, the industry has batted down attempts by Congress to better protect the passengers’ health and safety, including proposals that would have required that more crew members be trained in emergency procedures.
Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) is co-sponsoring legislation that she said would strengthen requirements for crime reporting and video surveillance on cruise ships, raise medical standards and hold cruise lines responsible for crimes at sea. The bill builds on a 2010 law that mandates that cruise vessels that visit U.S. ports meet certain security and safety requirements, including rail heights of at least 42 inches and reporting certain criminal allegations to the FBI.
But Matsui said the industry has largely managed to avoid such strict regulation because most ships are flagged overseas.
“We didn’t know how tough it was going to be to fight the cruise lines,” she said. “The industry has been very successful.”
Yasmeen Abutaleb, Tom Hamburger and Hannah Sampson contributed to this report.
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