In the midst of the pandemic, American businesses and workers are delivering for the people. The men and women who make possible overnight delivery to those of us locked down at home, and the workers at stores allowed to be open, are heroes. Businesses are defying the odds by both protecting the safety and health of their workforce and ensuring that people have life’s necessities.
But there are a few politicians who see the COVID-19 crisis not as a time to serve and protect others but as an opportunity to exploit the crisis for sordid financial and political gain. Someone once urged these types to never let such a crisis go unexploited.
On March 23, House Democrats and Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced the dishonestly named “Take Responsibility for Workers and Families Act.” The legislation has nothing to do with N95 masks, social distancing, or avoiding the virus. If enacted into law, this bill would damage the fight against the virus by giving great power to labor union bosses at the expense of workers and businesses.
Included in the legislation was a provision tying business aid to a laundry list of longstanding union demands, including limiting free speech during union certifications, eliminating the ability to renegotiate contracts during a financial crisis, and increasing the minimum wage in a time of record unemployment growth. Nowhere in the legislation were protections against COVID-19 or the pandemic’s economic effects found. The hastily thrown together legislation is a hodgepodge of special interest demands that have been on the wish lists of labor union bosses for quite some time.
Democrats are also trying to use the crisis to cripple their political opponents.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren led a group of Democrats to attack Deutsche Bank in a joint letter for the “crime” of loaning money to the Trump organization — the president’s family business. This ham-handed and obvious political targeting is one of the many obscenities in the Democrats’ demands.
Trader Joe’s has long been targeted by labor unions. For years, workers have made it clear they don’t want a union. But this crisis allows the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union to try once again to force all Trader Joe’s employees to pay union dues. It’s not likely to be successful, though. Trader Joe’s has been strong in implementing safety measures and has been fulfilling a key role in serving the community. They’ve shortened their opening hours, are providing up to two weeks of additional paid sick leave for employees, and have implemented new cleaning protocols.
Walmart and Amazon have been special targets of the Left as they are successful, largely nonunion companies. In a rude and offensive April 7 letter, Rep. Chuy García of Illinois attacked both Walmart and Amazon, claiming “negligence” in their responses to the virus. The unions’ most intense hatred seems targeted at Amazon. On March 27, Rep. Ilhan Omar and Sen. Bernie Sanders, together with 12 other Democrats, once again attacked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, falsely claiming that he had failed to protect his workers.
Amazon responded by once again listing its measures to protect Amazon employees: increasing the frequency and intensity of cleaning at its sites, providing hand sanitizer, and making changes to ensure social distancing. Amazon requires employees to stay home if they become sick or have been exposed to someone who did, but those workers receive up to two weeks of emergency paid leave. They are increasing the pay of hourly workers by $2, to at least $17 per hour, with double their rate for overtime, adding up to $350 million in higher wages.
At a time of job losses, Amazon is hiring 100,000 new employees for full- and part-time positions. They will receive benefits immediately if they are scheduled to work more than 20 hours per week. Amazon’s Relief Fund also now has $25 million to help its delivery drivers, contractors, and Amazon Flex participants who are in financial distress due to the pandemic.
What’s more, at the behest of the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union, and the teachers’ unions, Democrats are now loudly calling for the reinstatement of Christian Smalls, who violated his paid quarantine period in a union-backed stunt to attempt a strike (with little backing) during a time of crisis. Rewarding that kind of behavior isn’t improving anyone’s safety.
Democrats’ real problem is the one that became clear over a year ago during the Amazon HQ2 search: Democrats say Amazon is insufficiently unionized.
Businesses in the food and delivery sectors are helping their workers keep us alive and safe. Businesses are dealing with this crisis remarkably well. The Democrats’ problem is that these heroic workers have repeatedly made it clear they don’t want to give union bosses the power to define their jobs and to take union dues from them. The Democratic Party receives hundreds of millions each election cycle from union bosses. In return, Democratic congressmen push for laws to force more workers to pay more and more in union dues. It is a quid pro quo for the union bosses and the Democrat leadership.
This has nothing to do with the coronavirus pandemic. It has everything to do with money — political money and lots of it.
Grover Norquist (@GroverNorquist) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is the president of Americans for Tax Reform.
