81 - Trumpian Before Donald

It’s all labor and the environment this week folks. While produce market workers in the Bronx won a 70 cent pay raise, Lyft drivers are stuck with the new “priority mode,” which they’re calling poverty mode. Take the best parts of the exploitative gig economy and mix em up with race to the bottom and you’ve got a whole new recipe for modern day feudalism. Biden has snatched the permits on the Keystone pipeline, and both Canada and Louisiana are having a sad time about it. Incarcerated people in New York State are seeing massive spikes in Covid cases and deaths. For a bit of good news, Biden has reversed one of Trump’s worst Covid-related policies by redefining what “suitable” work conditions are. We’ll take what we can get over here at Ironweeds.

Produce Market Strike ends: https://www.thecity.nyc/2021/1/22/22245520/hunts-point-produce-market-strike-tentative-settlement-bronx

Cop runs into protesters in Tacoma, Washington: https://www.tmz.com/2021/01/24/tacoma-police-washington-run-over-crowd-pedestrian/ 

Giving Lyft drivers a “raise” by… paying them less: https://www.cnet.com/news/lyft-test-program-offers-drivers-more-rides-in-exchange-for-10-percent-pay-cut/

Louisiana sad about pipeline decision: https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/our_views/article_24de81b0-5bff-11eb-a1b5-f3581880512d.html

Justin also sad: https://news.yahoo.com/trudeau-stresses-disappointment-keystone-xl-030726282.html

Covid cases grow in New York State prisons: https://www.thecity.nyc/2021/1/18/22237488/new-york-prison-covid-cases-grow-inmates-vaccines-cuomo

Biden reverses Trump decision to kick workers off unemployment: https://www.dailyposter.com/p/biden-moves-to-reverse-one-of-trumps
-Compelled to choose between economic survival and risking infection, workers headed back into unsafe workplaces, and federal data tracked how workers’ requests for safety inspectors’ help consistently preceded a spike in COVID-related deaths.