A vast majority of American workers looking for some relief from the economic turmoil the coronavirus pandemic is causing are probably not going to find it in the latest bill pushed through the House by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Saturday morning, the House voted 363-40 to pass a coronavirus relief package days after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. And although the bill won’t be voted on until early next week since Mitch McConnell thought this would be a great time to give the Senate the weekend off, the news Friday seemed like a welcome sight to plenty of American workers who may be feeling the financial strain caused by the virus.
Pelosi also took a victory lap Saturday morning in a letter to her Democratic colleagues Saturday Pelosi writing:
“I am very proud to write that the provisions we put forth with your input, including paid sick leave, paid family and medical leave, enhanced Unemployment Insurance, food security initiatives and free and widespread testing, are all included in this agreement. “
However, Pelosi has come under very-deserved criticism given her failure to mention the “fine print” of the bill as mentioned by a New York Times editorial:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi early Saturday celebrated passage of legislation she described as providing paid sick leave to American workers affected by the coronavirus.
She neglected to mention the fine print.
In fact, the bill guarantees sick leave only to about 20 percent of workers. Big employers like McDonald’s and Amazon are not required to provide any paid sick leave, while companies with fewer than 50 employees can seek hardship exemptions from the Trump administration.
“If you are sick, stay home,” Vice President Mike Pence said at a news conference on Saturday afternoon. “You’re not going to miss a paycheck.”
But that’s simply not true. Sick workers should stay home, but there is no guarantee in the emergency legislation that most of them will get paid.
The White House and congressional Republicans, who insisted on the exemptions as the price of bipartisan support for the legislation, bear the primary responsibility for the indefensible decision to prioritize corporate profits in the midst of a public health emergency…
The House’s failure to require universal paid sick leave is an embarrassment that endangers the health of workers, consumers and the broader American public.
So what we’re looking at is roughly 20-percent of American workers getting guaranteed sick leave as the bill does not apply to largest employers in the U.S. who have 500-plus employees. Furthermore, the bill also provides free testing for COVID-19 to individuals but does not offer free treatment which isn’t surprising when you consider just how much the health insurance industry has corporate politicians like Nancy Pelosi in their back pockets.
And once again the federal government continues to protect capitalism rather than the working poor and working middle class who make up the vast majority of the United States.
