America Faces No Greater Threat Than Joe Biden and the Democrat Party. Their Assault to Our Borders Is As Great As Their Assault to Free Speech and Free Elections
Friday, June 26, 2020
JOBLESS NUMBERS SURGE - HIGH TECH BILLIONAIRES DEMAND BOATLOADS OF 'CHEAP' LABOR FOREIGNERS
Both parties are using the specter of destitution and hunger to force workers back into unsanitary factories and workplaces, where they will catch and spread COVID-19, in order to pump out the profits needed to pay for the bailout of Wall Street and the giant corporations.
Another 1.5 million US workers file for jobless benefits
26 June 2020
Nearly 1.5 million workers filed for unemployment benefits last week, according to the US Labor Department, the fourteenth week in a row in which the number topped one million. In addition, 728,000 independent contractors, self-employed and gig workers who are out of work but do not qualify for regular unemployment benefits, filed last week for aid from the federally funded Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.
Although millions of workers have been forced back to work due to the premature and catastrophic reopening of the economy, joblessness remains at levels not seen since the Great Depression. The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending June 6 was 30.5 million, the Labor Department reported. By contrast, there were only 1.5 million people collecting such benefits in a comparable week in 2019.
People wait in line for help with unemployment benefits at the One-Stop Career Center in Las Vegas [Credit: AP Photo/John Locher]
The official jobless figures are a gross underestimation of the real situation because they do not count undocumented workers, those who have still not been able to collect benefits and those who have fallen out of the labor force. Nevertheless, even the official rates paint a devastating picture. The states and territories with the highest rates in the week ending in June 6 were Nevada (22.6), Puerto Rico (20.6), Hawaii (18.3), New York (17.8), California (17.3), Michigan (16.9), Louisiana (16.2), Massachusetts (16.2), the Virgin Islands (16.2), and Connecticut (15.8).
Despite the latest data indicating a growing economic catastrophe for tens of millions of workers, the stock market rebounded Thursday after an initial fall over concerns about the rapid spread of the pandemic in Texas, Arizona and other states.
By the end of trading, the New York Stock Exchange was up 300 points on news of a further lifting of government regulations on Wall Street banks, which will allow them to make large investments in venture capital funds and other speculative activities. The Trump administration, with the full backing of the Congressional Democrats, has made trillions available to financiers who are guaranteed a government backstop no matter how dire the situation in the real economy and for the working class.
“When we think about a recession of the magnitude that we have, there’s going to be some credit write-offs by banks,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities told CNBC. “The fact that they’re going to have more working capital makes markets breathe a sigh of relief.”
After a contraction of the US economy by five percent in the first quarter, economists project that the second quarter, which ends next week, will see the biggest quarterly economic contraction in records dating back to 1947, the Wall Street Journal reported.
It is increasingly clear that the crisis sparked by the pandemic is being used by corporations to push through a major restructuring of class relations. This week several companies announced major layoffs.“I don’t think a V-shaped recovery is realistic at all,” John Johnson, chief executive of Edgeworth Analytics, a data consulting firm, told the Journal, referring to optimistic projections from the White House that the economy will quickly bounce back to pre-pandemic conditions.
* General Motors has announced that it is eliminating the third shift at its assembly plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, wiping out 680 jobs.
* Macy’s department store is laying off nearly 4,000 workers. Nutritional supplement retailer GNC declared bankruptcy Tuesday, outlining plans to close at least 800 of its 1,200 stores. This is the latest bloodletting in the retail industry, which has seen the bankruptcy of Pier 1, JC Penney, J. Crew and Neiman Marcus, and the elimination of 114,327 jobs through April, the highest job loss in the retail sector on record.
* New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio warned on Wednesday that the due to the economic impact of the pandemic the city might have to lay off 22,000 municipal employees, the largest cuts in decades. This is part of a wave of attacks on public sector workers, including the imposition of furloughs and an 11 percent pay cut on 96,000 custodians, nurses and other California state employees, and warnings that 300,000 or more teachers could lose their jobs across the US.
* Tyson Foods will close its Columbia, South Carolina plant, eliminating 150 jobs. The company’s last South Carolina plant, which makes taco meat and pizza toppings, will close in mid-August.
The job cuts in the US are part of a global wave of layoffs, including German automaker Daimler (10,000) and Lufthansa (22,000); Britain’s Royal Mail (2,000); Canada’s West Jet airlines (3,300) and Australian carrier Qantas (6,000).
While US billionaires have seen their collective wealth increase by half a trillion dollars, largely due to the government bailout of the stock market, the Trump administration has made it clear it has no intention of continuing the $600 per week supplement to state unemployment benefits, which is due to expire the week ending on July 25.
In a measure of the precarious state workers were in before the pandemic, the $600 a week benefit, plus the one-time $1,200 Economic Impact Payment, along with the payments to self-employed workers, prevented a rise in poverty for 159 million people, and, in many cases, led to a rise in incomes over and beyond what they were making while they were employed.
The elimination of the $600 benefit will mean a 60 percent or more cut in income for unemployed workers, given the fact that state benefits average only $370 a week. The Democrats are proposing an extension of the benefit, knowing full well it will not pass the Republican-controlled Senate. Both parties are using the specter of destitution and hunger to force workers back into unsanitary factories and workplaces, where they will catch and spread COVID-19, in order to pump out the profits needed to pay for the bailout of Wall Street and the giant corporations.
With food prices rising at the fastest rate in over 50 years, the percentage of families concerned about getting enough to eat has more than doubled during the pandemic, according to a study released Thursday by the Brookings Institution. Overall, households worried about their food supply jumped from 8.5 percent in February to 23.0 percent on average from late April through mid-May, and food insecurity more than tripled among households with children, from 9.3 percent to 29.5 percent, the report said.
“Unemployment increased by more among workers with low levels of education. Families with children lost school meals. We’ve also had the biggest increase in food prices in 50 years. That’s a perfect storm,” Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, the director of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University, told Brookings.
Voters Scoff as Apple’s Tim Cook Declares ‘Deeply Disappointed’ with H-1B Visa Worker Halt
Apple CEO Tim Cook says he is “deeply disappointed” with President Donald Trump’s June 22 decision to shut down some of the visa worker pipelines that prevent Americans from getting jobs at Silicon Valley tech companies.
“Deeply disappointed by this proclamation,” Cook said June 23. “Like Apple, this nation of immigrants has always found strength in our diversity, and hope in the enduring promise of the American Dream. There is no new prosperity without both.”
But America’s voters jeered and scoffed at Cook’s high-minded defense of the pipelines, which allow tech leaders to fill up their companies with blocs of compliant, controllable, and silent foreign workers instead of independent and free-speaking American professionals.
Not impressed with your Anti-American Worker rhetoric. Where is your compassion for the 48 million Americans who have lost their jobs? No American Dream for Americans.
The responses echo the poll-tested public support for Trump’s hire American-first agenda, which is far more popular than the Cold War-era claim that Americans’ homeland is somehow a “Nation of Immigrants.”
Apple’s most recent hiring report shows how the company’s hiring of Asian visa workers is squeezing out Americans.
Asians filled 35 percent of technical jobs in 2018, up from 23 percent in 2014. That left 17 percent of technical jobs to non-white minorities and just 40 percent of jobs to white tech graduates. In 2014, 54 percent of technical jobs were held by whites, 15 percent by non-white minorities, and eight percent were not identified.
Very few visa workers are hired for lower-wage retail jobs, ensuring that blacks and Latinos hold 36 percent of the slots in 2018. American Asians hold eight percent, and U.S. whites hold 51 percent. In 2014, whites had 59 percent of the jobs and non-white minorities, six percent to Asians, 27 percent went to non-white, non-Asian minorities, six percent to Asians, and eight percent were unidentified.
.@tim_cook With all due respect, if companies like Delta, Disney, HP, Coca-Cola, Ifosys, Cognizant, TCS, etc. hadn't blatantly abused the process, @realDonaldTrump wouldn't have had to make the proclamation. Problems have plagued the H1-B program since its inception.
Why not hire Americans? I'm American and I'm learning to code. Hopefully you will consider me and other Americans someday. There's no American dream if Americans can't get jobs. ♀️
— melonfraufrau art & design (@melonfraufrau) June 23, 2020
A website, MyVisaJobs.com, shows Apple’s massive H-1B hiring of Chinese and Indian tech workers:
MyVisaJobs.com
This corporate hiring of foreign workers has shifted the demographics of California and many other states. For example, 65 percent of Silicon Valley jobs in software, computer, or math are foreign-born, according to the 2020 Silicon Valley Index. This wave of foreign workers is pushing many American graduates aside and is working its way into corporate leadership.
Commenters praised Trump for overruling his pro-Apple advisers, including one adviser who reportedly urged Trump in April to not curb the inflow of H-1Bs, saying, “Tim Cook won’t like this, Mr. President.”
You’re mad Trump stopped the transfer of wealth away from Americans. The least you could do is level with us.
Commenters also noted that Cook promotes the “Black Lives Matter” upsurge but uses the pipelines to hire Asians instead of black Americans:
Tim if you really cared about Black Lives you would setup training centers in low income and minority areas and bring manufacturing from China to those areas. Put your money where your mouth is. Teach Black Americans the skills to make your products and then make them here.
— InTheEndItDoesn’tEvenMatter (@NobodyListens1) June 23, 2020
Big corporations only support the cause when they can ensure they won’t get a backlash. How about make some innovative change for the black community like you do for the iPhones
Tim it's time for tech companies to invest in neighborhood kids So many underprivileged youth from all backgrounds are in need of opportunities Teach them skills to gain high paying jobs paving the way for us to help others secure the American Dream #TeachKidsSkills
Tim, I'm not one to deny the American dream from anyone. But, We've spent the last few weeks protesting for equality in underserved communities of color in the US. Is it not possible to invest Apple's resources to make these workers "highly skilled"? Please help me understand.
The welcome given to Cook mirrors the popular reaction to other CEOs and companies that have announced opposition to Trump’s policy.
American professionals jeer and taunt the tech CEOs who complain Trump's H-1B reforms will slow their supply of cheap, compliant & disposable foreign white-collar labor.https://t.co/5WWrPNDNwJ
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