Michael Hiltzik: How states with early reopening orders are coercing workers into risking their lives
by Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times
May 01, 2020
4 minutes
Anyone who thought that the COVID-19 crisis would produce lasting respect for low-wage service workers should feel like a chump, as certain states roll out their return-to-work orders.
That's because the subtext of those orders, such as those issued by the governors of Iowa and Texas, is coercive. Workers who refuse to return to work at businesses that have been cleared to open will lose their unemployment benefits.
In other words, in economic terms they'll have no choice between losing pay and placing their lives at risk from a coronavirus infection.
Iowa's Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, said last week
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