What A Day - When They Furlough, We Go High

Episode Date: March 31, 2020

Efforts to bring unhoused people inside have been growing as the coronavirus outbreak takes hold, but advocates say there’s more to be done. We talk to Chris Ko, of the United Way in Los Angeles, to learn more about the situation in that city. Workers across the country are feeling the impact of the pandemic. Employees at Macy’s, The Gap, and Kohl’s have been furloughed, while employees at Amazon, Instacart, and Whole Foods are going on strike. And in headlines: the DOJ investigates Senator Richard Burr’s stock trades, sold-out chickens, and an astrophysicist fights Covid-19 by putting metal in nose.

It's Tuesday, March 31st. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day, where we support the right of gas station TV to air Trump's pressers at gas stations. Look, if you want to hear the president make stuff up while you pump on light in, go for it. Not sure anyone is having this debate, but just wanted to weigh in. On today's show, how the novel coronavirus is affecting people experiencing homelessness right now and what you can do to help, then some headlines. But first, the latest. Yes, to that point, under six administrations, who has been the coolest president that you have worked with?

Well, there's not a chance in the world I'm going to answer that one. So for those listening, that was Dr. Fauci. He was in a great banger of an interview with Desus and Mero. Watch it on Showtime. It aired last night. Yeah, I wouldn't want to go on the record about that, knowing who we know is in office right now. But in other news, so Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. are now under stay-at-home orders, which means about three in four Americans are under some form of lockdown. There are growing calls and efforts to release incarcerated people from jails, where the close quarters have helped the virus spread, and hand sanitizers often banned due

to the alcohol content. So we're going to have more on those issues in the coming days. But today we're zeroing in on what's happening with workers across the country. Gideon, kick it off. Yeah, so let's begin by focusing on actions at Instacart and Amazon. The backdrop here is that workers are being asked to continue to put themselves in harm's way at these jobs, while much of the country is, like we said, under some form of lockdown and relying on grocery stores and delivery all the more while they're at home. At Instacart, the company is reliant on independent contractors, not employees. And those independent contractors were asking for, among other things like hazard pay, protective items like disinfectants for when they are delivering these groceries. The company responded by saying that it was going to allow

workers to get hand sanitizer in the coming week. But that and the rest of the responses from the company were too little too late for many of the contractors, and they went on strike yesterday. Yeah, I mean, I get it. Like, if you're an employee and you have to wait a week to get hand sanitizer, I'm pretty sure I'd be like, this job sucks. Like, if you're an employee and you have to wait a week to get hand sanitizer, I'm pretty sure I'd be like, yeah, this job sucks. Like, you guys are terrible. Yeah, seriously. As for Amazon, employees at a warehouse in Staten Island walked out yesterday.

Amazon warehouse employees have asked the company to offer paid sick time off. Now, currently, it's only available for people who test positive for COVID-19 or are placed on mandatory self-quarantine. Kind of easy to see how folks might fall through the cracks there if they're not necessarily testing positive, but they feel sick. It's still difficult to get a test, of course. Additionally, they want the warehouse to be closed for a longer, more extensive cleaning if someone is diagnosed. According to the Washington Post, employees in at least 21 Amazon warehouse and shipping facilities have tested positive for COVID-19. And one of the employees who helped

organize the walkout in Staten Island, Chris Smalls, was actually fired at the end of the workday following the walkout. A manager at the warehouse allegedly told him that he was fired for coming into work after being in contact with a co-worker who tested positive, but the timing, of course, looked quite a bit like retaliation. As Amazon attempts to hire 100,000 workers in order to meet additional demand at the moment, the company has said that it's increasing cleaning at facilities, encouraging distancing among workers, and checking employees' temperatures upon arrival. Yeah, but like, you know, these workers are asking for really reasonable stuff. It's insane. It's like, it's like this is putting Amazon out that rich company. All right. Well, I think it's safe to say we're gonna probably see more strikes and collective actions play out until, you know, workers are actually just guaranteed safety and basic benefits. But there's another action today at Whole Foods, right? Yeah. Employees are planning to call in sick there. They're demanding paid leave for all workers who stay home during the pandemic and double pay for those who do, in fact, work. Whole Foods, which is a subsidiary of Amazon, has increased hourly worker pay by $2

an hour and offered two weeks paid sick leave for those who test positive for the virus. Again, sort of making a difficult decision for folks who aren't necessarily able to just snap their fingers and get that test, even if they wanted to. Right. And though there has been a promise not to penalize employees for remaining home, for many, there is little choice given the demands of rent and financial situations. If that's something that you're relying on by going into work, that's a tough decision that you're being forced to make on your own. So we're going to be monitoring that as it all develops. And that's just a short glimpse at some of the actions that are happening across the country. But there are also many people who are facing furloughs and layoffs in various other industries. Akilah, what do we know about that

so far? All right. So yesterday was a big day for furloughing retail employees. More than 300,000 retail workers were put on notice. So Gap, Macy's, and Kohl's have told employees not to come to work until sometime in the future when this is all over. And Gannett, which is a giant media company, they announced furloughs for newspaper employees that make over $38,000 a year. And, you know, their ad sales have been falling,

so that's sort of what they pointed to. And some economists believe that nearly 40 million Americans are going to be unemployed by mid-April. So that, unfortunately, is the latest. Across the country, there are more than half a million people experiencing homelessness. And that is before the coronavirus crisis took hold. Now, in response, efforts to bring unhoused people inside have been supercharged with additional shelter space opening up. On top of that, states and localities have enacted various forms of eviction restrictions to prevent new people from falling into homelessness,

though advocates say many of these protections are still too difficult to qualify for and just not expansive enough. Yeah, so today we're going to check in on the situation in Los Angeles. Chris Coe is the director of Homeless Initiatives for the United Way of LA. We spoke to him yesterday and started off by asking him about the main risks people who are living on the streets are facing right now in this moment? One, I would say hunger. People outside, a lot of them haven't eaten for days. Because if you think about the places they used to get food from, you know, food lines, soup kitchens, all the congregationally provided things, a lot of those have stopped. Other places that they used to, if they had food stamps or EBT cards, when they go to the grocery stores, a lot of the things they used to buy and stretch their budget with, they're not on the shelves anymore.

And the things that are left, I've heard stories of there's a pot roast that's left lot harder for people right now who are outside because a lot of them rely on phones and a lot of them charge them inside in different places like libraries or Starbucks or other places that even if they're open, you can't just sit there charging. So a lot of people want the news, so we see people buying more radios and wanting more word of mouth information. And, you know, the most obvious one, there's no ability to self quarantine. You know, when people say get inside to a place by yourself, there is nowhere to go inside to. Right. Yeah. And in response to this, the city has suspended some municipal codes around parking tickets that can be helpful for people who may live in their cars.

And the city isn't requiring people to take their tents down during the day. But what else is happening in Los Angeles to protect people who are unsheltered? Yeah, the public response has actually been tremendous. And the scale up in the public sector and the nonprofit sector. I mean, we're basically trying to do three years worth of work in a week. So that's on a few different levels. One for people who are sick with COVID. What do we do to make sure there's places inside hospitals and other places they can get help. Two people who are suspected of being COVID positive or exposed to someone who are, we're setting up isolation and quarantine sites, so 2,000 of those. Then there's people who are at risk, right?

People who are 55 plus, because what we know is that if you're outside for more than, you know, five to 10 years, that takes off 10 to 30 years of your lifespan. So when we talk about 65 plus being at high risk, if you see a 40-year-old outside, you know, they have the life equivalency of being 65 plus. And so 55-year-olds or older who are at risk with the underlying health conditions. You know, the governor has put a lot of money into trying to lease up motels. So we're trying to get 5,000 motels. The Homeless Service Authority in the county is hard at work on that. And just anyone who wants to come inside. This is where the mayor has announced those 6,000 beds at the city's rec and park sites to make sure there are people who don't have symptoms yet can come safely inside.

And the final one is people who are already inside, right? People who we were able to house in supportive housing, but now that they're being told to shelter inside, how do we make sure their daily food needs are met and just their other hygiene needs are met? Right. What happens when this crisis is over? Will the people who have been moved inside be told essentially, you know, go back onto the street? And more generally, how do you hope this could change the conversation and policy response to homelessness in the long term?

I'll be really honest with you right now. I think a lot of our system is in this day-to-day, hour-by-hour mode. Right. So we have this five- to ten-day period where it feels a little bit like we're building Noah's Ark before the flood. So that's what we're in right now. But once we get beyond that, and this is something we're doing at United Way, because we have a little bit more of that luxury to think to the next step, that has to be the bottom line. And that's once we bring people inside, we can't exit them back out to homelessness. So I think all of the action right now is bringing people inside. Hopefully that means we have five to 10,000 more people who have come inside. Um, but how do we make sure that we don't exit them back out to homelessness? Um, I think that can look like a few different ways. I mean, I think the motels that we're setting up, instead of just leasing them, what opportunities do we have to buy some

of them outright and convert them into supportive housing so that people can just stay in there once they're there? Once we get beyond this weekend and the next weekend, how do we start laying out pathways for people to seek other forms of housing? But that has to be the main thing we think about. We want to solve this problem once and make sure that we don't just end people's homelessness three to six months at a time. Yeah, that's a great point. Okay, so this is, you know, our listeners are really active and they want to help. You know, what is the biggest resource that you all are in need of right now? You know, how can we help people stay safe and healthy? You know, as you were talking about the need to like plug in a phone even, you know, and like, I remember in New York during Hurricane Sandy, people were laying out, you know, these like surge protectors and just had people,

you know, coming by and using their power if they had it. So do you have other suggestions in ways that people can safely help? Yeah, absolutely. Safe is the operative word there on some of that. I mean, one, the obvious one is giving. I mean, the need is unbelievably huge right now in terms of just the financial needs of nonprofits and even our government level partners. So we at United Way, we have a pandemic relief fund that we've launched, but every community, there's a version of that. And, you know, to be sure all of those things are trying to plug in as best as possible. If you know someone on the street that you have developed a relationship with, um, that you're still seeing out there, please do still say hello. Um, but understand that you are as much a risk to their

health as you may think they might be to you. Right. And so the, the hygiene guidelines that have been put out, please, you know, please take them seriously as you support our friends outside. What that means is if you're passing out anything, and you can, I mean, but wipe down, disinfect and wipe down all of those touch points, put them in the bag, what's needed outside right now, dried foods and water, battery-powered phone chargers, feminine hygiene products if you're seeing someone, if you're seeing women outside. And the final thing I'll say is lending your voice. We are in a moment, the federal stimulus that passed, a lot of that was left to local control of how that money would be doled up.

Right. So a lot of that's going to be on the state and local governments to decide who's getting what. And your voice can represent the thousands of voices right now who don't have an outlet to say, we need support more than ever. And I think there's a question of, you know, if you think about the $1,200 stimulus check, it's going to people who have filed their taxes, which, you know, you don't need to have made an income to file your taxes. But again, a lot of our friends

experiencing homelessness weren't even able to file for other tax credits. So that's why I think the other parts of the stimulus and saying, hey, the other parts that are more flexible, that can flow, you know, let's think of our friends who are not getting the stimulus check to be first in line for the other parts of the stimulus. That was Chris Ko from the United Way of Los Angeles. He also mentioned that if you have extra protective gear like masks or gloves, in addition to your local hospitals,

why don't you consider donating them to your local homeless shelter? They could really use the help. It's Tuesday, WOD Squad. I miss you kids. I miss you kids something fierce, okay? But in any case, we're back, all right? We made it another day. It's Tuesday, and we're trying to find some chill in a world that is very much not

by checking in on each other catching my drift great well Gideon what are you watching this week oh I got a lot I got a lot on the table uh Portrait of a Lady on Fire is on Hulu now uh I really got to see that that was that was on the list from from last year uh I also got a trial of Criterion so I can make Francois Truffaut refs on the show and be more insufferable. That'll be really, really sick. We'll decide later if I feel like paying for that. TBD.

And then Ozark just dropped and you recommended it. I got this far. I should definitely continue. Yeah, man. I think that all of these things sound great. You're not wrong. Ozark is back. It's a good show.

It is. It rules. Akilah, besides that, or maybe including that, what's on your watch list coming up? Yeah, so definitely the biggest thing has been Ozark. And I think seven or eight episodes in, it is so good. It's just so good. It's nuts.

I mean, Julia Gardner earned that Emmy, and good for her. But yeah, I guess like, so I guess, I don't know if your Netflix was doing this, but it has like a one to 10 list of like what everyone else is watching now. Yeah.

And so I've seen that a lot of people are watching that Madam C.J. Walker show, so I guess I want to like, you know, be caught up. I'm probably going to do that. So I came across that in the weirdest way, which was, I think it was LeBron tweeting about like walking into some room

in his like palatial estate and his mom was watching that show. Oh, nice. And then he did like a, like kind of a plug for it or something. I don't know, but that's how I came across it. So, yeah, it seems it seems like a thing people are watching. LeBron's mom is an influencer.

Yeah. Well, that was our quick temperature check. Do you owe someone a phone call? Ring them up. Ask them what's goody and maybe keep washing your hands and looking out for one another. We do this every day. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines.

The Justice Department is looking into recent stock trades made by at least one U.S. lawmaker. It's Republican Senator Richard Burr. And he's been investigated after he sold a significant number of stocks, some estimated to be worth up to $1.7 million in a single day last month. Now, the senator sits on two committees that had extensive briefings on the threat of the coronavirus, which is why eyebrows were raised when some of the shares he sold were in industries hit hard by the virus, like hotels and restaurants. Let me tell you, folks, these eyebrows are in the air. I rip mine off and I'm holding them up. Sky high. What the hell? Congress passed a law in 2012 banning its members from trading stocks based on info they get inside the Capitol. Now, Burr claims he made his trades based on public

information. He's only one of several members of Congress who sold hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock just weeks before the markets crashed. TBD on whether the other lawmakers will be investigated. They better be. All right. A painting by Vincent van Gogh was stolen from a Dutch museum early yesterday. The perps took advantage of the museum's recent closure due to the pandemic. Multiple news outlets are calling the robbery a, quote, smash and grab because the thieves smashed through the glass doors and just walked out with the art. Love that.

Definitely makes you nostalgic for a good old-fashioned heist. The stolen painting is called The Parsonage Garden at Noonan in Spring 1884. Very, very succinct title. And it's one of the gloomier Van Gogh pieces, but it is likely valued to be worth tens of millions of dollars. Not sure if the thieves were major Van Gogh gogh stands but yesterday also happened to be the artist's birthday lend us your ear i don't know there was a joke here about ears i yeah i i was waiting for them to to mail me one of theirs frankly but um time time will tell you've probably noticed that your local general store is sold out of hand sanitizer but what you didn't notice is that it's also sold out of infant chickens. Now, let's just assume all general stores sell chickens for this headline.

Please go along with me. Apparently, chickens are a hot commodity in times of general uncertainty, like during stock market downturns or presidential elections. When you think of a chicken as a cute factory for nutritious eggs, it makes a lot of sense. National farm supply chains are selling out of chicks as fast as they get in, with some reporting sales up double from last year. New chicken owners also say the birds bring them comfort. FYI, I like my comfort over easy. I will be never reading anything that anybody passes to me ever again. This is it.

Boo. I'm enamored by people who know how to make a coop. Good for them. A skill that I never learned. Shout out to coop makers. Well, this pandemic isn't stopping innovation. One man is using his work from home time to find creative new ways to get two magnets stuck up his nose and need doctors to get them out. A pioneer.

All right. Dr. Daniel Reardon was designing a magnetized necklace that when combined with a matching bracelet would buzz when your hand got close to your face to fight the spread of COVID-19. The idea here, stop touching your damn face. Well, when the device didn't work right away, he started playing with the components. And before long, he had three magnets deep in his nose that could not be removed with pliers. God bless this man who, while fighting coronavirus, just risked getting seven kinds of super tetanus. Congrats on being featured in Jackass 4. Yes, and those are the headlines. And one more thing before we go. Throughout the week, Crooked hosts and staff will be going live from home on Crooked Media's Instagram. I did one with Tommy Vitor last week,

and we talked about hair care, how to stay sane on Twitter. It was fun. It was good. So catch us live at Crooked Media on Instagram. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe,

leave a review, send us good backgrounds for Zoom calls and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just old texts where you canceled on lunches because you didn't know how good you had it what a day is also a nightly newsletter check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe i'm keela hughes i'm gideon resnick and stop playing with those magnets cut it out you're gonna poke your eye out and you're gonna it's not what they're for. You're going to pull your nose off of your face, you rascal.

Rascal. He said it. What a Day is a product of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tun is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein, and our senior producer is Katie Long. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.