Reblogging because of the very important info at the end of the article - if you experience symptoms of a stroke, seek help IMMEDIATELY because even large strokes are treatable, but time is of the essence.
The moment of dismay and confusion as a UK journalist had to report that the government was on course to deliver 30 Ventilators this weekend, when previously we had been told it would be roughly 30,000...
Several manufacturers reached out to the government to offer their help and they were rejected, instead company's that have funded the Tory party were "given the honour" to produce the much needed ventilators, so now we're getting 30 and"hundreds more in the coming weeks"...
The US Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund has prepared a free online guide, available in both English and Spanish, for transgender and non-binary individuals attempting to navigate life during the coronavirus pandemic.
Here are the key points:
If you feel sick, it’s important to contact your medical provider
or a state health department hotline.
Know your rights. Medical providers and facilities cannot discriminate
against you because you are transgender or nonbinary.
You have the right to be addressed by the name and pronoun that you
use.
You have the right to be housed and to use facilities, like bathrooms,
consistent with who you are.
Stay safe when seeking healthcare.
Ask for help if you need it.
If you experience discrimination, it’s important to report it.
“Thirty of our doctors are flying to Italy today - it is not many of them and this won’t solve the battle between the invisible enemy and the white coats that are fighting on the other side of the sea. But Italy has been our home since our brothers and sisters saved us in the past, hosting us and adopting us as we suffered here. It is true that everyone is holed up within their borders and that far richer countries have turned their backs on Italy. We’re not rich, but neither are we lacking memory: we can’t but prove to Italy that Albania and Albanians never abandon a friend in need. Today we are all Italians, and Italy must win, and will win, this war for us, too, for Europe, and for the whole world.”
— Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, March 2020, in light of the Covid-19 emergency.
Considering Italy’s shitty colonial past and also the way we’ve treated Albanians back in the 90s, when they were arriving on boats every day - nobody’s talking about that now, at all, but I’ve lived those years, I remember the slurs and the xenophobia and just, the mistrust and hatred…
It’s unbelievable how far we’ve come in Italian-Albanian relations, like,,,, we have now learned to coexist seamlessly, we are their stronger supporters in their path to become EU members,,, the Arbëreshë community is well integrated and right now, Albania really should be sparing those doctors for themselves,, but in a time when Italians feel belittled and condescended upon by Europe and left to suffer, they’ve stepped up and thrown us a rope,,,, and like,,,, this means so much, for them and for us,,, and I’m not crying you’re crying,,,,,,
The more insanity crops up the more I start getting predictions for the near future:
There is going to be a baby boom about 9 months after this block of quarantine time. It’s going to be a batch of unplanned but economically predicted kids and their overall upbringing will probably reflect this.
Flip side: There is simultaneously, after quarantine, going to be a notable increase in people getting the snip/getting their tubes tied as they realize they don’t want any more fucking kids. There are parents with multiple children right now who just aren’t capable of handling them all day every day without childcare or school as breaks. Even parents with one child are often struggling.
There are going to be online schadenfreude compilations of people 1) virtue-signalling on social media that they’re going out and living their life as normal, because Freedom, and then 2) images, posts, and GoFundMes indicating that the person did indeed get infected.
There are going to be people who lie about why their friends and family died. They will insist it was something unrelated. The harder people insisted that this was a hoax illness or that they deserved to continue doing as they pleased, the harder they will pretend their relative’s new lifelong lung problem was pneumonia that onset from… nothing in particular. Flu. Bad luck. Nothing to do with COVID.
There are going to be a ton of divorces/breakups. No surprise there. China’s already experiencing this.
There has been some talk of romantic confessions among quarantined roommates and I hope the cute stories are real.
We are going to see a huge uptick in people who were previously mentally healthy experiencing new, scary symptoms of anxiety and depression. People whose teeth are grinding, jaws are clenching, who are experiencing weight changes, intrusive negative thoughts, listlessness, the works. A lot of them are not going to easily identify or understand what’s going on because this will be new to them. A lot of them are probably going to be the same people that said mentally ill people need to “calm down” or “cheer up” and a lot of them are going to be the type to resist therapy. It’s going to be rough and we’re going to have to be the bigger people.
I’m serious. We’re going to have to be the bigger people. Because a lot of these people are not going to be comfortable accepting help or admitting that have spent their lives being dismissive of something serious and legitimate. You can remind your Aunt Bethany how shitty she was to you after you had to take a semester off for your depression, but in the same conversation, hand her some resources she can use to get her own help.
A confession from a Joann employee that is in one of the Covid-19 effected areas and has so much to say about it:
-We are staying open until told by the state otherwise. Even though they declared a State of Emergency and all non-essential businesses must be shut down by 5pm on Saturday 3/21, our company is refusing to. Because
Joann themselves is trying to deem Joann as an “essential” store. They
even put it all over their website that we are here for the people
making masks and small businesses who need fabric to continue. They
quote that we are here for the customers and that we as United States
Americans have a responsibility to fill this need. They aren’t looking at curbside only as an option, they aren’t looking at offering more benefits for shopping online, they want us open and people in stores.
They are sending us emails with pieces of paper (unofficial, not state made) to
print out and put in our cars to say we are on the way to work at an
“essential retailer.”
Anything to make it so we can remain open.
-This sucks for employees and here’s why: The way Joann is set up is if we get sick, if we have to leave to take care of someone who is sick, if we want to self-quarantine (because of our health or the health of our loved ones),
we either quit or ask to be put on Leave of
Absence and cannot return without medical clearance. If we come into contact with someone who has Covid-19 (even if they came into the store), they request we stay home while the rest of us have to work even if we were standing right next to them. As long as we don’t display symptoms, we are expected to show up or we can request LoA. LoA does not pay
us. The only way we as employees will be taken care of is if the store
closes AND if we have two weeks of schedules set up. I was hoping the company was on the path to this when they had us cancel all the classes until May and then limited hours but all that went out the window today. Right now Joann is doing everything to prevent us from closing and in turn take care of their employees. Every
single time I bring up our well-being, I get reminded that we need to
think about the customer first.
-Our store is step up to have daily conference calls to talk about the current status
and to express any concerns we have. I brought up
the status about my county (our major has declared everyone be shut down as of 5pm tomorrow or the police will be involved) and that I
am deeply concerned for us and they told me that we have a responsibility as a leader to keep everyone calm and
to keep working through this. ***When I asked what if everyone in my store requests a
Leave of Absence because we are all very much concerned about our health, they said, “We will replace you with team members
from other stores. There are service industry people and travel workers
looking for jobs and we will fill your positions with people who will
work it.”*** They straight up told me that we are replaceable/expendable
because they value their “customers/money.” It doesn’t matter how long we’ve been with the company. It all means nothing to them.
-They are sending out emails about what Joann is doing as a whole for Covid-19. Saying we are cleaning every hour and whatnot. What they fail to mention is we are a fabric store with no means of washing fabric. I see people on a daily basis cough into, wipe their snot on, kids place in their mouth, and all sorts of other nasty things into these bolts of fabric (seriously, wash the fabric you buy from Joann before doing anything). We have the basic cleaning supplies to wash floors and wipe counters with but that’s pretty much it. They are telling us as employees to bring in our own supplies if we can. An employee brought in gloves long ago just so we can use them to clean the bathrooms. Today I provided face masks for my fellow coworkers. Our store may look clean but we know its dirty little secrets.
-We are supposed to follow the whole 10 people rule but they do nothing to stop or limit people at the door and won’t do anything to enforce it. All while wanting us to cut
hours to which is barely 2 people running the whole store for smaller Joann locations. It’s not safe for us to be on a bare-bones crew especially if they want us to remain an essential store.
-Joann before this was a great place to work. At least for my store. I
love my store, I love the people I work with. Other stores
I have heard horror stories from but mine was one of the good ones. I see them being bombarded
on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to close. Not just by employees and
families of employees but by concerned customers. And this pleases me
because they need to take this seriously. What they do in the next 3
days will speak volumes on how much they listen to and care about us. This is a serious issue and we as employees are suffering.
As they report more, I will continue to add to this.
UPDATE 3/21: They emailed and made copies of this for employees to carry with them in their cars:
Now the CEO of Joann is also a piece of work. All you have to do is google his name and you’ll see the Walgreen’s lawsuit, his DUIs (yes, plural), and his impact on Joann since joining - which includes increasing prices because of the tariffs. One employee confirms that when tariff thing went into effect, the entire store was repriced. Some markups were a few cents but some were a few dollars. Since then the prices continue to fluctuate.
If you get a chance, read some of the comments people are putting in support of this:
I no longer feel safe in my workplace. The greed is sickening.
My employees deserve to be treated like people and make a livable wage and have benefits! Our health over their profit!
Staff at my local store have been asked to
bring in their own gloves for cleaning. Hand sanitizer expired in 2012.
Employees are reporting little to know cleaning supplies in a store that
targets the elderly as a primary demographic. The material used in the
masks is not medical grade. This company is shamelessly profiteering
from the pandemic.
As a former employee and manager I know the
company does not follow any real cleaning guidelines. They understaff
their stores, overwork their employees and frown upon time off. Fabrics
and crafts are not essential items at this time and since the majority
of the clientele there are elderly i think they are creating more risk.
Finally do something good for your employees and send gem home with pay
As a previous manager, I’m sad to say that this
company does not value its workers. To see that they are putting their
workers, and others who visit, at a continued risk is unbelievable and
is extremely selfish. Now is the time to act and stop the spread of
COVID-19 and to keep Joann’s open does not help stop the spread in
anyway shape or form.
Over the last two days, my local store decided
to carry on with inventory. They brought in an inventory team from the
area of our state with the vast majority of cases. It’s one thing to not
close and continue to expose the public to the risk, but decisions like
these show that Jo-Anns has a blatant disregard for the wellbeing of
its employees and customers. Even more telling is the fact that we know
that you are seeing our pleas to do the right thing, but continue to
ignore us on social media. There is only one reason that you are pushing
to categorize Jo-Anns as an essential business, and that is greed. In
fact, I had to spend my own money on gas to drive all over the city
looking for more cleaning supplies after my manager ordered me to. Your
employees do so much for you, and we are compensated very little. I have
been at Jo-Anns long enough to know that you would never compensate us
for our time off, but at least join the other non-essential business and
shut down for the time being.
joann’s customer base is primarily elderly or
otherwise at risk people, and many employees are also older or
immunocompromised. employees are overwhelmed as we can’t keep up with
the cleaning guidelines while also taking care of customers, not to
mention we’re severely lacking in cleaning supplies in the first place.
joann is encouraging people to come in for supplies to make face masks,
yet these masks aren’t sterile since people touch and breathe on the
fabric all day, and it’s then laid on the counter to be measured and
cut. employees themselves aren’t even allowed to wear masks or gloves.
joann cares more about profit than the safety of both their team members
and customers.
There are so many comments I want to share. These are just a few. This is Joann. They care more about their image and their financial gains than the backbone of their stores. The people who put up with their ridiculous requests day in and day out are now at risk and putting others at risk. Places like Hot Topic closed down and took care of their employees, places like Joanns should too!
UPDATE 3/22:
“We have signs saying we’re cleaning more but found out Friday that
we’re out of supplies in the distribution center. They claim they will
send them out once they receive any but I found out today from a truck
driver the company that supplies everything for Joann (from inventory to
store use items) is closed for 2 weeks… because of this they’re telling us to use the bathroom cleaner as a substitute.”
hopefulmisanthrope
justbeneath-thesurface2
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crossdreamers
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