August, 11 2020, 12:00am EDT

For Immediate Release
Contact:
Tel: (520) 623.5252,Email:,center@biologicaldiversity.org
Labor, Environmental Groups Urge Emergency Action to Protect Frontline Workers From COVID-19
Legal Filing Demands Trump Administration Use Defense Production Act to Provide PPE, Prevent More Deaths, Illness
WASHINGTON
Labor unions representing health care workers, teachers, transit operators and millions of other frontline workers joined with environmental groups today to demand that the Trump administration take emergency action to provide adequate masks, gloves and other personal protective equipment to these essential workers.
The legal petition demands that Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf act immediately to ensure the manufacture and distribution of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE). The Trump administration has refused to properly manage PPE production and distribution, leaving states and industry to compete and frontline workers short of supplies.
"It's terrifying to risk your life every day just by going to work. It brings a lot of things into perspective," said Rick Lucas, a registered nurse at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and president of the Ohio State University Nurses Organization local of the Ohio Nurses Association. "I'm not going to give up on protecting my patients, even though it's clear the federal government has basically given up on protecting us. More than 100 of my coworkers have tested positive for the coronavirus, and many of those positive tests were due to occupational exposure because of lack of PPE. This is inexcusable."
Today's petition was submitted by some of the nation's largest labor unions -- representing essential workers in healthcare, education, transportation and service sectors -- including the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union, National Nurses United, American Federation of Teachers and Amalgamated Transit Union. The groups collectively represent more than 15 million workers in frontline industries that have suffered thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of illnesses from COVID-19.
"The Trump administration is AWOL on safety and refuses to help the front-line workers who are still in desperate need of more PPE," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. "It is unconscionable, it is costing lives and in this petition America's essential workers are demanding answers, and most of all, action."
In March President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders declaring a national emergency due to COVID-19 and delegating broad powers to Azar and Wolf under the Defense Production Act. The act is designed to ensure the provision of essential materials and goods during public health emergencies. The secretaries have failed to fully utilize their authority, leading to a shortage of PPE.
"Frontline workers have ensured our country's survival through this unprecedented pandemic, yet the Trump administration has failed to protect them," said Jean Su, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's energy justice program and lead author of the petition. "We wrote this petition to stand in solidarity with workers to stop this tragic, preventable loss of life. This exploitation of workers is the same type of abuse the administration and corporations inflict on the environment. We'll continue to fight these injustices on all fronts."
The petition was drafted by environmental lawyers to support labor leaders' calls for adequate PPE. A surge in COVID-19 cases nationwide has led to a shortage of lifesaving equipment -- including gloves, masks, gowns and sterilizing supplies -- for millions of essential workers. People of color are more likely to be part of the essential workforce and at higher risk of death from the coronavirus.
"The president's own executive orders recognized the national emergency that continues to plague this country. Yet five months and tens of thousands of deaths later, the administration continues to fail to provide leadership to effectively confront the crisis," said Michael Leon Guerrero, executive director of the Labor Network for Sustainability. "In our ongoing work to address the risks to labor amid the climate crisis-in partnership with both labor and environmental allies -- we're grateful to the Center for Biological Diversity for using their expertise and resources to stand up for workers amid the pandemic."
The petition requests a response from the Trump administration within 15 days. If the administration fails to respond, the groups could sue in federal court to compel a response.
Labor Union Quotes
"Our union has filed complaints, we have signed petitions, we have demonstrated, and we've become supply clerks, negotiating equipment purchases around the world--because our members are getting sick, our colleagues and loved ones are dying, and our government has failed to protect them," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. "When one in five COVID-19 cases are frontline workers, we see that workers are at risk every moment. We need to protect the protectors--that means getting them PPE but also listening to those with the frontline knowledge to tackle this disease."
"Essential workers -- mostly Black and brown workers -- have been forced to wear trash bags and doggie diapers as PPE, putting their lives on the line every day to keep our communities running," said Mary Kay Henry, international president of Service Employees International Union. "Workers aren't being honored or protected, they're being sacrificed. All of us want the same things: health, safety, security, and a better future for our children. That's why working people are demanding the Trump Administration take immediate, emergency action to provide sufficient PPE and to protect all workers."
"At a time when the skills of registered nurses, other health care workers, and essential workers are most needed, it is unconscionable that they are being treated as if their lives are worth less than others with this utter disregard for their safety," said National Nurses United Executive Director Bonnie Castillo. "Nurses are willing to be at the bedside caring for COVID-19 patients; their employers and their government should be willing to protect them with the PPE they need to do their jobs safely. More than 175 nurses have died from COVID-19. Countless essential workers have died. We need the Trump administration to immediately invoke the Defense Production Act and order the mass production and distribution of PPE."
"Flight attendants were on the front lines before the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the United States," said Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants. "We have been able to better protect ourselves thanks to our training in contagious disease management and our advocacy to ensure masks for flight crews, but the lack of PPE puts flight crews and all essential workers in danger. Flight crews will need a reliable supply of masks, gloves and hand sanitizer, and we need the federal government to step up with consistent, clear guidance for our industry."
"Many nannies, house cleaners and home care workers have had no choice but to risk their health to find work so they can put food on the table. Despite this, domestic workers have been the last to receive financial assistance, protective equipment or testing," said National Domestic Workers Alliance Executive Director Ai-jen Poo. "We need to remember domestic workers in this moment of crisis and make sure they receive the support they need. It is critical that essential workers receive personal protective equipment without delay."
"Since the coronavirus pandemic began, ATU members have been risking their lives each day on the frontlines of this global crisis often with little or no protection," said John A. Costa, president of Amalgamated Transit Union International. "The shortage of PPE has had a devastating impact on the ATU, as more than 80 of our frontline heroes have lost their lives and thousands have been infected with the coronavirus. The ATU supports the activation of the Defense Production Act to ensure the production of the needed PPE to provide transportation and other essential workers the necessary protection to stay safe on the job."
"When COVID-19 struck, transit agencies across the country were caught flatfooted and unprepared, triggering transit worker deaths and exposing riders to harm's way," said Transit Workers Union International President John Samuelson. "As a second wave of the virus hits the West Coast and threatens to re-emerge in already hard-hit systems, Congress needs to fund $32 billion in emergency supplement funding for public transit in their relief package so that transit agencies can continue operating safely with the necessary PPE for their workers. The time to take action is right now. Far too many transit workers have already perished in the line of duty. We must not allow the indifference or incompetence of those in power to wreak anymore havoc on our members."
"As states reopen and the number of COVID-19 illnesses and hospitalizations continues to rise to unprecedented levels, we need the president of the United States to stop abdicating his responsibility to protect workers who are putting their lives on the line to do their jobs," said Communications Workers of America President Chris Shelton. "Leaving workers to fend for themselves while there are grave shortages of adequate PPE during a pandemic is unacceptable and un-American. CWA members and all workers need Donald Trump to do something useful for once and order the cronies he's put in charge of the federal government to use every tactic within their power to get PPE produced and distributed.
Read about why environmental groups like Greenpeace and 350.org are supporting this legal petition.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
(520) 623-5252LATEST NEWS
'People Will Suffer, People Will Die': GOP Nears Final Passage of Largest Medicaid Cuts in US History
"The top 1% are salivating over getting an extra $300,000 a year because of this dangerous bill," said one House Democrat. "Billionaires win."
Jul 03, 2025
House Republicans are on the verge of passing legislation that is projected to strip health coverage and food aid from millions of people across the United States, all to pay for tax breaks that will flow disproportionately to a small sliver of rich Americans.
The final vote on the sprawling budget reconciliation package, which narrowly passed the Senate on Tuesday, is expected Thursday after hours of jockeying among Republican leaders and holdovers in the GOP's ranks overnight. Republicans finally cleared a procedural hurdle to begin debate on the measure after 3 am ET on Thursday.
"If Republicans are so proud of their Big Bad Betrayal Bill... why did they begin debate at 3:28 am?" asked Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.). "Why are they hiding from the American people?"
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) delayed the final vote on the bill with an hours-long—and, as of this writing, still ongoing—speech that featured stories from constituents who are horrified that they will soon lose health coverage or food aid.
"This isn't abstract, taking away healthcare from the American people," said Jeffries. "It's concrete, it's real, it has devastating implications."
Watch Jeffries' remarks live:
The unpopular legislation that set to clear the House Thursday is substantially more expensive than the version the chamber's Republicans approved in May, and it includes roughly $300 billion more in cuts to Medicaid. The bill now heads to the desk of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly pledged not to cut Medicaid.
Analysts estimate that over the next 10 years, roughly 17 million Americans will lose health coverage under the GOP package, both due to the measure's Medicaid cuts and its failure to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of the year.
The bill's assault on Medicaid—including its restriction on states' use of provider taxes to fund their programs—is expected to ravage rural hospitals, notwithstanding Republicans' last-ditch attempt to put a Band-Aid on the massive wound they're set to create.
The legislation would also trigger more than $500 billion in automatic cuts to Medicare due to its multitrillion-dollar addition to the deficit.
One recent study estimated that the bill's healthcare cuts would result in more than 51,000 additional, preventable deaths across the U.S. each year.
"The decision we have been entrusted by the American people to make will have ramifications for millions of our fellow Americans, and indeed for our country, for decades to come," Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said in floor remarks early Thursday.
"In just a few short hours, some of them on Medicaid will be waking up and turning on the news to find out if what we did here tonight means they're about to lose it," said Boyle. "Some of the people who get their healthcare from the ACA exchanges will be turning on their TV to find out what we've done in these next few minutes, and if they will still be able to have healthcare... The kids who rely on SNAP, the nutrition assistance program, they may not quite understand it, but make no mistake about it—what we are about to do in the next few minutes here will have a profound effect on their lives."
As Ranking Member @HouseBudgetDems, I'm on the House floor right now to lead the fight against Trump's Big Bill for Billionaires.
This bill is an attack on my neighbors — and I'm not going to let Republicans kick 17 million Americans off their health care without a fight. pic.twitter.com/MeBkYKd8f2
— Rep. Brendan Boyle (@CongBoyle) July 3, 2025
The GOP bill proposes $186 billion in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program cuts over the next decade, which analysts say will imperil benefits for millions—including many children. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that around 1 million children "would see food assistance to their families cut substantially or terminated" due to the legislation's SNAP cuts, including its expanded work requirements.
The measure's unprecedented cuts to the safety net, as well as clean energy programs, will only partially offset its trillions of dollars in tax cuts. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), more than 70% of the legislation's net tax breaks "would go to the richest fifth of Americans in 2026, only 10% would go to the middle fifth of Americans, and less than 1% would go to the poorest fifth."
"The effects of President Trump's tariff policies alone offset most of the tax cuts for the bottom 80% of Americans," ITEP found. "For the bottom 40% of Americans, the tariffs impose a cost that is greater than the tax cuts they would receive under this legislation."
Rep. Gabe Amo (D-R.I.) said in a floor speech early Thursday that "budgets are statements of values," and Republicans "are showing they have none."
"People will suffer, people will die, and it will be the hands of Republicans who vote yes," said Amo. "The top 1% are salivating over getting an extra $300,000 a year because of this dangerous bill. Billionaires win."
Back speaking on the House floor at 3:45am because budgets are a statement of values — with this big, ugly bill Republicans have none.
Americans will suffer. Americans will die. And it will be at the hands of the Republicans who vote yes.
This budget is shameful. I’m a hell no! pic.twitter.com/K5Ri5lGzzs
— Congressman Gabe Amo (@RepGabeAmo) July 3, 2025
Ahead of the bill's final passage, state leaders warned that the cuts pushed by Republican lawmakers could be deeply destructive to their residents and economies.
"Voices across North Carolina are sounding the alarm—our hospitals, healthcare providers, county leaders, state leaders, business leaders, workers, nonprofits, and, most importantly, the people who rely on these essential services and industries every day," North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein wrote in a letter to his state's congressional delegation on Wednesday. "Many North Carolinians are worried about feeding their families, being able to continue seeing their doctor, or keeping their jobs. We are united in our concern that this reconciliation bill would undo decades of bipartisan progress and harm the health, well-being, and economic security of our individuals, families, and communities."
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'Yes, You Are,' Tlaib Tells Lawmaker Who Said Republicans Aren't 'Little Bitches' Doing Trump's Bidding
"This budget betrayal is the largest cut to Medicaid and food assistance in history to give billionaires a tax break," said the Michigan Democrat.
Jul 02, 2025
Progressive Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib on Wednesday clapped back at one of her Republican colleagues who suggested that the GOP effort to pass the so-called Big Beautiful Bill this week isn't in response to a directive from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has set a July 4 deadline.
“The president of the United States didn't give us an assignment. We're not a bunch of little bitches around here, OK? I'm a member of Congress. I represent almost 800,000 Wisconsinites," Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) told journalists near the back entrance to the House of Representatives chamber, according to Punchbowl News' Kenzie Nguyen.
Responding to Van Orden's claims on the social media platform X, Tlaib (D-Mich.) simply said, "Yes, he did, and yes, you are."
The Michigan Democrat also released a video explaining to constituents why she is voting "hell no" on the package, which would cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and strip an estimated 17 million Americans of their health insurance over the next decade while giving trillions of dollars in tax breaks to the ultrarich and corporations.
Tlaib wasn't the only House Democrat to notice the Republican's remarks. A fellow Wisconsinite, Congressman Mark Pocan, asked his followers on X, "Do you think Derrick Van Orden is right... that Congress is not a bunch of 'little bitches'?"
According to Politico's Samuel Benson and Mike DeBonis, Van Orden's comment came in the context of confirming he would vote for the budget reconciliation package, despite some critiques. The congressman reportedly said: "So this bill will pass. Am I happy about everything? No, but there's a difference between compromise and capitulation. We're not capitulating. We're compromising."
His remarks to reporters, and the backlash, came as the House considered a version of the megabill passed by the Senate on Tuesday, with help from Vice President JD Vance. GOP leaders in the lower chamber are struggling to get it past a procedural hurdle due to opposition from Republican fiscal hawks—plus all Democrats, who oppose steep cuts to the social safety net.
To protest the Republican effort to send the bill to Trump's desk by Independence Day, House Democrats on Wednesday formed a procedural conga line offering an amendment that would block cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.
Multiple Democrats also took to the House floor to rail against the package, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who declared that "this bill is a deal with the devil. It explodes our national debt, it militarizes our entire economy, and it strips away healthcare and basic dignity of the American people. For what? To give Elon Musk a tax break and billionaires the greedy taking of our nation. We cannot stand for it, and we will not support it."
"You should be ashamed," Ocasio-Cortez told the chamber's Republicans.
As Common Dreams reported earlier Wednesday, progressives outside of Congress are also working to block the bill. Advocacy organizations, including Indivisible, are urging Americans to call and email House Republicans and pressure them to oppose the package. The phone number for the House switchboard is 202-224-3121.
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All Likud Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex Entire West Bank This Month
The 15 ministers said that Israel's "strategic partnership, backing, and support of the U.S. and President Donald Trump" make this a "propitious time" to formally steal most of Palestine.
Jul 02, 2025
All 15 Israeli government members representing Likud on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who leads the right-wing party—to annex the entire West Bank of Palestine before the end of the Knesset's summer session on July 27, citing support from U.S. President Donald Trump.
The ministers, along with Likud Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, sent a letter to Netanyahu asserting that "this is the time to approve in government a decision to apply sovereignty" over Judea and Samaria, the biblical name for the West Bank, which includes East Jerusalem.
"Following the state of Israel's historic achievements in the face of Iran's Axis of Evil and its sympathizers, the task must be completed and the existential threat from within must be eliminated, to prevent another massacre in the heart of the country," the letter argues, referring to the recent 12-day war between Israel and Iran, in which the United States intervened by bombing Iranian nuclear sites.
"The strategic partnership, backing, and support of the U.S. and President Donald Trump have made it a propitious time to move forward with it now, and ensure Israel's security for generations," the ministers said. "The October 7 massacre proved that the doctrine of settlement blocs and the establishment of a Palestinian state in the remaining territory is an existential danger to Israel. It's time for sovereignty."
Asked during a Wednesday press briefing for reaction on the ministers' call to annex the West Bank, U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce replied, "I think that is specifically something that the White House would be able to answer for you, but I also know that our position regarding Israel... is that we stand with Israel and its decisions and how it views its own internal security."
Netanyahu is set to travel to Washington, D.C. next week to meet with Trump, despite an International Criminal Court warrant for the Israeli leader's arrest for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza including murder and forced starvation.
I asked State Dept spox Bruce about Israeli minister’s call to annex the occupied West Bank — she referred me to the WH, saying the US "stand with Israel and its decisions.”
I followed up asking if the two-state solution remains US policy, she said Trump is “realistic… Gaza is… pic.twitter.com/GdtN0tTDdy
— Rabia İclal Turan (@iclalturan) July 2, 2025
Palestinians and their defenders warned during the 2024 U.S. presidential election cycle that a victoriousTrump might lift the few guardrails the Biden administration had placed on Israel and unleash Netanyahu to seize all of Palestine. The goal of Israel's far right is expansion of Israeli territory to include what proponents call "Greater Israel," which is based on biblical boundaries that stretched from Africa to Turkey to Mesopotamia.
Netanyahu has repeatedly displayed maps showing the Middle East without Palestine, all of whose territory is shown as part of Israel. However, annexation had previously been most closely associated with far-right figures outside Likud like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich of the Religious Zionist Party and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir of Jewish Power.
Following Trump's reelection last November, Smotrich said that "the year 2025 will be, with God's help, the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria."
"The only way to remove the threat of a Palestinian state from the agenda is to apply Israeli sovereignty over the settlements in Judea and Samaria," he continued. "I have no doubt that President Trump, who showed courage and determination in his decisions during his first term, will support the state of Israel in this move."
Smotrich praised Wednesday's letter, declaring he'll be ready to impose Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank as soon as Netanyahu "gives the order," according to The Times of Israel.
Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin, one of the Likud members who signed the letter, said Wednesday: "I think that this period, beyond the current issues, is a time of historic opportunity that we must not miss. The time for sovereignty has come, the time to apply sovereignty. My position on this matter is firm, it is clear."
Israel occupied the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights in Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel eventually withdrew from the Sinai but unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem in 1980 while keeping control of the rest of the West Bank and Golan Heights. Although Israel dismantled settlements and withdrew troops from Gaza in 2005, it is still considered an occupier under international law and its conduct during the current invasion, bombardment, and siege of the coastal enclave is the subject of an International Court of Justice (ICJ) genocide case.
Since 1967, Israel has steadily seized more and more Palestinian land in the West Bank while building and expanding Jewish-only settlements there. Settlement population has increased exponentially from around 1,500 colonists in 1970 to roughly 140,000 at the time of the Oslo Accords in 1993—under which Israel agreed to halt new settlement activity—to around 770,000 today. Settlers often attack Palestinians and their property, including in deadly pogroms, in order to terrorize them into leaving so their land can be stolen. In recent weeks, Israeli settlers have attacked Israel Defense Forces soldiers they view as standing in their way and Palestinians alike in the West Bank.
From 1978 until new guidelines were announced by then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the first Trump administration, the U.S. State Department also considered Israel's settlements to be "inconsistent with international law."
In July 2024, the ICJ found Israel's occupation of Palestine to be an illegal form of apartheid that must be ended as soon as possible. The tribunal also said that Israeli settler colonization of the West Bank amounts to annexation, also a crime under international law. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that an "occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies."
As the world's attention is focused on Gaza, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed upward of 950 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 2023, including at least 200 children, while wounding thousands more, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
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