All leaders must frame their COVID-19 responses within existing obligations under international law. Whilst states may temporarily close their borders to limit transmission, any such measures should be non-discriminatory, necessary, proportionate and reasonable in all circumstances. It is understandable and proper that a leader’s first priority is to take care of the people they govern….
Yakima County has the highest per capita rate of COVID-19 infections on the entire West Coast, a distinction the community leaders blame on a slow response from the governor and state and local officials to demands for stronger health and safety protections for agricultural workers. The Central Washington county has a 26.5% positive rate among those tested;…
Still, the novel coronavirus has continued to rage through the ranks of Yakima’s agricultural workers and the broader county population in a pandemic that health district officials believe to be increasingly driven by what happens outside of the workplace, where masks are often not worn in stores and elsewhere, and holiday weekends result in case…
The Yakima Herald-Republic reports: Workers at the Columbia Reach plant in Yakima have had to tap into their inner strength as their strike approaches the four-week mark. Columbia Reach is the last fruit-packing plant with workers on strike. While workers at other plants have been able to reach agreements with employers, those at Columbia Reach…
Over two days from June 9th and 10th, Jesuit Ministries in Seattle, Spokane, and Tacoma will host a virtual Vigil (a devotional watching or keeping awake in the Catholic tradition) calling for support of and financial relief for undocumented workers in Washington State during this time of COVID-19. This effort was initially conceived and supported…
