Archive for category: Updates

NEW RESOURCES: MENTAL HEALTH & WELL-BEING

We added crisis hotline numbers to our Local 5 Resource Page. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, these hotlines are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you are experiencing an emergency or believe you are a danger to yourself and/or others, please call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room for immediate assistance.

Our Local 5 Resource Page also includes activities for your well-being, including free yoga classes, audiobooks for children, and lists of free things that weren’t free before coronavirus.

MESSAGE FROM OUR FINANCIAL SECRETARY-TREASURER ERIC GILL

Our Financial Secretary-Treasurer Eric Gill shared yesterday that some hotels are considering opening their doors to guests and community members who are self-isolating or self-quarantining due to COVID-19. Local 5 is calling on the hotel industry to ensure that the health and safety of our hotel workers and their families are a top priority.

Here is a flyer for hotel workers with some tips on how to protect you and your family if you are working a hotel that is being used as a temporary quarantine center. A full list of what you and your managers should be doing to protect yourselves and your families will be made available ASAP. Eric Gill explains these health & safety precautions in this video.

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

DLIR opens new call center as unemployment filings sail past 200,000 (Pacific Business News, April 7 2020)

Since the beginning of March, there have been 214,939 new unemployment filings—about 20,000 of them were duplicates. Director Murakami said that they are getting about 8,000 applications a day now, down from the 16,000 a day when shutdown first started. The DLIR mentioned the following issues as common causes of processing delays:

• Entering the wrong routing and account numbers when setting up direct deposit
• Entering the wrong dates of employment, wherein last date comes before the start date
• Selecting “no” when asked if available for work — while though those seeking unemployment are not obligated to look for three jobs per week at this time due to the COVID-19 crisis, applicants still need to select “yes” to avoid an error message)
• Failing to pull all employment data from the last 18 months
• Not listing a birth date

The DLIR twitter also has some fairly frequent posts with tips and updates: https://twitter.com/hi_dlir

Labor Department’s new phone bank goes down on first full day of operation (HawaiiNewsNow, April 7 2020)

Despite the problem with the phone lines, you should know the Kakaako location is staffed with workers who can help those who want to track a current case. The number is (833) 901-2275.

A second call center will help those needing to reset passwords if they filed unemployment before and already have an account. That number is (808) 762-5751.

There is a third phone bank to assist newly out-of-work residents who do not have access to the online forms. To reach that phone bank, call (808) 762-5752.

For UI Phone Appointments: (833) 901-2275.

Trump removes independent watchdog for coronavirus funds, upending oversight panel (Politico, April 7 2020)

As big chunks of the $2.2 trillion pool of taxpayer money is about to be distributed to corporations, a panel of inspectors general had named Glenn Fine (the acting Pentagon watchdog) to lead the group charged with monitoring the coronavirus relief effort.

On Monday, Trump removed Fine from his post, and instead named the EPA inspector general to serve as the temporary Pentagon watchdog in addition to his other responsibilities. Trump’s move made it impossible for Fine to fill the inspector general role his peers chose him to do.

This is from a president who still hasn’t released his own tax returns, which doesn’t bode well for the amount of accountability the public can expect.

Hawaii visitor arrivals rose for 4th time since Thursday (Star Advertiser, April 7, 2020)

Monday’s trans-Pacific passenger count was 513, including 133 visitors and 182 residents, on Sunday Visitor count was 126, it was 106 on Saturday, 94 on Friday and 89 on Thursday.

COVID Cases Today

World: Cases: Cases: 1.43M (+900k).  Deaths: 82.1k (+7.3k).  Recovered: 301.4K (+30k)

USA: Cases: 400k(+32k).  Deaths: 12.9k (+1.9k).  Recovered: 22.4k (+2.6k)

Hawaii: Cases:  410 (+23).  Deaths:  5 (0).  Hospitalized: 42 (+16). Recovered: 113 (+24)

NEW RESOURCE: HARDSHIP LETTER TEMPLATE TO LANDLORDS OR LENDERS

We added a letter template to our Resources Page that you could send to your landlord or lenders if you are experiencing financial hardship. Click here to download the letter template.

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Here’s the latest breakdown of Hawaii’s coronavirus cases by patient ages (Hawaii News Now April 5, 2020)

You can see some of the statistics at the link, generally elderly require more hospitalization though younger adults 20 and up make up a significant portion of confirmed cases.

Kaiser Permanente Offers Free Coronavirus Treatment Through May (Big Island Now, April 5, 2020)

Out-of-pocket costs for health treatment related to the coronavirus are now free to all Kaiser Permanente members. It applies to to all inpatient and outpatient services from April 1 to May 30.

Local 5 represents 2,000 Kaiser Permanente workers who are continuing to provide excellent patient care amid this pandemic.

Gov. Ige, lawmakers face grim budget scenario with tough choices ahead (Star Advertiser, April 5, 2020)

Article discusses some projected losses in tax revenues by percentages and dollars and talks about various legislative bills that will be de-prioritized now, as well as new actions that need to be taken to address the economic fallout of the COVID crisis. It talks about the minimum wage increase being threatened (which may be a good thing if it was only going to be $13/hour four years from now). Scheduled raises for public workers are a huge cost item that will have to be dealt with, and there are talks about using furloughs like in the 2008 Recession.

What does it take to convert a hotel bedroom into a COVID-19 care room? (NBC, April 5, 2020)

The article summarizes the logistics and best practices of converting hotel rooms into patient care facilities. It goes over furniture and cleaning best practices as well as preferred renovations (like removing carpet) and creating a negative air pressure rooms.

Hotel to Healthcare Concept (H2HC) (US Army Corp of Engineers)

There are two very good documents from the Army about converting hotel rooms/floors into patient care facilities. You can view the written Concept of Operations here and diagrams of physical floor plan layouts here.

COVID Cases Today

World: Cases: Cases: 1.3M (+100k).  Deaths: 69k (+4k).  Recovered: 263K (+17k)

USA: Cases: 337k (+26k).  Deaths: 9.6k (+1.2k).  Recovered: 17.5k (+2.8k)

Hawaii: Cases:  371 (+20).  Deaths:  4 (0).  Hospitalized: 21 (+2). Recovered: 85 (+3)

We created a new page on our website with resources, such as food and grocery assistance, rent and mortgage assistance, and more. Please visit this page often as we will be updating it regularly as more resources become available, including information from our Hotel Industry Credit Union and Local 5’s Hardship Fund.

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

COVID Cases Today

World: Cases: Cases: 1.1M (+100k).  Deaths: 58.9k (+5.9k).  Recovered: 226K (+15k)

USA: Cases: 278k (+33k).  Deaths: 7,152 (+1.1k).  Recovered: 9.8k (+0.8k)

Hawaii: Cases:  319 (+34).  Deaths:  3 (+1).  Hospitalized: 18 (+3). Recovered: 78 (+6)

CDC Now Recommends Americans Consider Wearing Cloth Face Coverings In Public (NPR, April 3, 2020)

CDC now recommends that people wear cloth or fabric face coverings, which can be made at home, when entering public spaces. It is mainly to prevent those people who have the virus — and might not know it — from spreading the infection to others.  You can read CDC news release here.  But Donald Trump will not take that advice saying CDC recommendation is “voluntary” and that he will not wear a face mask in public.

Board of Ed Waives High School Graduation Requirements

The state Board of Education on Thursday approved the Hawaii Department of Education’s request to waive high school graduation credit requirements for seniors primed to graduate this year. Seniors in good standing through the third quarter will receive a high school diploma.

Governor Ige activates National Guard on Friday (KITV, April 3, 2020)

250 National Guard members are being called into service to help with emergency management.  Furthermore, the article says that 33 hotels in Hawai’i want to participate in the Hotels for Heroes program and the HTA says it is working with police departments, fire departments, and healthcare workers on the front lines.  The hotel stays will begin on Monday, April 6th and reservations are being taken now.   Also, visitors arriving with no place to stay are being turned away and sent back on airplanes (recent news report revealed that four homeless people flew into hawaii one day and one family came in with no hotel reservations). 

Coronavirus: More than 500 die in New York overnight with 100,000 reported cases (Independent April 3, 2020)