COVID Update

US: Over 6.2M Cases - 189K Dead - 3.5M Recovered
Worldwide: Over 26M Cases - 863K Dead - 18.2M Recovered

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 186   Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 101
*Red indicates change in total deaths

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" COVID Policies
Covid Gag Rules at U.S. Companies Are Putting Everyone at Risk

Employees say the biggest names in American business have banned them from alerting others to coronavirus outbreaks; and OSHA is turning a blind eye.

In the past few months, U.S. businesses have been on a silencing spree. Hundreds of U.S. employers across a wide range of industries have told workers not to share information about Covid-19 cases or even raise concerns about the virus, or have retaliated against workers for doing those things, according to workplace complaints filed with the NLRB and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Workers at Amazon.com, Cargill, McDonald’s, and Target say they were told to keep Covid cases quiet. The same sort of gagging has been alleged in OSHA complaints against Smithfield Foods, Urban Outfitters, and General Electric. In an email viewed by Bloomberg Businessweek, Delta Air Lines told its 25,000 flight attendants to “please refrain from notifying other crew members on your own” about any Covid symptoms or diagnoses. At Recreational Equipment Inc., an employee texted colleagues to say he’d tested positive and that “I was told not to tell anybody” and “to not post or say anything on social media.” One complaint says trailer manufacturer Great Dane LP set as its policy “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Amazon, McDonald’s, and Target dispute the allegations. REI says it doesn’t prohibit employees from, or punish them for, raising concerns or discussing their own health. General Electric Co. says it hasn’t threatened employees for discussing Covid-related concerns, and Delta says it hasn’t punished staff for sharing diagnoses. Smithfield Foods Inc. says its policy “is the opposite of the allegations in the complaint.” Urban Outfitters Inc. says it encourages employees to report concerns and that OSHA has found no wrongdoing on its part. Cargill Inc. says it considers health information private. And Great Dane denied requests to comment.

In many cases, workers say their bosses have cited employee privacy to justify the gags, including federal privacy laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. But such laws don’t require companies to silence employees on safety matters.

On the contrary, federal laws, including those that created OSHA and the NLRB, guarantee employees the right to communicate about and protest their job conditions. The federal bodies have failed to make companies obey the law. Many thousands of OSHA complaints about coronavirus safety issues have yielded citations against just two companies - a health-care company and a nursing home - totaling about $47,000.

Employer crackdowns on free speech threaten to mask another wave of Covid infections and make the end of the year far deadlier than it otherwise might be. “In many places, workplace exposures are driving the pandemic,” says epidemiologist David Michaels, who ran OSHA under President Obama and is now a professor at George Washington University. “To stop this pandemic, workers need to be listened to rather than silenced.” bloomberg.com

CVS Employees Allege 'Pattern of Bullying', Safety Concerns
Georgia: CVS District Leader instructed pharmacy staff not to tell patients their medications were filled by someone who tested positive for COVID-19
A leaked email revealed a CVS district leader instructed employees not to tell patients that their medications had been filled by someone who tested positive for COVID-19.

A Georgia CVS technician shared the internal email with Business Insider. The email from the district leader asked employees to track down which prescriptions were filled by a COVID-19-positive employee and pull them from the shelves. However, if a patient had already picked up one of those prescriptions, the standard policy was to "NOT make an outreach call."

The technician said workers were threatened with disciplinary action or termination if they told customers that someone in the store had tested positive for COVID-19.

CVS spokesperson Michael DeAngelis told Business Insider, "It is not our policy to prohibit our pharmacies from informing patients if their prescription was filled when an employee who tested positive for COVID-19 worked in the pharmacy."

At least 14 CVS employees across the country have reached out to Business Insider and said CVS has a pattern of "bullying" staff, as well as flagrantly disregarding the safety of both staff and customers. Business Insider granted anonymity to all sources over job-security concerns and confirmed their identities.

Staffers said CVS has ignored incidents of potential coronavirus exposure. After the Georgia technician's coworker showed symptoms and tested positive, staff who'd worked in close proximity with the coworker were instructed not to get tested "because they couldn't have anyone else out of work," the technician said. businessinsider.com

Retail Eviction Proceedings Pick Up as Economy Restarts
Proceedings for the eviction of retail tenants are picking up across the country as courts reopen and states’ moratoriums on evictions are expiring or getting curtailed as the economy reopens.

While overall retail rent collections have improved to 77% in July from around 54% in April, some tenants, particularly from the apparel, fitness and theater categories, have continued to struggle with payments, according to real-estate data from Datex Property Solutions. wsj.com

NRF: Pandemic remains a 'shock' for small businesses
The National Retail Federation warned that disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic hasn't ended for small retailers, whose owners are "increasingly pessimistic." The trade association also called for continued economic stimulus measures to help small businesses suffering from the pandemic fallout.

"The coronavirus continues as a shock to America's small employers," NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz said in a press release. "Small businesses are the backbone of American ingenuity and impact local economies in cities and towns across the country, but responses to recent surveys highlight the fragility of many small business enterprises and the importance of the need for well-tailored economic policy." nrf.com
 

Protests & Violence

Operation LeGend Results in 355 Arrests, Including 33 Murder Suspects
U.S. Attorney Tim Garrison announced today that 355 arrests have been made and 122 firearms seized by local and federal law enforcement officers in Operation LeGend.

Among those arrested since the launch of the operation, 88 are federal defendants in the Western District of Missouri and 21 are federal defendants in Kansas (18) and Texas (3). Among the remaining 246 arrests, 33 were homicide cases and 62 were fugitives with either state or federal warrants for their arrest. The remaining 151 non-fugitive arrests were either supervised release violators or were referred for prosecution in state court. justice.gov

DOJ investigates protest leaders, funding in Portland and other cities
The Justice Department has launched a criminal inquiry into the leadership and financing of protests against police abuse that have roiled American cities as the protest movement has become a political flashpoint in the contentious presidential campaign.

Federal authorities asserted Tuesday that they are not targeting free speech rights, but rather "coordinated, criminal activity ... and violence related to riots, destruction of federal property and violence against law enforcement officers."

The acknowledgement by the Justice Department followed remarks by Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, who late Monday first disclosed the inquiry as "targeting" leaders of organizations and those who may be funding their movement "across the country." usatoday.com

LA: Protests continue over deputies' fatal shooting of Black man stopped on bike
Protesters marched on Tuesday for the second day in a row from the scene where a Black man was fatally shot by deputies to a Los Angeles County Sheriff's office, demanding answers over the latest deadly encounter between police and a Black American. The sheriff's office has said Dijon Kizzee was stopped for riding his bicycle in violation of vehicle codes, tried to run away, and was then shot after dropping a bundle of items that included a handgun. But with no body cameras in use by the deputies and no cell phone video yet to surface, activists say the public is being asked to take the sheriff's department's account of the incident at face value, and given the recent spate of fatal police encounters with Black men, protesters are once again claiming injustice. cbsnews.com

Nearly 100 Days of Unrest in Portland
Portland Police Chief: Violent protests come ‘at increased cost’
Portland’s police chief has denounced protesters who broke windows and set a fire to a business in the upscale apartment building where Mayor Ted Wheeler lives, labeling the events an escalation in the street violence that Oregon’s largest city has endured for months.

The demonstration began late Monday and stretched into the predawn hours of Tuesday, targeting Wheeler, who is also police commissioner and has been criticized for heading up a police force that has repeatedly used tear gas against the demonstrators.

Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell said the demonstrators also wound up targeting other people who live in Wheeler’s building and have had nothing to do with the protests. Previously, the demonstrators have almost always clashed with police outside symbols of authority — police buildings and courthouses. apnews.com

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler moving to avoid rioters targeting his home

Photos show devastation in riot-torn Kenosha, Wisconsin
 

Retailers Join 'Time to Vote' Movement
Walmart, Best Buy, Patagonia giving workers time off on Nov. 3 to vote
The US has one of the lowest voter turnout rates among developed countries. According to the Pew Research Center, 56% of those who were eligible to vote cast their ballots in the 2016 presidential election. Though there may be a number of reasons for citizens not voting, a growing number of companies are joining a movement that's aiming to ensure that work schedules and demands are not among them come November 3.

Through the "Time to Vote" campaign, a nonpartisan movement begun by Patagonia, Levi Strauss, and PayPal, more companies are making public commitments to giving their employees time to vote. More than 700 companies have joined the movement so far.

Here are some of the retailers and consumer companies that have added their name to the list and shared specific plans about how they're empowering their employees to vote:

Old Navy to pay store employees to work election polls in November
With Election Day on the horizon, many companies are giving their employees the day off to vote. But Old Navy is taking a different approach to get employees involved in the democratic process. The retailer announced on Tuesday that it will pay store employees for eight hours who serve as poll workers for the 2020 election. The company said employees "will also be eligible for compensation from their local jurisdiction."

Old Navy, which is owned by Gap (GPS) and has 50,000 field employees across more than 1,000 stores, is partnering with the Civic Alliance and Power the Polls to recruit 250,000 new poll workers to "ensure polling sites stay open and operate efficiently across the country." cnn.com

'Dash Cart' Wipes Out Cashiers
With Amazon's Fresh store, the autonomous checkout wars have begun

Retailers are racing to find ways to take cashiers completely out of the picture.

The new brick and mortar concept boasts a slew of high-tech features, including an autonomous checkout tools that lets customers put items into a smart shopping cart (called Dash Cart) that tracks and tallies the items so they don't have to checkout.

Standard Cognition, autonomous checkout solution provider, co-founder and CEO Jordan Fisher told Modern Retail that the startup has experienced "an influx of inbound inquiries" for its services from both large and independent retailers, mostly in the drugstore and convenience area, over the past few months.

The cashier-less technology may also be used at Amazon-owned Whole Foods locations as early as 2021, according to the New York Post. Amazon is reportedly trying to get the autonomous checkout technology ready to be deployed in grocery stores in the next few months. modernretail.com

Race for Cashierless Checkout Heats Up
Giant Eagle GetGo debuts checkout-free store
Tech startup Grabango (Gra-ban-go) has heated up the race for faster retailing by debuting its checkout-free technology at a Pittsburgh convenience store, becoming one of the first outlets to allow shoppers to skip the line at an existing store. Giant Eagle GetGo, a 3,000 square foot store located on the busy Route 28, began using the technology on Tuesday, giving shoppers the chance to choose items they want to buy, scan their phone at the exit and walk out without waiting in line.

The switch is a milestone for the technology, which has mostly been limited to new or remodeled stores powered by Amazon and several other startups, and comes after a year of stealth-mode testing. forbes.com

Neiman Marcus adds 3 stores to closure count

Macy’s plans rollout of smaller stores away from malls

Amazon’s new NYC Whole Foods Market is basically an Amazon warehouse

Casey's General Stores rolls out curbside pickup

J.Jill avoids bankruptcy - for 10 more days

*Publishing Note: Our weekly LP Newswire email will not be published this week, and will resume publication next Thursday.


Quarterly Results
At Home Q2 comp's up 42.3%, net sales up 50.5%
Shoe Carnival Q2 comp's up 12.6%, e-commerce sales up 332%
Macy's Q2 comp's down 34.7%, net sales down 36%, e-commerce sales up 53%
Build-A-Bear Workshop revenue down 49%, e-commerce sales up 299%

 

Senior LP Job Postings Removed from Website:
• Dir. of LP - 10 Spot/MadRag - North Bergen, NJ
• Security Dir. - Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits - St. Louis, MO
• Dir. AP - Stop & Shop - Quincy, MA