The effects of Helene have kept some local workers off the job for two weeks now. Workers at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant have been unable to return because of significant flooding.

The Biden administration is proposing a new rule that would make 3.6 million more U.S. workers eligible for overtime pay, reviving an Obama-era policy effort that was ultimately scuttled in court.

The union organizing Starbucks workers says a strike timed to Pride month closed 21 stores over the weekend, including the company’s flagship Reserve Roastery in Seattle.

Kroger, the country's biggest traditional grocery chain, is ending some benefits for unvaccinated workers as big employers attempt to compel more of their workforce to become vaccinated with cases of COVID-19 again rising.

Vietnamese workers helping construct the first Chinese car tire factory in Europe say they're shivering in barracks without heat, going hungry and stuck in a plainland in Serbia because their passports have been taken by their Chinese employer.

The goal is to combat the holiday demand surge and help workers make some extra cash.

But in most states, meatpacking workers are still waiting for their turn to be vaccinated and are ranked behind health care workers, residents of long-term care centers and people aged 65 and older. Marc Perrone, UCFW president, argues that meatpacking workers, grocery store employees and other essential workers should be vaccinated ahead of older people who don’t have other health conditions. In a recent union survey that also included grocery and other food production workers, 70% of respondents said they want to be vaccinated. The UFCW, which represents roughly 80% of the nation’s beef and pork workers and 33% of its poultry workers, estimates that at least 21,900 meatpacking workers have been infected or exposed, and 132 have died of COVID-19. “Meatpacking workers like me are still facing risks every day.”___Associated Press writer Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, contributed to this report.

Workers prepare mail-in ballots for counting, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020, at the convention center in Lancaster, Pa., following Tuesday's election. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)If you need help with the Public File, call 540-512-1554.

In every recession since the 1970s, older workers had persistently lower unemployment rates than midcareer workers — partly because of seniority benefits. But in the current recession, older workers experienced higher unemployment rates than midcareer workers in each month since the onset of the pandemic. The older workers’ unemployment rates from April through September were 1.1 percentage points higher than mid-career workers — at 9.7% versus 8.6%. “The higher rate of unemployment for older workers might be because this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for employers to shed older workers and not fear investigation by the labor department," Ghilarducci said. The researchers who conducted the new study recommended that Congress increase and extend unemployment benefits for older workers, discourage withdrawals from retirement accounts, lower Medicare eligibility to 50 and create a federal Older Workers Bureau to promote the welfare of older workers.