everyone knows that the reason the liability protections are bad is because companies that have customer-facing jobs will force their employees to take off their masks during what might be the worst phase of the epidemic, right?

like, that's what this is about. it's not *just* that companies will force workers to roll their own PPE, it's that a lot of companies — and, particularly, companies that are in bed with the president — will actively and intentionally prohibit people from protecting themselves.

it feels like no one's framing it up in these terms, including pelosi. but that's what it boils down to. big hotel chains and corporate restaurants and grocery stores are going to force their workers to leave their masks at home to pretend that everything is fine, great even.

and even if, like, the MGM Grand doesn't do this because they know the optics are bad, there is no defensible reason that you should even give them the option to do it, because there absolutely will be companies that do, and their workers probably don't have health insurance.

giving them blanket indemnification is not something that can realistically rolled back, even if you overturn it in january. that's an enormous and terrifying level of exposure during the potential worst phase when customer-facing businesses are going to be at their busiest.

and as @Brien_Jackson and @iamlaurasaurus point out, the risks are even higher and worse for meat-packing plants and farmworkers and assembly line workers who have to work in very close contact with one another and whose employers would very much like to speed up production.

of all of the shitty ideas that mnuchin and the white house and mcconnell want to cram into a relief bill, this is the one that pelosi absolutely should burn the house down to prevent, because it's the one that can't be taken back no matter what you do in january.

when you position these protections on these grounds, there is no ideologically honest leftist argument for taking the deal. none. it vastly increases vulnerable worker exposure to the virus. a serious case of covid-19 costs a hell of a lot more than $1,200 to survive.

every single person i have seen arguing that pelosi should take the deal works in an office or from their couch, and you should not grant their opinion on what working class people will be forced to face any legitimacy whatsoever.