Just Economics is continuing to hold our meetings online. Stay tuned to email and social media for updates. Contact vicki@justeconomicswnc.org with any questions.
COVID-19 Resources:
For Businesses:
- The Asheville Grown Business Alliance made a poster for the windows of businesses in the process of reopening. Click here to download and print.
- Just Economics partnered with the Asheville Grown Business Alliance and other local groups on this list of resources for local businesses
- Asheville Chamber of Commerce COVID-19 Survey 2: If you have a local business, please take the time to fill this out, these surveys inform all of us and help our community respond better to your needs
- Asheville Independent Restaurants also released a helpful guide for employers.
- American Sustainable Business Council webinar on small business survival during Coronavirus
- Mountain BizWorks offers multiple rapid funding opportunities for small businesses seeking relief
- A guide to the CARES act
- ASAP Farmer Relief Fund
- Mental health resources
For Workers:
- Unemployment: Many are reporting system delays, overload and crashing at des.nc.gov. Don’t give up! Pisgah Legal has this guide. Check out this checklist before you apply.
- Local relief fund for restaurant workers. You can also review Pisgah Legal Services information on your employment and unemployment rights here.
- Relief Fund for Buncombe County Service Workers
- Funds for any Restaurant or Bar employees in Asheville from New Belgium
- Avl.tips is a website where people can donate directly to workers
- National relief funds by the Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation, the Restaurant Opportunities Center, and the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund (created by the National Restaurant Association)
- Southern Smoke Emergency Relief Program
- The NC Restaurant Workers Relief Fund
- Relief fund for bartenders
- The We Feed Us Fund for workers in the food system
- Relief Funds for artists and musicians: Music for Relief, I Care if you Listen, Artist Relief and IAMAVL
- Resources from the Gig Workers Collective
- Freelancer Emergency Fund
- Core Gives: A grant for food and beverage employees and their children
- Info about cell phone carriers
- To apply as an individual to receive funds from the One Buncombe fund, please contact COVID-GA@buncombecounty.org, or (828) 250-550 and include your contact information including a phone number, if applicable. An HHS worker will reach out to you by phone to follow up.
- Statewide FOOD support: If you need food text 877-877 and type FOOD
- MANNA Food Bank Hotline #: 1-800-820-1109
- Resources for Music Professionals
Please consider filling out our Renters Survey: bit.ly/AVLRentersSurvey and Rate My Landlord Survey: bit.ly/RateMyLandlord
Grocery Workers, please consider filling out this brief anonymous survey to inform worker solidarity efforts: https://bit.ly/3eP9ObI
Advocacy:
Local:
- Help advocate for Transit- During this hectic time, we are asking that the City of Asheville do the following: 1) Support Hazard Pay for bus drivers, 2) Address the harassment and harsh working environment within the ART system 3) hold the management company (RATPDEV) accountable and assess liquidated damages to do so, 4) Provide better communication and 5) Reinstate the Transit Committee. For a more descriptive list of issues visit: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_XePUm49Oq0iWJ4HJhSGJMZ7XIuPaILe7v45URNozGI/edit?usp=sharing
- Support Asheville Firefighters fight for $15: Hourly pay for Asheville Firefighters is currently too low and violating the City’s own Living Wage policy. Because firefighters work long hour shifts, the City is working to set an annual salary wage floor instead of an hourly rate. Please support the Asheville Firefighters in their fight for a $15/hr wage floor. Email all of City Council here: AshevilleNCCouncil@ashevillenc.gov View more about firefighters here
State:
- Check out the NC Justice Center’s Action alert page: https://www.ncjustice.org/take-action/
- Leave No Worker Behind (emergency unemployment benefits) Send a letter to the state legislature to improve unemployment benefits immediately. Visit the NC AFL-CIO’s action alert to send a letter to legislators here
- Rentsdue.org: A helpful resource for contacting the legislature about financial assistance for rent.
- Tell officials to make policies that protect all people in our state who need housing, healthcare, and food
- Act Needs Your Action
- Call on state leaders to protect NC meat and poultry processing workers from COVID-19 at work
- Email your lawmakers to fix North Carolina’s Unemployment Insurance system
- NC Families Care Coalition sign-up page: https://ncfamiliescare.com/join/
Federal:
- Take Action to support a fiscal response to Covid-19 from federal government: https://ncjustice.salsalabs.org/coronavirusresponseact3/index.html
- Here’s info from the Congressional bill regarding mortgage deferment and other housing issues: https://nlihc.org/resource/congressional-leaders-agree-coronavirus-response-package-funding-homelessness-and-housing
- Contact your representatives and ask them to Cancel rents and mortgages! https://homesguarantee.com/cancelrent/
- Sign on to support Principles Save Main Street Jobs and Businesses principles
- Sign on to support Congresswoman Jayapal bill Small Biz Organizational Paycheck Guarantee Act
- Sign on to support Senator Harris Bill Saving our Street (SOS)
- More on proposed legislation here
Mutual Aid:
- Asheville Survival Program on Facebook
- Actualización local y regional sobre el COVID-19
- Beloved Asheville COVID-19 response on Facebook
- Rural Organizing and Resilience serving Marshall and Madison County
- Sandy Mush Mutual Aid
- Cooperate WNC Mutual Aid
Information:
Know-your-rights factsheets from the Justice Center
- Know Your Rights: Your Employment and COVID-19 – https://www.ncjustice.org/publications/your-employment-and-covid-19/
- Know Your Rights: Stay Safe From COVID-19 At Work – https://www.ncjustice.org/publications/know-your-rights-stay-safe-from-covid-19-at-work/
- Know Your Rights: COVID-19, Paid Leave and Unemployment – https://ncfamiliescare.com/know-your-rights-covid-paid-leave-and-unemployment/
- A Better Balance Factsheet : The Families First Coronavirus Response Act
- A Better Balance legal helpline: A national legal Helpline for free and confidential information about your workplace rights around caring for yourself and your family at 1-833-NEED-ABB (1-833-633-3222)
- Mortgage Relief from Major Banks Tracker
- Who Qualifies for Paid Leave Under the New Coronavirus Law
- Explainer article from the News & Observer
- Buncombe County and the city of Asheville are partnering on the Ready Team call center: 828-419-0095 or at ready@buncombecounty.org. In a partnership with United Way’s 211, the call center will have options for Spanish, Russian and multiple other languages. If you are experiencing an emergency, please dial 9-1-1.
- For resources on COVID-19 prevention, best practices and news updates, visitBuncombe Ready, NC Department of Health and Human Services, or the CDC.
Articles on worker organizing during the 1918 influenza epidemic:
- Coronavirus Strikes Mirror Labor Actions During Spanish Flu, Great Depression – https://www.teenvogue.com/story/strikes-coronavirus-may-day
- Looking Back on Seattle’s General Strike and Spanish Flu – https://www.seattlemag.com/knute-berger-column/looking-back-seattles-general-strike-and-spanish-flu
- Pandemics Can Mean Strike Waves – https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/04/coronavirus-pandemic-strike-wave-spanish-flu
To Help/Donate:
- Buncombe Partnership for Children fund for childcare
- Donate to the WNC Workers Center’s rapid response fundraising effort for latino immigrant workers who won’t be eligible for government relief
- Volunteer opportunities through the United Way and Hands on Buncombe
- Beloved Asheville Covid-19 Response (PayPal) or Facebook Beloved’s Fund for
- Local relief fund for restaurant workers
- Funds for any Restaurant or Bar employees in Asheville from New Belgium
- Avl.tips is a website where people can donate directly to workers
- Freelancer Emergency Fund
- National relief funds by the Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation and the Restaurant Opportunities Center
- Donate to the NC Restaurant Workers Relief Fund
- Relief fund for bartenders
- The We Feed Us Fund for workers in the food system
- Relief Funds for artists and musicians: Music for Relief, I Care if you Listen, Artist Relief and IAMAVL
- You can contribute to the One Buncombe fund, a local funding source for businesses and individuals, here.
- We Give a Share connects Asheville chefs, farms and our greater community to serve fresh food to those who need it most.
- Indigenous Environmental Network for their COVID-19 Emergency Mutual Aid Fund
- Cosecha’s fund to support undocumented immigrants
