MAY 11, 2020
Make Your Voice Heard: Fix Restore Illinois to Save Restaurants
Thanks to your engagement over the weekend, we have sent more than 10,000 messages to Governor Pritzker and the General Assembly urging them to modify the Restore Illinois plan to allow restaurants and bars to resume their dine in service in a limited capacity during Phase 3.

Under the current Restore Illinois plan, restaurants and bars throughout the state will be unable to resume dine in operations until June 26 at the very earliest. This approach underestimates the restaurant industry’s ability to reopen and operate safely with enhanced public health measures in place.

Send a message to the Governor and leaders in the General Assembly today.

Click here to watch a video message from IRA President & CEO Sam Toia, and share it with your network.

Read the latest about the IRA's ongoing efforts below:

Secretary Mnuchin Supports Changes to PPP to Help Restaurants

Today, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the government will look to make fixes to help restaurants and others participate in the $660 billion PPP small-business aid program, a move that could help ease some of the criticism surrounding the program.

The PPP’s forgiveness requirements mandate borrowers spend 75% of the loan on worker salaries, and for the forgivable amount to be spent over an eight-week period. That has drawn objections from many business owners who say they need more money for rent and other overhead costs and from industries that remain mostly closed, as mandated by state regulations.

“One of the things we’re particularly sympathetic to are the restaurants,” Mr. Mnuchin
said in an interview on CNBC. “Many of the restaurants are just beginning to open up
and have said that they’d really like to hold the money. They can’t do that; that’s not
something we can do. But we’ll look at a technical fix.”

The National Restaurant Association said it welcomed Mr. Mnuchin’s comments, saying
restaurants need more flexibility in use of the loans.

Click here to more from the Wall Street Journal.
Send a Message to Congress on #TakeActionTuesday
The restaurant industry has been the hardest hit by COVID-19, suffering more losses
than any other industry.

Tell Congress to support the Restaurant Blueprint for Recovery to help our industry get the support we need.
Anti-Retaliation, Fair Workweek Rule Change Ordinances Introduced

Earlier today, the Chicago City Council Committee on Workforce Development approved an ordinance that would postpone until January 1, 2021 the “private cause of action” section of Chicago's Fair Workweek law that allows aggrieved workers whose schedules are changed without adequate notice or compensation to file their own lawsuits. Click here to read the ordinance.

The Fair Workweek ordinance , passed into law last year, still goes into effect July 1, 2020. Restaurants with less than 250 employees and less than 30 global locations are exempt from this ordinance.

Additionally, the Committee passed an anti-retaliation ordinance tailored to protect workers from being fired, suspended, transferred or having their pay cut because of absences tied to the coronavirus. The protections would apply to workers who stay home because they have COVID-19 symptoms, have been exposed to someone who has tested positive for the virus, or their business is deemed nonessential by statewide stay-at-home order. Click here to read the ordinance.

Click here to read more from Chicago Sun-Times.
Mayor Lightfoot and CDPH Announce Citywide COVID-19 Testing Expansion

Today, Mayor Lightfoot joined Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady, M.D., aldermen, and community and site partners to announce plans for the citywide expansion of COVID-19 testing, focusing on communities most impacted by the pandemic.

Through strategic partnerships with Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) and Curative-Korva, the city is working toward its goal to increase testing per day from roughly 3,000 tests to 10,000 tests – a critical benchmark to better understand the COVID-19 pandemic and an instrument to help guide the City’s reopening strategy.

Click here to read more.
Please  visit our website  for the latest COVID-19 updates, in addition to the above resources and information for your business. Updated as of 7:55 p.m. on Monday, May 11.