Month: June 2016

Original Content

Andy Stern, president emeritus of SEIU, on his new book about why it’s time to seriously consider enacting a Universal Basic Income.

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What’s Going on in the Workforce

Hank Green, founder of Vlogbrothers (brother of John—you don’t know him? Clearly you’re not up on your YA fiction…) has started a new organization to advocate for people who make video content online, the Internet Creators Guild.

Is the country’s investment in Uber good for Saudi Arabian women?

Harvard wants to know how you manage stress in the workplace (and the demand to stay connected).

Interesting piece on the challenges (and some proposed remedies) for freelancers who work across borders in the EU.

Some gig economy companies are deliberately setting out to create good jobs.

Organizing Theory

Is the “pop-up” union a sign of the onset of gentrification?

From Partners

Gig economy workers usually aren’t eligible for unemployment insurance (unless they have another job). Should they get a jobseekers allowance?

Sharing, Solidarity & Sustainability

Platform cooperativist Nathan Schneider has a plan to try to mainstream the co-op model—check it out here, and send him some feedback.

Original Content

This week, I interviewed Kristy Milland, a Mechanical Turk worker and crowd working labor activist. Watch here.

Thanks to all our supporters who keep this site going. If you like the original content on this site, please kick in a small contribution ($1/mo?) to help us keep it up and running.

What’s Going on in the Workforce

At its recent convention in Geneva, the ILO released this report on working conditions in the seafood industry (h/t to my colleagues Daniel, Jacob & JJ who contributed).

“There were three homeless workers at my Wal-Mart.” Meet the women of Pico Rivera who are at the heart of the campaign to push Wal-Mart to treat workers more fairly.

Are public sector workers the next group who could be disrupted by technology? Bots could streamline government interactions.

Organizing Theory

“…you realize every day, all day long somebody’s protesting something…” Ricochet on how live streaming video is changing protesting, and giving us context about how constant our protests are happening. (Since I hit 25,000 loops on Vine last night, this one hit home for me.)

From Partners

You know what I bet is really awesome? Austin in July. Head out there, and hit up the Worker Cooperative National Conference, July 29-31.

Labor lawyers! I know you have thoughts about the gig economy (or why else would you be here?)—why not submit a paper to this AALS meeting on “Classifying workers in the gig economy?”

Sharing, Solidarity & Sustainability

Cora Lewis interviews Andy Stern about his new book on UBI (look for an HTU interview with Andy soon!).

And speaking of UBI, in the first-ever (but probably not last) national vote, last week the Swiss rejected the idea of instituting a basic income.

Peter Barnes has some thoughts about whether basic income can ever come to the US.

Incubator 1776 has a good overview of the regulatory battles being fought over and about the “sharing” economy.

Geeking Out

Two centuries of US immigration, graphically (and hypnotizingly) depicted.

Geeking Out

“Self-driving cars don’t necessarily want the same things that older cars want. They may not even be friends.” Alex Steffen, on why we may be thinking of the wrong thing, when we think about self-driving cars.

Sharing, Solidarity & Sustainability

Y Combinator has announced some more details on their first basic income pilot experiment—to be run in Oakland, CA.

The EU just put out new rules suggesting that member nations not regulate the on-demand economy too heavily—and that they set standards to determine the difference between “occasional” and “professional capacity” services.

First, WeWork launched apartment living on a coworking-style basis. Now, they’ve opened hotel rooms in their buildings.

This is the first startup I’ve seen that specifically sets out to combine ride-sharing and package delivery, though Uber is now creeping into grocery delivery with a partnership with Walmart.

From Partners

The Sustainable Economies Law Center just put out a reference guide for cities and towns that want to regulate short-term rentals (like AirBnB).

What’s Going on in the Workforce

The Taxi Workers’ Alliance has filed an employment misclassification lawsuit on behalf of 5,000 Uber drivers in NYC.

Science confirms what you always suspected—bosses don’t add meaning to your work, but they can make it more frustrating.

The ILO just put out this survey of income security & working conditions among the crowdsourced workforce (think Mechanical Turk & others who provide online-only tasks). From one worker: “When you work at a real job, you are given time to learn and make mistakes and are given feedback, but in crowd work, the first time you make a mistake…you are rejected and maybe even blocked.”