Month: November 2018

“Capital can’t concentrate in areas where capital doesn’t exist.”

Sharing, Solidarity & Sustainability
“Capital can’t concentrate in areas where capital doesn’t exist.” Yup. It’s going to take more than Black communities’ own resources to close the racial wealth divide in the US.
#BlackFridays just concluded with their ultimate day of action on Black Friday. Here’s a good look at how this movement came to be.
Reputation, reputation, reputation
You maybe remember I wrote a piece about how worker organization will need to develop tools & skills to manage online reputation, a few years ago. If you need more impetus to do that, check out this creepy story about AI-crawling of babysitters’ social media pages, and rating them as appropriate caregivers. (If you didn’t want your teenaged daughter to post selfies, why did you give her a phone?)
Organizing Theory
What can activists learn from corporations about how to successfully “franchise” events and campaigns?
OSF has just released a report assessing new technologies that have been developed to empower & inform migrants about their employment & other legal rights.
From Partners
Are you a tech worker? Are you planning on applying for a job with Amazon in Queens? If not, sign this petition.
Geeking Out
Is this kitchen haunted? or just automated?

It’s time to move your membership campaign out of the development department…

Organizing Theory
Long, but interesting read about how membership programs should move out of the development department, and live more fully in organizations.
Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman has thoughts about how electoral tech producers are failing us in their design efforts, and what to do to fix it.
What’s Going on in the Workforce
 
The NLRA just took a whack at baggage handling workers who had voted to join the IAM, potentially threatening the unionization of airport workers around the country.
What turns someone from a very-skilled hobbyist into a professional? WaPo looks at a new study that says participation in online crafting forums can be a key indicator and confidence-builder.
Lyft has announced changes to their driver policies, including that the app will default to a five-star rating for a ride that is not rated by the rider.
Almost 70% of ride-share drivers went on strike in Mumbai this weekend, and then marched to deliver a message to the state legislative session on Monday.
A recent decision by Australia’s Fair Work Commission may put the independent contractor model of delivery apps at risk.
Events
NELP and the NWLC are co-hosting a webinar about how advocates can fight forced arbitration clauses and other waivers at work. Tuesday, 12/4 at 3 eastern.
Geeking Out
What I didn’t know I needed for Christmas—the Sorry to Bother You study guide.
Sharing, Solidarity & Sustainability
CityLab takes a look at how corporate America—particularly big box stores—is fighting paying property taxes through “dark store theory,” which compares the value of stores that are open to ones that have shuttered, instead of other open stores.
Add Cook County, IL to the list of locations that have decided to invest in worker-owned cooperatives.

Can we get to a four-day workweek before 2100?

What’s Going on in the Workforce
 
Do we really have to wait till the end of the century to shorten the working week to four days? Please say no.
Fast food chains are hiring more senior citizens than young adults, and Bloomberg is cheering them on.
Amazon is moving to directly hire delivery drivers this holiday season, instead of contenting to subcontract that work (or use the postal service more).
Uber has been fined over $1 million in CA for failing to suspend drivers, after riders complained about them driving while intoxicated.
Walmart is joining the AI-focused retail trend, and will open a “retail lab” in an existing store in NY.
The Australian Ride Share Drivers Association says that more than 50% of drivers quit driving for apps within three months, because the pay isn’t worth it. (With a turnover rate like that, maybe the industry should invest in job improvements?)
Organizing Theory
The ED of Action Network, on how they partnered with OUR, Change to Win, and the AFL-CIO to build a technology tool informed by what organizers need.
Sharing, Solidarity & Sustainability
Two legal professors examine the future of local regulation of the sharing economy.
After last week’s mobilization by thousands of Google workers, the company has made a few concessions around the way they will handle sexual harassment complaints, moving forward.

Go vote (but save this newsletter to read later)!

What’s Going on in the Workforce
 
The Freelancers Union just put out their annual report on the freelance workforce, in conjunction with Upwork.
Florida farmworkers are subject to greater health risks at work, thanks to climate change.
You probably saw that nearly 20,000 Google employees walked out last week, from offices all over the world. Here are the organizers, on what their demands are.
“You’re not an Amazon driver if you haven’t run a stop sign.” On the workers who AREN’T getting $15/hour, in Amazon’s new pay regime.
If, like me, you’re annoyed by stores playing Christmas music before December 1st, imagine what it’s like to work in one of those stores.
Sharing, Solidarity & Sustainability
“The fact that we’re able to put the technology in the hands of people with a low income–that is really a useful way of resisting this weaponization of income,” so says the founder of an app that is helping people apply for citizenship.
Investors are already lining up to buy housing stock in whatever city “wins” Amazon’s HQ2.
On the ballot in LA today? Whether or not the city should create a public bank.
Sarah Jaffe, on how the strikes of the past year are helping  build power for teachers’ unions around the country.