December 2018

“Hiring is rarely a single decision, but rather a series of smaller, sequential decisions that culminate in a job offer—or a rejection.”

Reputation, reputation, reputation

“Hiring is rarely a single decision, but rather a series of smaller, sequential decisions that culminate in a job offer—or a rejection.” Upturn takes a look a bias in hiring algorithms.

If Facebook’s tracking you all over the web (even when you’re not logged on to their site) isn’t creepy enough, don’t worry. Now they want to track your physical location, so they can predict where you’ll go next (the gym—>coffee shop isn’t just me?).

Microsoft President Brad Smith is calling for the tech industry to create a set of principles around the use and development of facial recognition software—and outlines what Microsoft itself is specifically committing to do.

Sharing, Solidarity & Sustainability

Congrats to the NDWA (and in particular, friend-o-the-blog Palak Shah) on their launch of Alia, which allows clients of domestic workers to make contributions for paid time off and other portable benefits.

Here’s a cool data visualization of 206 of the 238 locations that put in bids for Amazon’s HQ2, thanks to Muckrock and journalists everywhere.

Surely no one could have seen this coming…Instacart won’t be delivering Whole Foods any more, starting in 2019.

Video game developers in the UK just formalized the world’s first game workers’ union.

h/t to Annette Bernhardt for sending me this story about a Danish union that has achieved collective bargaining rights for platform domestic workers—including protecting workers’ data.

From Partners

Journalist Tony Abraham compiled this cool map of hospital strikes from the 1980s to now.

What’s Going on in the Workforce
Before the fatal crash involving self-driving cars earlier this year, self-driving Uber test cars were apparently involved in an accident approximately ever 15,000 miles. I can’t imagine how expensive my car insurance would be, if that were me.

Google aims to compete with Amazon with highly automated warehouses (like, one hundred robots for every human). They’ve already started, in China.

Geeking Out

Why you gotta name your salad-prep robot with a woman’s name, anyway?

For the last link in the last newsletter of the year, have some robotic reindeer pulling a sleigh.

“We have these promised productivity benefits, and we wanted to think about ways workers can get a fair share of them.”

What’s Going on in the Workforce

“We have these promised productivity benefits, and we wanted to think about ways workers can get a fair share of them.” The four-day workweek, as practiced in the UK.

If your workplace doesn’t threaten to contaminate you with bear spray, are you really working?

Uber is back to testing self-driving cars in Pittsburgh, but some employees are anonymously worried that the company is cutting corners.

Sharing, Solidarity & Sustainability

“After nine years, Uber isn’t within hailing distance of making money and continues to bleed more red ink than any start-up in history.” Well then.

h/t to Jay Youngdahl for pointing this one out: Grad students at UNC are conducting a grade strike, saying they won’t hand in students’ grades until the university reverses its plan to construct a new building to house racist Confederate memorial “Silent Sam.”

The Tech Workers’ Coalition is stepping up their demand for an end to forced arbitrations at work. Check out their new post, that describes where they’re going next. In a particularly timely coincidence, 12,000 Uber drivers just claimed that the company is denying them timely arbitration of their disputes.

‘I didn’t know what the union was for’

Organizing Theory

‘I didn’t know what the union was for,’ he said, ‘but now I can see that it’s the thing that we have to take a collective stand for ourselves and for others. It gives us our voice.’ Read this fascinating description of how Australian call center workers rebuilt their union around solidarity—even non-workplace solidarity.

What’s Going on in the Workforce

The Independent Drivers’ Guild is claiming victory, as New York City’s TLC is proposing changes to minimum standards for driver pay that they claim will raise most drivers’ pay over $9,000 per year.

Uber is expanding their food delivery market to include grocery delivery as well—starting in Toronto. The company has also announced changes to driver pay rates (for ride-sharing drivers), which have some drivers grumbling on message boards.

California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez is introducing a bill to codify the ABC test for independent contractors into state law (recently the CA Supreme Court issued the Dynamax decision, which used the ABC test—but gig economy companies have been lobbying politicians to overturn it legislatively).

Walmart is rolling out janitorial robots.

The Nation’s Michelle Chen takes a look at the nail salon industry, three years after the NY Times expose on working conditions in the industry. Upshot? Not much has changed for workers.

Geeking Out

So this is an ad, just to be clear. But it’s still a cool use of tech. Schweppes built a dress with sensors, to prove to men that women aren’t lying when they say how much they get groped in clubs.

Sharing, Solidarity & Sustainability

The way Amazon treats its third-party marketplace is under investigation by a German anti-trust agency. And Saul Kaplan takes a look at what Amazon’s entry into the healthcare market could entail.

Airbnb is getting into the business of building houses.

How Janus is making public sector unions in University of Illinois at Chicago work together, backfiring against the administration’s plans to weaken their organized workforce.