Month: June 2019

What’s Going on in the Workforce

“…each year, hundreds of minor league baseball players spread across 256 teams earn far below minimum wage to chase their dreams.” Minor league baseball players need a living wage too. 

Uber’s driver misclassification may be an anti-trust violation, when it comes to the taxi & limo industry. As the company is feeling under attack in CA,  it’s gone on a PR offensive , and is rolling out a new version of the driver-side app, with increased gamification to convince drivers to work more hours. 

Tesla is blocking Blind, the anonymous service where tech workers go to gripe about their working conditions, on its internal network and its email servers. It’s a problem, because Blind users are required to have a company email to verify they are legit employees. 

Organizing Theory

“…organizing online is not enough, but organizing digitally is clearly necessary.” A round-up of the latest thinking about platform organizing in the workers’ rights movement. 

Sharing, Solidarity & Sustainability

Humans only NEED about 8 hours of work per week to feel productive and mentally healthy. So stop pushing for a four-day workweek, and start pushing for a one-day week! 

New York state just passed new rights for farmworkers in the state. Apparently, this state senator is opposed to farmworkers having a day of rest every week. 

Events

Are you coming to Netroots Nation next month? Join me and some of my friends at this fundraiser for One Pennsylvania (I’m on the host committee, don’t make me look bad). 

Jobs

Want to help build a movement for Latinx justice in exurban PA? Make the Road seeks an Organizing Director. 

What’s Going on in the Workforce

“It’s not an independent business. You can only use those Amazon trucks to do Amazon delivery. Your only client is Amazon. It’s a way for Amazon to get this work done at an arm’s length with the contractor relationship.” Gizmodo takes a look at the problems inherent in Amazon’s delivery model. 

Welcome to the raspberry-picking robot future. 

Are Uber & Lyft drivers “colluding” to make prices surge? (maybe Uber & Lyft should stop cutting driver’s fares?) 

The Perils of Trumpism

Should we call this “Unhack the Union?” Thanks to friend-o-the-blog Eric Rosso for sending this one my way. The Koch’s have helped to fund an app that makes it easier to leave your union, post-Janus. Sigh… 

While California is looking to protect gig workers from misclassification, the US DoL is doing exactly the opposite.  Here’s why. 

Organizing Theory

Does your group do street outreach that requires organizers or volunteers to collect data on phones or tablets? Tired of having data access problems with google drive? Jot Form might be the solution for you. 

Uber & Lyft are trying to mobilize drivers against CA’s efforts to pass legislation that would apply the Dynamax decision as a piece of state law. Unlike previous times that the TNCs have done this, there are considerable counter-organizing efforts among drivers. 

Sharing, Solidarity & Sustainability

“The transition to a zero-carbon economy is necessary (oh boy, is it necessary), but demonstrating support to the workers displaced in the process is vital to making that transition a success.” How New Zealand is creating its own Green New Deal. 

Rolling Stone takes a look at the UFCW and the legal weed industry. 

Walmart is changing its internal documentation for vendors, to allow them to use “new tariffs” as a justification for price changes. Be nice if they open-sourced that data in some way, to show the impact over time & various industries. 

Organizing Theory

“Hope…is the best resilience to hate.” Lessons from the campaign around Brexit. 

“We cannot white-paper our path to a just society.” Sorry wonks, you’re just one part of the solution, but community organizing has to be a part of it too. 

It sounds nice that companies like Netflix are saying they’ll pull out of Georgia if its abortion ban goes into effect. Here, researcher Phil Mattera explains why that isn’t as great a step forward as it might seem. 

Personal contact works better than email, if you want to turn people out to events. 

Sharing, Solidarity & Sustainability

It’s not every day you see dads standing up for the right to parent while also being a working person. Congrats to these dads at JP Morgan Chase for winning a class action settlement that will force the company to treat dads as equal parents. 

Game Workers Unite and a French union have united to defend 100+ workers laid off by Activision Blizzard earlier this year. 

Salesforce uses the power of its customer management software to tell companies: you can’t sell automatic weapons with our tech. 

Reputation, reputation, reputation

It’s one thing to not be able to use your email, when Google has a server outage. It’s another thing to not be able to change the temperature in your house, or open your front door… 

Wanna come to the US from some other country? Now you’re going to have to give the State Department access to your social media. It won’t just be teenagers setting up Finstas, now… 

Geeking Out

Robotic window washers and their human (ex window-washer) operators. 

What’s Going on in the Workforce

“Humbling an employer of that scale could hearten employees at smaller operations to take their shot at empowerment.” Of all the coverage of last week’s Fight for $15 actions against McDonald’s, perhaps the most fun to read is the restaurant industry’s version. h/t to Brett Banditelli for sending this one. 

Uber announced last week that it will finally start banning passengers who have bad ratings (it’s only fair, if they’re kicking drivers off the app for it!). So take your trash with you (and please, tell my kids to do the same). 

Events

In Australia and want to learn more about online to offline organizing? Check this training out.