BossFeed Briefing for November 8, 2021. Last Monday, a poll showed 72% of voters nationwide support the Biden Administration’s plan for a federal tax on corporate profits over $1 billion. Last Thursday marked the first day of Diwali celebrations around the world. Also last Thursday, Senator Joe Manchin hopped into his $80,000 Maserati to escape youth activists calling for his support of key measures in the Build Back Better Act. Tomorrow is the 129th anniversary of the start to a 3-day general strike in New Orleans, in which 25K workers took part. This Sunday marks the first week of many with pre-5pm sunsets in the Pacific Northwest.
Three things to know this week:
140,000 Amazon Flex delivery drivers are getting back $60 million in tips illegally withheld by the company. One worker is receiving more than $28,000.
The WA Department of Labor & Industries fined 2 asbestos removal companies $800,000 for exposing workers and the public to unsafe conditions. The state investigated one of the companies more than a dozen times over 5 years before taking this enforcement action.
Last week, voters in Tucson, Arizona overwhelmingly approved a $15 minimum wage. Last March, Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema cast her vote against a federal $15 minimum wage proposal.
Two things to ask:
Who knew you could get a patent for racial profiling? Uber is developing risk prediction algorithms that supposedly help identify dangerous drivers. One of the company’s machine learning patents uses a driver’s “heavy accent” to predict “low quality” service.
Are they looking for a G Man? The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office misspelled “Washington” — forgetting the G — on a recruitment ad it ran in New York City's Times Square. The ad targets potential recruits from “areas where local elected officials have not generally supported them.”
And one thing that's worth a closer look:
Farmworkers die from heat exposure at a rate nearly 20 times that of all U.S. workers, according to an Investigate Midwest analysis of federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration data. But despite the fact that farmworkers are at highest risk from extreme heat, the average fine issued by OSHA in cases where workers died is just $4,000. Only three states — Washington, California, and Minnesota — have their own rules to protect outdoor workers from heat exposure, leaving millions of workers across the country left to rely solely on often-nonexistent safety measures taken by the same employers who pay them low wages and routinely violate their rights. Climate change will continue to bring more and more heat waves like the one that killed farmworkers in Washington and Oregon last summer: that’s why outdoor workers urgently need the federal government to step in with strong national health and safety protections and meaningful enforcement action.
Read this far? Consider yourself briefed, boss.
Let us know what you think about this week's look at the world of work, wages, and inequality!