BossFeed Briefing for December 20, 2021. Last Monday, a bill to repeal hazard pay for grocery employees was passed in Seattle — but hazard pay and sick days for gig workers are still in effect. Last Friday, thousands of Fred Meyer and QFC workers in Oregon and Southwest WA went on strike to demand a contract with significant wage increases, better workplace protections, and quality healthcare. Last Saturday, workers ended the strike after reaching a tentative agreement with Kroger. Tomorrow is the shortest day of the year. This Friday marks one week until Expanded Child Tax Credit payments come to an end for millions of families across the country.
Three things to know this week:
110 low-income families in Tacoma will receive $500 per month for a year as part of a Universal Basic Income pilot program. The program will not restrict how participants use the money.
A San Francisco Burger King franchisee must pay $1.9 million to 200 former employees after a wage theft investigation. At least 17% of low-wage workers face wage theft in their workplaces, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
A new museum in Seattle will soon be open to showcase NFTs (non fungible tokens). Through 30 large computer screens, visitors will be able to admire the museum’s collection of “virtual certificates of ownership…recorded as part of a blockchain computing network”.
Two things to ask:
Will any of that money trickle down to drivers? Gopuff —the ultra-fast convenience food delivery service—has hauled in another $1.5 billion on its way to a total valuation of $40 billion. Last month, Gopuff drivers went on strike to demand better pay, flexible access to shifts, and deactivation protections.
Is being a legislator like stealing acorns from a blind pig? At a recent luncheon, two state legislators broke out the pig-related metaphors—”hogs at the trough” and “lipstick on a pig”—while discussing state taxes, wait times to reserve campsites, and the export of children from rural areas. Rep. Mark Schoesler (R-Ritzville) also bemoaned the “worker shortage” for jobs in the $15-$20/hr pay range, noting he’s struggled for the past 18 months to find someone to permanently work at his farm.
And one thing that's worth a closer look:
The federal government’s official report on workplace fatalities seems to show that relatively fewer workers died on the job in 2020—but the report ignores the thousands of workers who died from COVID-19 infections they contracted at work, writes Jordan Barab of Confined Space. The undercount results from the fact that the Bureau of Labor Statistics only counts workplace injuries and accidents, not disease-related deaths, and from the fact that many state COVID death tracking systems don’t collect information about occupation. It’s troubling enough that the federal government is failing to track workplace COVID deaths—after all, how can officials claim to be protecting the most vulnerable workers when they’re not sure which workers are most deeply impacted by the virus? But it gets even more troubling when looking at the limited industry data that does exist: workers in frontline fields like healthcare and meatpacking have died at especially high rates throughout the pandemic, and workplace fatality rates for Latinx and Black workers are higher than the overall rate.
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!