BossFeed Briefing for April 26, 2021. Last Tuesday, gig workers dominated public comment at the Seattle City Council, urging elected officials to take action this year to make the gig economy Pay Up. Last Thursday, hundreds of NYC delivery workers took to the streets of Manhattan to demand higher pay, increased bathroom access, and more protected bike lanes. Yesterday was the final day of the 2021 WA legislative session. This Wednesday is Workers’ Memorial Day. This Saturday is May Day — and Seattle-area immigrant rights organizers are leading a march and day of action for immigrant rights.
Three things to know this week:
A coalition we helped lead won $340 million in the WA state budget to provide additional cash assistance for undocumented immigrant workers, who have been excluded from federal stimulus checks and unemployment insurance. That money will bolster the WA Immigrant Relief Fund, which reopened applications last week.
Amazon is introducing a new payment system at its Whole Foods stores in Seattle where customers will have the option to pay for groceries by scanning their palm. This biometric tool solves a problem already solved by the credit card, which may prompt customers to move their palm to their face after using it to pay for their groceries.
Yesterday, WA state legislators approved a capital gains tax on extraordinary profits over $250,000 made from the sale of stocks and bonds, which is expected to generate about $500 million each year. In the other WA, the Biden Administration proposed raising the federal capital gains tax rate to 40% for those making more than $1 million in profits.
Two things to ask:
Is that really their excuse? Seattle-based chain Pagliacci Pizza is paying nearly $4 million to settle a class-action wage theft lawsuit brought by delivery drivers. In an official statement announcing the settlement, the company suggested it actually isn’t such a big deal to steal workers' tips because many other large restaurant groups in Seattle have also been caught stealing tips.
Wonder what the sunk costs are to salvage it? A yacht onced owned by John Wayne is partially underwater after hitting a reef in the San Juan Islands last week. The boat used to serve as a floating museum celebrating the actor, who was better known for equestrian modes of travel.
And one thing that's worth a closer look:
More than 100 pharmaceutical industry lobbyists are urging the Biden Administration and Congress to oppose a waiver of COVID-19 vaccine intellectual property laws, which have so far prevented the production of low-cost generic vaccines around the world, reports Lee Fang in The Intercept. Just 1 percent of available vaccine supply has been set aside for the lowest-income countries, a dire inequity that global health experts warn means much of the world population won’t get vaccinated until 2023 or 2024. In response, a broad coalition of nations is calling for wealthy nations and the World Trade Organization to allow production of generic vaccines, noting that no country can be truly safe from the coronavirus until the majority of the global population is vaccinated. But drug companies — which capitalized on decades of publicly-funded research to develop the vaccines they now claim as private goods — evidently want elected officials to put the integrity of intellectual property before the ethics of human beings.
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!