BossFeed Briefing for August 17, 2022. The Tuesday before last marked 8 years since police officer Darren Wilson murdered Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. Last Sunday was the 87th anniversary of the signing of the Social Security Act. Yesterday, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law.Tomorrow is National Bad Poetry Day; we wrote a poem this time last year, and we’ll let you decide how it should be remembered. This Saturday marks 156 years since the newly-organized National Labor Union called on Congress to mandate an eight-hour workday.
Three things to know this week:
An immigrant worker represented by Fair Work Center is suing Ezell’s Famous Chicken, alleging she was sexually harassed by her manager at the company’s Bellevue store. At least 71% of women restaurant workers report facing sexual harassment on the job.
Since the pandemic, landlords have raised rents dramatically across WA. Rents are up 37% in Spokane, 30% in Auburn, 27% in Everett, and 24% in Kent.
Residence Inn Downtown Seattle and staffing agency Go America must pay $370,000 to 67 hotel workers for labor standards violations. The companies failed to provide workers with healthcare coverage required under Seattle Hotel Worker ordinances and, in some cases, failed to pay at least minimum wage.
Two things to ask:
Who knew watermelon had such power? UPS is advising drivers to “load up…on watermelon” to prevent heat exhaustion. Temperatures in UPS delivery vans can reach 120 degrees in summer heat, but UPS has failed to provide working fans or even issue drivers a melon allowance.
Doesn’t corporate greed drive…inflation? Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema provided the crucial vote Democrats needed to pass the Inflation Reduction Act out of the Senate. In exchange, Sinema demanded they scale back the proposed minimum corporate tax and completely ditch a plan to close a tax loophole for hedge fund managers.
And one thing that's worth a closer look:
In this piece for Mother Jones, Tom Philpott writes about the challenges agricultural workers confront as they fight for health & safety protections from extreme heat. Washington is one of only four states with rules to protect farmworkers from dangerous heat; once temperatures reach 89 degrees, workers have the right to cool-down breaks, shaded rest areas, and cold water. But, as Adriana Cruz with our partner organization Fair Work Center points out, those rules don’t go far enough to protect workers: for instance, they don’t consider humidity, which in irrigated fields can transform even 80-degree weather into a dangerous situation. As extreme heat waves become more and more common, farmworkers need to see the state issue stronger protections that truly reflect the scope of dangers in the field.
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!