hope they're ready

BossFeed Briefing for November 20th, 2023
Happy Native American Heritage Month! Welcome to a week of busy travel and hopefully not dry turkey. Since our last edition, the people (and business dollars) have spoken and next year we’ll be looking at some newly elected faces. Hope they’re all ready to hear from working people of Washington!

THREE THINGS TO KNOW THIS WEEK:

Happy second birthday: We just passed the second anniversary of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which has brought nearly $8 billion into our state expanding access to high speed internet, clean water, public transit, and the job opportunities to go with it.

Too fast, too furious: Delivery drivers at Amazon are being forced to work dangerously fast, this time at the Sumner location, jeopardizing worker health & safety. At another location, Labor & Industries (L&I) has received over 400 workers compensation claims for work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Shockingly, Amazon disagrees.

Filling the worker gap: Hyatt hotels is working with community based organizations to hire young adults 16-24 who are not in school or working. The hospitality industry lost more jobs than any other industry in the pandemic and is providing a buddy system and transportation support to candidates. They aim to hire 10,000 young adults through the program by 2025.

TWO THINGS TO ASK:

101 Citations? Workers at the SODO doggy daycare that caught fire last week said anonymously that concerns they’ve raised in the past have been met with anger and threats from management, and now promises to sue after workers spoke to the news. Maybe if their concerns had been addressed, the business wouldn’t have had two fires and multiple dog fatalities in a year.

Need a restock? More free at-home COVID tests are being made available ahead of a busy travel week. If you didn’t order more in the fall, you can order twice as many now. 

AND ONE THING THAT'S WORTH A CLOSER LOOK:

The full Seattle City Council will be voting tomorrow to approve the 2024 budget. Among the many important amendments and provisions, for the first time ever a direct funding source has been established for gig workers’ rights enforcement through the Office of Labor Standards. The committee passed the proposal despite extensive opposition from the network app companies who would rather not pay for their violations on unjust deactivations and minimum pay standards. We’re proud to say our community recognizes the importance of workers having the tools to enforce our rights and educate other workers about those rights.


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!


guess what tomorrow is

BossFeed Briefing for November 6th, 2023
Tomorrow is election day, tomorrow is election day, tomorrow…is election day. Don’t forget to go vote if you haven’t already. So far the turnout is not great. We all gained an hour yesterday so we should be more on top of things this week, right?

THREE THINGS TO KNOW THIS WEEK:

All pain and no gain: Amazon warehouse workers in a new national study say “injury and pain at Amazon are far more widespread” than previously thought. 69% of Amazon warehouse workers said they took unpaid time off to recover from injuries & pain from their job, and half of those have done so 3+ times.

Bootstraps are not a thing, but cash might work: Universal basic income has been a success everywhere it’s been tried so far, improving people’s financial stress and mental health almost immediately, while reducing homelessness and increasing employment.

That tracks: Human rights expert at the UN says US companies like Walmart and Doordash trap workers in poverty. Among the listed concerns were the stagnant US minimum wage, wage theft, and the plight of undocumented workers.

TWO THINGS TO ASK:

Where did he go? Workers at Honey Hole in Capitol Hill cannot find the owner. Evan Bramer took over the sandwich shop earlier this year and hasn’t done much better than his predecessors in terms of treating workers well, but the absconding completely thing is… new.

Son of the year award? Speaking of Amazon, Bezos is being applauded for leaving Seattle to be closer to his aging parents. A strange coincidence is that his new home state, Florida, has no capital gains tax. It’s definitely a move for his parents though. Gotta hand it to that PR team. So long, Jeff.

AND ONE THING THAT'S WORTH A CLOSER LOOK:

What would happen if big business got their way with city council elections tomorrow? The Stranger asked, and our worker organizer Joelle Craft filled them in. All those worker protections we’ve been championing through city council the last few years have happened in spite of opposition from the council members who betray their working class constituents and side with corporate interests. We sound like a broken record, we know, but we cannot stress enough how important it is to keep our elected officials accountable to workers with our votes. Here’s our slate of candidates that workers trust to have our backs.


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!