Taking off

BossFeed Briefing for May 30, 2017. Yesterday was Memorial Day, a day off for many people who don’t work in retail, food, healthcare, or other frontline public-facing jobs, and also a day off for BossFeed. Last Tuesday was the annual Amazon shareholder meeting, which saw protests from various groups including security officers, delivery pilots, and anti-foie gras activists. And the second special session of the Washington State Legislature is now underway, after the first special session ended without visible signs of progress.

Three things to know this week:

Longshore workers at an Oakland shipping terminal walked off the job after finding nooses on work property. They halted cargo operations for several hours until the employer made a plan to address the racial harrassment and a return to work was negotiated.

Uber has admitted they took millions of dollars in fare revenue that should have belonged to their New York drivers. A spokesperson said the systematic miscalculation was just a mistake and that they’re “working hard to regain driver trust”. 

Truck drivers earn an average of $43,600 a year — less than they did in 1980, after adjusting for inflation. The job is isolating, dangerous, in demand, and facing an uncertain future.

 

Two things to ask:

Do you think they left a tip? ICE agents raided a Michigan restaurant and questioned kitchen workers about their immigration status… but only after they finished eating breakfast there first. The agents claimed to be seeking a person who was not present, then detained three other people.

Where might they have gotten that idea? The New York City Council has passed a package of new laws that will provide more stable and predictable schedules for people who work at retail and fast-food chains in the city. Seattle workers won a landmark secure scheduling law last September.

And one thing that’s worth a closer look:

Four years ago yesterday, on May 29, 2013, the first Seattle fast food workers walked out on strike for $15/hour. Exactly a year after that, the Seattle City Council passed the nation’s first citywide $15 minimum wage. By now you’ve heard plenty of news about this from plenty of Important People — but if you want to hear from the workers who made it happen, we got you covered in video and book formats.

Read this far?

Consider yourself briefed, boss.

---

The BossFeed Briefing is our weekly look at the world of work, wages, and inequality.

Support the BossFeed Briefing — Contribute Today

Like pulling teeth

BossFeed Briefing for May 22, 2017. On Friday, more than 35,000 AT&T workers launched a 3-day national strike for good jobs, which a company spokesperson described as “baffling”. Tomorrow, President Trump is slated to release a 2018 budget proposal which is expected to include drastic cuts to Medicaid and other public programs. And the Governor of Tennessee is set to sign a bill this week which will make community college free in that state.

Three things to know this week:

One Amazon security flaw fixed. In a victory for religious freedom & immigrant rights, security officers at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters have won access to prayer space they can use on their breaks.

McDonald’s and Uber have joined forces to offer delivery from more than 1,000 McDonald’s locations across the country. While they can apparently negotiate a national business partnership across multiple franchisees and tens of thousands of drivers in several states, both companies still claim utter impotence around wages.

94% of low-wage workers in the U.S. don’t have access to paid family leave. Time with family is becoming an elite benefit, magnifying inequality in an especially troubling way.
 

Two things to ask:

Where to begin? Alex Tizon’s revealing account of Eudocia Tomas Pulido, who for 56 years until her death was enslaved to his family, led the Seattle Times to thoughtfully re-evaluate a previously published obituary of Pulido. Turns out the paper's original less-than-forthcoming source had been Tizon himself.

Does this sound like the future? Ambulances were called to the Tesla factory more than 100 times in the past few years to aid workers experiencing serious medical issues. CEO Elon Musk says it’s hurtful and false to claim he doesn’t care, and that he intentionally put his desk “in the worst place in the factory, the most painful place.”

And one thing that’s worth a closer look:

While purely cosmetic tooth whitening has become a $1 billion industry, 1 in 5 Americans over 65 have no real teeth left, the Washington Post details in an important piece. Even people who do have health benefits often lack dental coverage, and are only able to afford care at touring charity clinics. Compounding the issue, poor dental health can limit career prospects — missing or broken teeth are taken as an indicator of poverty, which all too often gets treated as a moral & cultural failing, which can make a job applicant less likely to be hired. 

Read this far?

Consider yourself briefed, boss.

---

The BossFeed Briefing is our look at the world of work, wages, and inequality.

Support the BossFeed Briefing — Contribute Today