index workplace politics

[Link] Protests break out at Covid-hit iPhone factory in China

Read: 23/11/2022 www.theguardian.com

Large-scale protests broke out at Foxconn’s vast iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, central China, images circulating on Weibo and Twitter appeared to show.

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[Link] Elon Musk’s Neuralink Is an Absolute Disaster, Former Employees Say

Read: 2/2/2022 futurism.com

Trouble is still brewing at Neuralink. Despite co-founder Elon Musk’s insistence that the brain-computer interface startup will be headed to human trials later this year, many experts aren’t so sure. 

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[Link] Union takes McDonald's to court, seeks $100 million in back pay

Read: 30/1/2022 www.abc.net.au

Jonathon Washington was 15 when he started working at McDonald's, and like most young workers, said he was not fully aware of his workplace rights. He said McDonald's inconsistently applied break rules in the three years he worked for the company and at times denied him 10 minute breaks.

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[Link] 'No One’s Life is Worth a Package': Amazon Workers Are Organizing for Cell Phone Access

Read: 20/12/2021 www.vice.com

The Amazon workers are also demanding that Amazon pay workers for shifts cancelled due to inclement weather. And during school closures, they want Amazon to excuse all absences caused by severe weather and to be paid 80 percent of their salary. 

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[Link] Leaked Audio: Amazon Workers Grill Managers at Anti-Union Meeting

Read: 17/11/2021 www.vice.com

Last week, Amazon began holding mandatory anti-union meetings at JFK8, its largest New York City warehouse, and three neighboring warehouses, where workers recently filed and withdrew a petition for a union election in Staten Island.

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[Link] Amazon Staten Island Workers Withdraw Request for Union Vote

Read: 15/11/2021 www.nytimes.com

The workers had spent months collecting signatures to call for an election.

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[Link] In modern Australia, why must caring for your family come second to your work duties?

Read: 15/11/2021 www.theguardian.com

Caring is harder than work. Let’s stop pretending otherwise. The hardest thing about work is organising how to do it around caring commitments.

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[Link] Starbucks Tells Unionizing Workers 'We Want You To Vote No'

Read: 2/11/2021 www.vice.com

On Monday evening, Starbucks sent a blatantly anti-union email to workers eligible to vote in union elections at three stores that begins on November 10.

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[Link] Amazon intensifies 'severe' effort to discourage first-ever US warehouse union

Read: 31/10/2021 www.theguardian.com

A push to unionize workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama is running into tough opposition as the retail giant, whose profits have boomed during the coronavirus pandemic despite concerns over worker safety, has launched an aggressive anti-union drive.

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[Link] Netflix hit with unfair labor charge from suspended and fired employees

Read: 31/10/2021 www.avclub.com

After weeks of controversy surrounding its release of—and then vocal high-level support for—the transphobic material in Dave Chappelle’s comedy special The Closer, streaming giant Netflix now faces an unfair labor charge from two of its current/former employees.

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[Link] Activision Blizzard ends forced arbitration as CEO takes a massive pay cut

Read: 31/10/2021 www.theverge.com

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick sent a letter updating employees on the further steps he and the company will take to change its image in the wake of multiple sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits.

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[Link] Sure Looks Like Democrats Are Killing Paid Family Leave to Please Joe Manchin

Read: 28/10/2021 www.vice.com

Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here. Democrats have been toiling to push through their own New Deal—a massive social spending bill covering climate, health, and child care—and secure President Joe Biden’s legacy.

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[Link] Techies demand top dollar as skills shortages bite

Read: 27/10/2021 www.afr.com

Australian tech companies are turning down new business because soaring pay rates being charged by workers with in-demand skills are making projects unprofitable, instead turning to training and other non-financial strategies to try to lure and retain staff.

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[Link] McDonald’s Employees Will Strike Over Sexual Harassment

Read: 25/10/2021 www.vice.com

Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here. The employees, organizers said, will strike in cities like Chicago, Detroit, Houston, and Miami. They will also call for workers to unionize, since McDonald’s, they say, has failed to adequately protect employees.

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[Link] Epic Games Faces Backlash After Ending Popular Time-Off Policy

Read: 25/10/2021 www.kotaku.com.au

Epic Games, creator of the massively popular and lucrative battle royale Fortnite, decided to end a popular policy of allowing staff every other Friday off earlier this week.

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[Link] Hundreds of HelloFresh Workers Are Unionizing in New Jersey

Read: 21/10/2021 www.vice.com

On Wednesday, the union filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a union election at the HelloFresh distribution center in Newark. HelloFresh is the largest meal-kit provider in the United States. Its factory workers are also unionizing at a nearby facility in Totowa, New Jersey.

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[Link] Netflix Isn’t Backing Down on Dave Chappelle and Neither Are Its Workers

Read: 20/10/2021 www.vice.com

Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here. Employees have pledged to walk out of work on Wednesday, including the LGBTQ+ storytelling team and its head of queer editorial.

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[Link] Massage parlour operators who threatened to kill families of underpaid staff breached workplace laws, court finds

Read: 20/10/2021 www.abc.net.au

The Federal Court has found the former operators of a Canberra massage business breached workplace laws by underpaying their staff and threatening to have their families in the Philippines killed if they complained.

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[Link] Australia's top whistleblowers on strike

Read: 14/10/2021 www.abc.net.au

A-Leagues referees say they are currently without contracts for the A-League Men and Women seasons and have made themselves unavailable for upcoming trial matches and FFA Cup games.

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[Link] Amazon Abandons Warehouse Plan Because San Diego Is Considering Worker Protection Law

Read: 13/10/2021 www.vice.com

Amazon backed out of a last-mile distribution center project near San Diego, California, because of a proposed law that would require it to pay workers more and offer them stronger protections, Motherboard has confirmed.

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[Link] Starbucks Temporarily Closes Two Stores That Are Trying to Unionize

Read: 13/10/2021 www.vice.com

The company said that the two temporary store closures in Buffalo have nothing to do with the union drive—one is for a remodel and the other is for training new hires.

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[Link] Artist Steals $84,000 From Modern Art Museum, Calls It Conceptual Art

Read: 29/9/2021 www.vice.com

The Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in northern Denmark originally commissioned Haaning to recreate two of his earlier works as part of its “Work It Out” exhibition.

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[Link] Scotland to trial a four-day week

Read: 1/9/2021 www.bbc.com

Getting back to work is going to take some time, partly through resistance from office workers. Returning to where we were more than 18 months ago seems highly unlikely.

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[Link] I'm An Adult Performer. Here's Why I'm Abandoning Amazon Wishlists.

Read: 30/8/2021 www.vice.com

GoAskAlex is an adult entertainer who launched her career in 2014 as a webcam model and online companion. Most recently, Alex won the 2020 XBIZ Cam Awards for Best Inked Model and 2021 XBIZ Awards for Overall Best Cam Model.

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[Link] ‘We’re Tired of Getting Treated Like Trash’: Nabisco Workers Are Striking for Normal Hours

Read: 18/8/2021 www.vice.com

A strike that began at a Nabisco factory in Portland, Oregon last week has now spread across the country to Nabisco facilities in Aurora, Colorado, and Richmond, Virginia, where Oreos, Ritz crackers, Chips Ahoy, and other popular cookies and crackers are baked and packaged. 

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[Link] Activision may have fired a few employees, but with people like Fran Townsend still in charge, some don’t expect real change

Read: 7/8/2021 www.destructoid.com

Activision Blizzard has offered forth its initial salvo of sacrificial lambs. Blizzard President J. Allen “I despise frat boy culture/Heroes of the Storm killer/half-hearted Hearthstone debacle apologizer” (what a mark in just a few years!) Brack and the head of Blizzard HR are out.

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[Link] Fullbright co-founder steps down following report of employee mistreatment

Read: 7/8/2021 www.destructoid.com

Fullbright co-founder Steve Gaynor has stepped back from his role as creative lead and manager on Open Roads. This news broke last evening, just ahead of a Polygon report detailing issues at the studio, including complaints of Gaynor’s behavior towards women on the team.

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[Link] Elon Musk's Brother Wants to Build Utopian Learning Gardens, Without Unions

Read: 7/8/2021 www.vice.com

Big Green's anti-union stance coincides with a series of outwardly progressive institutions and companies, including art museums, universities, public interest law firms, and green energy companies, taking measures to ensure their employees don't unionize.

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[Link] Activision Blizzard Employees Form Coalition, Reject CEO's Choice of Law Firm

Read: 5/8/2021 www.ign.com

We are The ABK Workers Alliance, an organized group of current Activision Blizzard, Inc. employees committed to defending our right to a safe and equitable workplace.

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[Link] Uber, Lyft Introduce Prop 22 Clone to Undermine Labor Law In Massachusetts

Read: 5/8/2021 www.vice.com

It’s nearly been a year since Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and Postmates wrote Proposition 22—a ballot measure that exempted them from following California labor laws—and spent $220 million on a deceptive campaign to pass it.

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[Link] Blizzard confirms developer named in lawsuit was removed for “misconduct”

Read: 31/7/2021 arstechnica.com

Last year, reports started to bubble up among Blizzard-watchers that longtime World of Warcraft developer Alex Afrasiabi, who was first hired in 2004, had quietly left the company without any official explanation.

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[Link] Over 1,000 Activision Blizzard Employees Sign Letter Condemning Company's Response To Allegations

Read: 27/7/2021 kotaku.com

“Following the announcement from Activision Blizzard, and in light of the internal memo circulated by Frances Townsend, a group of over 800 employees from across all of Activision-Blizzard-King and its subsidiaries came together to take action,” a representative of the group told Kotaku.

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[Link] Basecamp's new etiquette regarding societal politics at work

Read: 28/4/2021 world.hey.com

Jason announced a raft of changes we've made to Basecamp earlier today. By far the most controversial is a new etiquette around societal politics at work, and the stances we'll take as a company.

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[Link] 🚨 What really happened at Basecamp

Read: 28/4/2021 www.platformer.news

The controversy that embroiled enterprise software maker Basecamp this week began more than a decade ago, with a simple list of customers. Around 2009, Basecamp customer service representatives began keeping a list of names that they found funny.

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