#Amazon#UK#Unions#AntiLabor#AntiUnions#LaborUnions: "Amazon has once again discovered its incredible facility for ease-of-use. The company has blanketed its shop floor with radioactively illegal "one click to quit the union" QR codes. When a worker aims their phones at the code and clicks the link, the system auto-generates a letter resigning the worker from their union.
As noted, this is totally illegal. English law bans employers from "making an offer to an employee for the sole or main purpose of inducing workers not to be members of an independent trade union, take part in its activities, or make use of its services."
Now, legal or not, this may strike you as a benign intervention on Amazon's part. Why shouldn't it be easy for workers to choose how they are represented in their workplaces? But the one-click system is only half of Amazon's illegal union-busting: the other half is delivered by its managers, who have cornered workers on the shop floor and ordered them to quit their union, threatening them with workplace retaliation if they don't.
This is in addition to more forced "captive audience" meetings where workers are bombarded with lies about what life in an union shop is like.
Alaska Air flight attendants have taken a significant step in their labor negotiations by authorizing a strike mandate for the first time in three decades.
#EU#Sweden#Tesla#Musk#Unions#LaborUnions: "Elon Musk is trying to export Tesla’s anti-union model to Sweden, and workers across Scandinavia are launching solidarity actions to thwart him. We should be embracing the Nordic countries’ model of strong worker rights, not Tesla’s elitist union busting."
#AI#GenerativeAI#Hollywood#LaborUnions#WGAI: "As 2023 comes to a close, I thought it would be a good opportunity to revisit the writers’ strike. To do that, I spoke to John Lopez, a writer, producer, and member of the WGA’s AI working group. We discussed the importance of dealing with the AI issue in this contract cycle, what the Guild was looking for, and how workers can push back against these technologies."
“We don’t know and we don’t care who’s supposed to own the land. God put that coal there—not the Philadelphia and Reading Coal Company.”
—Mike McCloskey, miner
Quoted in The Bootleg Coal Rebellion by Mitch Troutman
#Starbucks announced it is increasing pay and benefits for most of its U.S. hourly workers after ending its fiscal year with record sales...BUT, the company said Monday that #unionized workers won't be eligible.
Withholding benefits from unionized stores is against the law.
At least 366 U.S. Starbucks stores (out of 9,600) have voted to unionize since 2021. #WorkersUnited will file unfair labor practice charges against Starbucks with the NLRB.
Recent Gallup poll reveals: U.S. Approval of #LaborUnions at Highest Point Since 1965.
71% of Americans now approve of labor unions. It is our best tool to combat the #greedflation that is lining corporate shareholders pockets and stripping us of our buying power. #Unions result in better benefits and #LivingWages for workers.
#Music#Streaming#Bandcamp#LaborUnions: "Bandcamp’s entire union bargaining team, the eight union members democratically elected by their peers to negotiate their first union contract, were laid off when Epic Games sold Bandcamp to music licensing company Songtradr on Monday.
Songtradr told 404 Media that it did not have any union membership information when it made its decision on which employees it would keep as part of the sale, but the union told me Songtradr invited them to a meeting with Songtradr’s CEO last week. 404 Media has viewed the invitation, which shows Bandcamp’s bargaining team were invited and that Songtradr’s CEO Paul Wiltshire planned to attend."
I was waiting for this video by @adamconover after the successful WGA strike and he gives us a history lesson (that all workers already ought to know by now) that labor unions a century ago was what gave us all of our labor protections and benefits such as the 40-hour week and overtime pay. #Unionization should again make a big comeback.
This is a nice and quick video on the very first POTUS to join the picket line on the side of workers. Hopefully this is the start of presidents walking the talk on supporting the working class especially after Biden intervened to prevent last year's railroad workers' strike.
#AI#Automation#Work#LaborUnions: "Most people understand that if AI isn’t human-centred, and ultimately human labour-enhancing, we’re in for some very ugly politics. One recent academic study found that 80 per cent of the US workforce would have at least some of their work tasks changed by AI. That’s another reason to take a bottom-up approach to managing the new tech. Labour, with day-to-day experience on the front lines of using AI, can help inform the best kind of skills training needed to make sure new tools are a win-win.
And union-led AI regulation looks likely to spread. SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents striking actors, is looking carefully at the AI deal by writers, as are other labour organisations. All of this informs a larger conversation about unions as potential data stewards, protecting the interests of workers and citizens. In both areas, labour could be a useful counterbalance to both Big Tech and the big state."
#AI#GenerativeAI#LaborUnions#Hollywood: "The tentative agreement addresses four key points about the use of AI in writer’s projects. Specifically, these terms apply to generative AI, defined as “a subset of artificial intelligence that learns patterns from data and produces content, including written material, based on those patterns, and may employ algorithmic methods (e.g., ChatGPT, Llama, MidJourney, Dall-E).” This carves out a specific suite of tools related to content generation, as opposed to algorithms for computer graphics.
Taken directly from the WGA’s summary, the four main points on AI are these:
AI can’t write or rewrite literary material, and AI-generated material will not be considered source material under the minimum basic agreement (MBA), meaning that AI-generated material can’t be used to undermine a writer’s credit or separated rights.
A writer can choose to use AI when performing writing services, if the company consents and provided that the writer follows applicable company policies, but the company can’t require the writer to use AI software (e.g., ChatGPT) when performing writing services.
The Company must disclose to the writer if any materials given to the writer have been generated by AI or incorporate AI-generated material.
The WGA reserves the right to assert that exploitation of writers’ material to train AI is prohibited by MBA or other law."
It’s hotter inside the store than outside. Customers are complaining. In fact I’m sitting in the sun to cool down as I type this. And this note has been left from management #AntiWork#WorkReform#socialism#WorkersRights#LaborUnions
Not sure if I mentioned this in my intro or my bio so I'll say it here:
If the workers go on strike, I will support them every👏🏽 time👏🏽.
If my packages arrive late, they arrive late. If my favorite show gets delayed, it's delayed. Services slow down, manufacturing shuts down, trains planes and automobiles cutting off, no strawberries at the supermarket, don't care.
I love a good story and I'm addicted to learning. I'll boost anything that fits the bill and try to participate, even if I get a little bit of social anxiety. Let me drop some hashtags to let you know what I'm interested in:
"A Denver area worker was shocked and saddened to learn Monday evening that, in line with American tradition, his employer was requiring him to work additional hours as a result of his being identified as one of the organization’s top performers of the year."
Updated the list of Labour Unions in Science Fiction.
We're always interested in more. If you see a reference to a strike or a labour union in a science fiction or fantasy work, please let us know so I can add it to this list.