#UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters reached an agreement over a five-year labor contract, preventing a potential strike by roughly 330,000 workers #UnionStrong
It is completely incorrect on every single level, to the degree where it is hard to even know where to begin, and it engages in a side of victim blaming for fun and profit while it is at it.
#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.
Here Justine Bateman’s thread lays out a case for why AI in entertainment must be addressed now, protections created or writers, actors and directors may not have a profession or career at all very soon. Writers Guild (WGA), SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild of America (DGA) are fighting for our professions to exist at all.
Screenshot of tweets by @JustineBateman • 2h Your digital image can be triple and quadruple booked, so that bodes well for a 10 percenter. 4/ 2. Films customized for a viewer, based on their viewing history, which has been collected for many years. Actors will have the option to have their image "bought out" to be used in anything at all. 5/ 3. Films "ordered up" by the viewer. For example, " want a film about a panda and a unicorn who save the world in a rocket ship. And put Bill Murray in it." 6/ 4. Viewers getting digitally scanned themselves, and paying extra to have themselves inserted in these custom films. 7/
Screenshot of tweets by @JustineBateman 5. Licensing deals made with studios so that viewers can order up older films like STAR WARS and put their face on Luke Skywalker's body and their ex-wife's face on Darth Vader's body, etc. 8/ 6. Training an Al program on an older hits TV series, and creating an additional season. FAMILY TIES, for example, has 167 episodes. An Al program could easily be trained on this, and create an eighth season. We only shot seven. 9/ Al has to be addressed now or never. I believe this is the last time any labor action will be effective in our business. If we don't make strong rules now, they simply won't notice if we strike in three years, because at that point they won't need us. 10/end Addendum: Actors, you must have iron-clad protection against the Al use of your image and voice in the SAG MBA or your profession is finished. Demand it from @sagaftra and do not accept any AMPTP proposal that does not have it.
Tech needs unions yesterday. Don’t listen to the insufferable one-percenter bunch of (almost always under-40, white, male) “unions are going to hamper my negotiations” population of well-paid, senior engineers. You need unions. NOW. It’s already past time.
BREAKING NEWS: The #MSNBC#Union has reached a tentative agreement with management on a first contract! Thank you to all our members and supporters who helped make a fair deal possible! #UnionStrong
Federally Sanctioned Exploitation Of Workers with Disabilities – Happy Labor Day:
On this Labor Day, Out Of Exile – Invisible Disability Rights gives thanks and honor to workers and the unions that protect them. Without unions, the experience of many workers may be similar to that of the disabled. This piece will focus on the exploitation and abuse of disabled workers by employers , and how it's perfectly legal under federal and state laws in the US. Section 14(c) of the US Department of Labor's "Fair Standards And Labor Act" (FSLA), has been virtually unchanged since it was enacted in 1938. Under the almost century old regulation, employers can apply for a certificate which allows them to pay workers with disabilities, an unspecified subminimum wage.
The average sub wage and the number of disabled people seemingly exploited by this legislation, seems to vary among the sources linked below. By any account, even one person with disabilities being preyed upon in this way, is far too many. The wages are inhumane. A 2021 Forbes article claims over 320,000 people with disabilities, the majority with invisible disabilities, earn an average of $3.34 an hour. A previous Forbes article put the figures in excess of 420,000 people being paid as little as $2.15, while others cite drastically lower wages. Some organizations like Goodwill, form their own "sheltered workshops", determining their own limits on sub wages for their disabled workers. There seems to be no bottom limit on how little individuals with invisible disabilities can be paid.
"The non-profits use “time studies” to calculate the salaries of Section 14 (c) workers. With a stopwatch, staff members time how long it takes a disabled worker to complete a task. That time is compared with how long it would take a person without a disability to do the same task. The non-profit then applies a formula to calculate a rate of pay, which may be equal to or less than minimum wage".
A decade ago, NBC reported that Goodwill industries, presumably by authority of their DOL "Section 14(c) certificate", paid disabled workers twenty-two cents an hour. The report claims that some were paid as little as three or four cents an hour. Think about paying your bills 10 years ago on a wage like this. Some nonprofits, even place Section 14(c) workers in outside, for-profit endeavors in restaurants, stores and even, "IRS centers". That sounds more like calculated exploitation, rather than accommodation and equality. Though the "NBC-Goodwill" article and figures are old, the problem is older and still continues today.
The theory of sheltered workshops is to prepare individuals with disabilities to transition to outside employment. In Missouri, disabled workers packaging T-shirts or sorting and counting dog treats to be sold for profit on Amazon, rarely "graduate" these workshops into regular paying jobs. Pay for sorting the $15 Amazon dog treats? $1.50 an hour while Jeff Bezos builds rocket ships. The title of the recent ProPublica article linked below, says it all. "Missouri Allows Some Disabled Workers to Earn Less Than a Dollar an Hour. The State Says It's Fine If That Never Changes". I say, show me change in the Show-Me state and across the country.
In a follow-up to that story by ProPublica, some participants of sheltered workshops said they approved, saying the alternative is to sit at home and do nothing. Are these opinion formed as a result of gas lighting or years of oppression accepted as "just the way it is"? It's time for new attitudes and alternatives for the disabled community when it comes to wages and employment. In some states, now there are.
About 16 states have changed or passed laws regarding disability subminimum wage exploitation but, nothing to speak of federally. A three year old press release from the National Council on Disability that "Applauded the US commission on civil rights call to repeal section 14(c)", seems to be the sum of that effort. Other states have actions in progress including: Connecticut, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York. If you live in any of these states, now's the time for activism and to let your representatives know how you feel. Follow the ""legislation watch" APSE link to track progress. The Alternative? Similar actions introduced in Kentucky and West Virginia died in committee allowing this despicable injustice against disabled people in those states to continue. Change is up to everyone. What will you do to help stop the exploitation and abuse?
#UAW expected to endorse #Biden as he prepares to fight for #union workers
“The support could help boost the president with blue-collar and union workers, as well as in the key battleground state of #Michigan.” #UnionStrong 💪🏼
Amazon joins Trader Joe’s, SpaceX in calling the National Labor Relations Board unconstitutional
Nazi's are mainstream again. Now, they are trying to reboot the Gilded Ages. How far back do these people want to take society. The Ice Age?
“Since they can’t defeat successful union organizing, they now want to just destroy the whole process," said an attorney representing the Amazon Labor Union. #UnionStrong .
🔗 #Amazon calls NLRB unconstitutional, joining #TraderJoes
“Everything changed with streaming and everybody needs to be compensated for their work. It’s fucking easy. I don’t get it.” Amanda Seyfried at the #MetGala on the possible #WGA#strike. Standing with her #union colleagues. #UnionStrong#MayDay
Listen, and understand. That Iger is out there, it can't be bargained with [because it refuses to talk to writers or actors], it can't be reasoned with, it doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear, and it absolutely will not stop… EVER, until you are dead [and broke]!