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Union says Amazon interfered with Alabama warehouse vote
Amazon beat back a push to unionize in its Bessemer, Alabama fulfillment center thanks to a surprisingly one-sided vote — nearly two-thirds of the facility’s workers chose not to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union on April 9th. According to a list of objections filed with the National Labor Relations Board late Friday, however, the union argues Amazon won the vote because it “interfered” with the rights of its employees “to vote in a free and fair election; a right protected under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.”
Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama vote against unionization
Amazon is on track to beat back the historic unionization attempt at its BHM1 fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama.
US labor board orders Elon Musk to delete a threatening tweet from 2018
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has found that Tesla violated US labor laws by firing a union activist and threatening workers' benefits via a tweet from CEO Elon Musk.
Recommended Reading: Breaking down 'Zack Snyder’s Justice League'
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Amazon's union-busting drives exposed in NYT report
Amazon's labor practices come under heavy scrutiny in the run-up to Alabama's crucial union vote.
Google union files first complaint over alleged labor abuses
The Alphabet Workers Union says Google contract workers were banned from discussing pay, allegedly violating US labor law.
Google unions around the world form Alpha Global alliance
Various Alphabet unions have joined forces and created a global alliance called Alpha Global. It was created with some help from UNI Global, a federation of unions that represents 20 million workers from a variety of fields including the technology industry. According to The Verge, 13 different unions are part of Alpha Global, spanning 10 different countries including the US, UK, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden.
Google workers have formed a union
A group of 226 engineers and other Google workers have formed a union.
French court orders Amazon to continue only fulfilling essential orders
A court in France has ruled that Amazon should only fulfill orders for essential products, like food and hygiene and medical products, TechCrunch reports.
Kickstarter employees vote to unionize
More tech company workers are unionizing in an attempt to improve their bargaining power. A group of 85 Kickstarter employees have voted to unionize, aligning themselves with a branch of the Office and Professional Employees International Union in New York. The staffers will use their collective bargaining power to push for equal pay, more inclusive hiring, greater transparency from management and more of a say in decisions.
Samsung's jailed union-busting chairman steps down
Lee Sang-hoon is stepping down from his position as chairman of Samsung Electronics' board. According to Reuters, the company will be appointing a successor soon. Lee Sang-hoon was found guilty of sabotaging legitimate union activities and sentenced to 18 months in prison last December. As ZDNet reports, he was using several tactics to disrupt and disarm unions, including delaying negotiations between management and laborers, closing subcontracting companies with active unions, and digging for information that could persuade key union members to leave. Twenty-five other people were convicted on similar charges, according to the BBC.
Instacart employees in Chicago are the first to unionize in the US
Gig economy workers may have won an important, if conditional, battle in their push for better conditions. Instacart employees in the Chicago suburb of Skokie have voted to unionize through their local branch of United Food and Commercial Workers, giving them more collective bargaining power than they had before. The move only covers 15 staffers who operate at the Mariano's grocery store, but it's the first time Instacart employees have unionized in the US and could affect issues like turnover rates, work pacing and mysterious employee rating algorithms.
US labor board will investigate Google's recent firings
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has launched another investigation into Google. This time, the NLRB is investigating whether Google violated federal labor laws when it fired four employees late last month. The investigation will determine if Google discouraged employees from engaging in union activity, an NLRB spokesperson told CNBC.
Google contractors are unionizing in Pittsburgh
A group of Google tech contractors in Pittsburgh has voted to unionize with the United Steelworkers under the name Pittsburgh Association of Tech Professionals (PATP). Since it's just around 80 workers employed by employed by HCL America, the move may seem insignificant and unable to influence the way Google is treating its contractors. As Motherboard noted, though, it's a huge event for white collar tech workers who very rarely form unions.
Kickstarter accused of union-busting after firing two employees
Kickstarter has fired two employees who headed a unionization effort within the company, according to Slate. The crowdsourcing company fired Taylor Moore (its head of comedy and podcasts) on Thursday, a week after firing Clarissa Redwine (one of its design and technology outreach leads). Moore accused the Kickstarter management of launching a union-busting campaign on Twitter, where he also said that he was fired specifically for organizing a union. He also said that a third prominent union member was just told that "there is no place for him at the company."
YouTubers are unionizing, and the site has 24 days to respond
A group of YouTubers is teaming up with Europe's largest trade union to lobby for greater transparency. Until recently, the YouTubers Union was a community group with little power of its own, but it has now teamed up with IG Metall, the German Metalworker's union. IG Metall is one of the oldest unions in Germany and over its lifetime has expanded to cover workers in industries including electrical engineering, IT, plastics and textiles.
Netflix deal with Hollywood union promises better conditions for actors
Netflix regularly works with unionized actors (they're ubiquitous in Hollywood), but usually on a show-by-show basis. Now, though, it's establishing a deeper connection. The service has signed a roughly three-year contract with SAG-AFTRA that provides expanded coverage for union work. It now recognizes "performance capture" (think motion capture) and dubbing as covered work, giving actors in those fields the same labor protections as others. The people voicing the English-language version of your favorite anime might have better pay and working conditions, to put it one way.
Nearly half of game developers want to unionize
Unionization isn't a new idea for the game development industry, but it is a particularly hot and contentious topic right now. A handful of events in 2018 thrust the unionization conversation to the forefront, including Rockstar boss Dan Houser's comments about developers working 100-hour weeks to finish Red Dead Redemption 2, and the tragic implosion and bitter residue of Telltale Games. Groups like Game Workers Unite have been pounding the pavement (physically and digitally) and gathering support for unionization across the globe, with a goal to "bring hope to and empower those suffering in this industry." In December, a UK chapter of Game Workers Unite became a legal trade union.
Tesla: Workplace safety, unions and the color yellow
Tesla's troubles with media reports on working conditions and union organizing took a hard right turn on Monday. In response to Reveal's report on Tesla's workplace safety, the auto manufacturer accused the Pulitzer-finalist of being "an extremist organization working directly with union supporters to create a calculated disinformation campaign against Tesla."
Two major eSports players associations are in the works
There are two players associations being put together for professional competitors who play Overwatch and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Sports Business Journal reports. The latter will include players in the ESL Pro League and the FACEIT ECS league and is being helmed by eSports broadcaster Scott "SirScoots" Smith and attorney Michael Doi. Smith told Sports Business Journal that the Counter-Strike Professional Players Association (CSPPA) won't be seeking to become a US union since Counter-Strike players span the globe but it is looking to sign the over 225 players that participate professionally. "Every day I sign another guy," he said. "I would say 70 or so have signed an official membership document that they are for the players association, are behind the players association, they want to be in the players association."
