BossFeed Briefing for January 25, 2022. Last Tuesday, the federal government launched a website where households can order free rapid at-home COVID tests, just a few weeks after dismissing the idea as impossible. Last Friday, our state launched a similar program for WA residents. Yesterday, the US Supreme Court announced it will take up challenges to affirmative action policies during its upcoming term. This Thursday is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Monday marks the 44th anniversary of the official end to the 1970s Delano grape boycotts.
Three things to know this week:
Our open letter calls on the Seattle City Council and Mayor to promptly schedule hearings on the PayUp policies, which will raise pay, protect flexibility, and provide transparency for 40,000+ gig workers. You can add your name by clicking here.
The WA Supreme Court upheld an $18 million dollar fine against a grocery industry lobby group for campaign finance violations. In 2013, the Grocery Manufacturers Association illegally hid the identities of major corporations—including Coca-Cola, General Mills, and Nestle—that had contributed to its aggressive campaign to defeat an initiative requiring labels on genetically modified foods.
Voting rights organizations have filed a lawsuit challenging new political maps that dilute Latinx voting power in the Yakima Valley. The lawsuit argues that the newly-redrawn 15th Legislative District was intentionally crafted to create the “facade” of a majority-Latinx district, while actually preserving the voting strength of white voters.
Two things to ask:
So which way is the Co-Op Way? 116 workers at an REI store in Manhattan have filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board. From their corporate offices in Kent, WA, the company’s CEO argued in an email to all US staff members that a union could conflict with the “Co-Op Way” and is therefore unnecessary.
Guess a carrot is better than a stick? Amazon warehouse workers must participate in monthly “wellness huddles”, where managers suggest they eat fewer sweets and more vegetables, and everyone watches videos of an animated robot demonstrating proper lifting technique. Workers inside Amazon’s warehouses are injured at nearly double the typical industry rate.
And one thing that's worth a closer look:
A recent Seattle Times article profiling a mysterious “missing” restaurant workforce contained a whole bunch of comments from restaurant owners and industry lobbyists—and exactly *zero* interviews with current or former restaurant workers. Among those interviewed for the piece include the head of the Washington Hospitality Association—a restaurant lobby group that has pushed to overturn pandemic health & safety measures—and a UW professor, who both speculated about the causes of the so-called “labor shortage”, but who don’t seem to have landed on asking questions about pay rates, safety precautions, or working conditions. Meanwhile, one Seattle restaurant owner bemoaned about his own tragic staff shortage, which has meant he’s had to…actually work at the restaurant he owns. More enlightenment might come if journalists would actually talk to people who work in restaurants rather than those who own them, lobby for them, or lecture about them.
Read this far? Consider yourself briefed, boss.
Let us know what you think about this week's look at the world of work, wages, and inequality!