UCLA: Bringing the history of L.A. workers’ movements into the present – and future. “A course being developed by UCLA labor studies professor Tobias Higbie will aim to inspire a new generation of change-makers.”
CNBC: X, formerly Twitter, faces 2,200 arbitration cases and filing fees over $3 million. “X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, is facing 2,200 arbitration cases that ex-employees filed after Elon Musk took over the company, slashed headcount, and made other sweeping changes there. The filing fees alone for that volume of cases could amount to $3.5 million.”
Rolling Stone: Elon Musk, Who Wants Women to Procreate as Much As Possible, Accused of Discriminating Against Mom Employees. “SEVEN FORMER TWITTER employees are suing the website, now rebranded as X, for racial discrimination, age discrimination, and violations of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act in the wake of Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform, according to court documents.”
Variety: Elon Musk, Twitter Slapped With $500 Million Lawsuit Over Ex-Employee Severance Payments “The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of a class of employees terminated since Musk’s takeover of the company in late October 2022. The suit seeks damages of at least $500 million as well as orders compelling Twitter and Musk ‘to abide by all terms of the severance plan by paying all terminated employees what they are owed,’ according to the plaintiff’s lawyers.”
Business Insider: Elon Musk faces upward of $130 million in legal costs to fight laid-off Twitter workers over severance pay. “The full process of arbitration, which companies commonly require employees to agree to as a private alternative to more public litigation, typically costs about $100,000, according to several law firms. Arbitration costs are often the employer’s burden, as employees often can’t afford the high cost of what an employer is essentially forcing them to do. Given that, Musk could see upward of $130 million in costs to individually arbitrate the employee cases filed so far.”
Department of Labor: US Department Of Labor Launches App To Provide Miners Access To Health, Safety, Miners’ Rights Information. “The app allows miners to easily use the tool at mine sites and outside of working hours to search for best safety and health practices and find resources on understanding their rights and responsibilities under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977. The app also sends users notifications of mining accidents and how to prevent them.”
WIRED: Worker-Owned Apps Are Redefining the Sharing Economy . “The growth rate of platform cooperatives is hard to pinpoint, because they don’t have to be registered with any government to exist. According to the UK’s Employee Ownership Association, the employee-owned sector (which includes platform cooperatives) has doubled in the UK since 2020 to over 1,030 companies.”
International Labour Organization: ILO launches new online database on trade agreements that include labour provisions. “Aimed at policymakers, technical experts, and representatives of workers, employers and civil society, the Labour Provisions in Trade Agreements Hub (LP Hub) offers a comprehensive, structured compilation of the text of labour provisions in more than 100 regional trade agreements (RTAs) in about 140 economies. Labour provisions are obligations in trade agreements to protect and advance workers’ rights, including through different forms of cooperation and dialogue between trade unions, business organizations and the general public.”
Bloomberg: Fired by bot at Amazon: ‘It’s you against the machine’. “Bloomberg interviewed 15 Flex drivers, including four who say they were wrongly terminated, as well as former Amazon managers who say the largely automated system is insufficiently attuned to the real-world challenges drivers face every day. Amazon knew delegating work to machines would lead to mistakes and damaging headlines, these former managers said, but decided it was cheaper to trust the algorithms than pay people to investigate mistaken firings so long as the drivers could be replaced easily.”
