Posts tagged surveillance

    Brainerd-area grocery store workers vote to authorize strike in days leading up to Christmas

    December 14, 2023 // Roughly 650 grocery workers in the Brainerd area announced their intentions to go on strike in the days leading up to Christmas due to what they call unfair labor practices. Union members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 663 say they've been without a contract since Dec. 3, and have been subject to "interrogation, surveillance, and intimidation" from their employers.

    Opinion: Why stop at the four-day workweek?

    November 9, 2023 // s. Second, let workers unionize and collectively bargain rather than firing them for it. The road, though, doesn’t end there. “One thing you need,” said Benanav, “is something that was never really achieved in the US: actual sectoral bargaining. Not just collective bargaining at the firm level, but at the industry level.” Sectoral bargaining means unions would negotiate standards that apply to all workers in an industry, not just those who work in unionized firms. To complement that greater representation, workers would also benefit from social programs like unconditional cash transfers, universal healthcare, or as the pandemic showed, stronger unemployment insurance. We already saw early tremors of the power such reforms can hold as part of the surprisingly generous US policy response to the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly the boosted unemployment insurance. “A lot of that was giving people resources to just make their own decisions,” said Konczal.

    What NLRB’s New Collaboration with Consumer Financial Agency Means for Gig Economy Businesses

    March 10, 2023 // If your business relies on gig economy workers, you may want to review your policies on monitoring workers and requiring them to pay for training and equipment. That’s because the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced on Tuesday that it’s joining forces with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to address potential misconduct regarding workplace surveillance, monitoring, data collection, and employer-driven debt. The agencies said they will share information to enhance their enforcement efforts and better protect workers in the gig economy and other labor markets from harmful financial practices. What do you need to know about the new Memorandum of Understanding and its impact on the workplace?