So what changed between 2020 - when rideshare bosses destroyed protections for workers by flooding the zone with #Prop22 disinformation - and 2023, when the fast food bosses folded like a cheap suit? It wasn't changes to the laws governing ballot initiatives, nor was it a lack of ready capital for demolishing worker rights. Fast food executives weren't visited by three ghosts in the night who convinced them to care for their workers. Their hearts didn't grow by three sizes.
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What changed was the *vibe*. The #HotLaborSummer was a *rager*, and it's not showing any signs of slowing. Obviously that's true in California, where nurses and hotel workers are also striking, and where strikebreaking companies like #Instawork ("Uber for #scabs") attract swift regulatory sanction, rather than demoralized capitulation:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/30/computer-says-scab/#instawork
The hot labor summer wasn't a season - it was a turning point.
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Everyone's forming unions. Think of #EquityStripNoHo, the first strippers' union in a generation, which won recognition from their scumbag bosses at #NorthHollywood's #StarGardenClub, who used every dirty trick to kill workplace democracy.
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The story of the Equity Strippers is *amazing*. Two organizers, Charlie and Lilith, appeared on @adamconover's #Factually podcast to describe the incredible creativity and solidarity they used to win recognition, and the continuing struggle to get a contract out of their bosses, who are still fucking around and assuming they will not find out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fgXihmHIZk
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Like the fast-food bosses, the Star Garden's owners are in for a surprise. One of the most powerful elements of the Equity Strippers' story is the solidarity of their *customers*. Star Garden's owners assumed that their clientele were indiscriminate, horny assholes who didn't care about the wellbeing of the workers they patronized, and would therefore cross a picket-line because parts is parts.
Instead, the bar's clientele sided with the workers.
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People *everywhere* are siding with workers. A decade ago, when #VideoGame actors voted on a strike, the tech workers who coded the games were incredibly hostile to them. "Why should *you* get residuals for *your* contribution to this game when we don't?"
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But SAG-AFTRA members who provide voice acting for games just overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike, and this time the story is very different. This time, #TechWorkers are ride-or-die for their comrades in the sound booths:
What explains the change in tech workers' animal sentiments? Well, on the one hand, labor rights are in the air. The decades of cartoonish, lazy dismissals of labor struggles have ended.
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And on the other hand, tech workers have been #proletarianized, with 260,000 layoffs in the sector, including 12,000 layoffs at Google that came immediately after a #StockBuyback *that would have paid those 12,000 salaries for the next 27 years*:
https://doctorow.medium.com/the-proletarianization-of-tech-workers-ad0a6b09f7e6
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Larry @lessig once laid out a theory of change that holds that our society is governed by four forces: #law (what's legal), #norms (what's socially acceptable), #markets (what's profitable) and #code (what's technologically possible):
https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs181/projects/2010-11/CodeAndRegulation/about.html
These four forces interact. When queer relationships were normalized, it made it easier to legalize them, too - and then the businesses that #MarriageEquality became both a force for more normalization and legal defense.
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When Lessig formulated this argument, much of the focus was on technology - how file-sharing changed norms, which changed law. But as the decades passed, I've come to appreciate what the argument says about *norms*, the conversations we have with one another.
Neoliberalism wants you to think that you're an individual, not a member of a polity. Neoliberalism wants you to bargain with your boss as a "free agent," not a union member.
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It wants you to address the climate emergency by recycling more carefully - not by demanding laws banning single-use plastics. It wants you to fight monopolies by shopping harder - not by busting trusts.
But that's not what we're doing - not anymore. We're forming unions. We're demanding a #GreenNewDeal. And we're busting some trusts.
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The #DoJ #AntitrustDivision case against #Google is the (first) trial of the century, reviving the ancient and noble practice of fighting monopolies with courts, not empty platitudes.
The trial is *incredible*, and #YosefWeitzman's reporting on #BigTechOnTrial is required reading. I'm following it closely (thankfully, there's a fulltext #RSS feed):
https://www.bigtechontrial.com/p/what-makes-google-great
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The neoliberal project of instilling learned helplessness about corporate power has hit the wall, and it's wrecked. The same norms that made us furious enough to put Google on trial are the norms that made us angry - not cynical - about #ClarenceThomas's bribery scandals:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/06/clarence-thomas/#harlan-crow
And they're the same norms that made us support our striking comrades, from hotel housekeepers to Hollywood actors, from strippers to Starbucks baristas:
https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/09/13/Starbucks-Workers-Back-At-Strike/
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Yes, Starbucks baristas. The Starbucks unions that won hard-fought recognition drives are now fighting the next phase of corporate fuckery: Starbucks corporate's refusal to bargain for a contract. Starbucks is betting that if they just stall long enough, the workers who support the union will move on and they'll be able to go back to abusing their workers without worrying about a union.
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They're fucking around, and they're finding out. Starbucks workers at two shops in #BritishColumbia - #ClaytonCrossing in #Surrey and #ValleyCentre in #Langley - have authorized strikes with a *91% majority*:
https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/09/13/Starbucks-Workers-Back-At-Strike/
Where did the guts to do this come from? Not from labor law, which remains disgustingly hostile to workers (though that's changing, as we'll see below).
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It came from norms. It came from *getting pissed off* and talking about it. Shouting about it. Arguing about it.
Laws, markets and code matter, but they're nothing without norms. That's why Uber and Lyft were willing to spend $200m to fight fair labor practices. They didn't just want to keep their costs low - they wanted to snuff out the *vibe*, the *idea* that workers deserve a fair deal.
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They failed. The idea didn't die. *It thrived*. It merged with the idea that corporations and the wealthy corrupt our society. It was joined by the idea that monopolies harm us all. They're losing. We're winning.
The BC Starbucks workers secured *91% majorities* in their strike votes. This is what worker power looks like. As Jane McAlevey writes in her *Collective Bargain*, these supermajorities - *ultramajorities* - are how we win.
https://doctorow.medium.com/a-collective-bargain-a48925f944fe
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The neoliberal wing of the Democratic party hires high-priced consultants who advise them to seek 50.1% margins of victory - and then insist that nothing can be done because we live in the Manchin-Synematic Universe, where razor-thin majorities mean that there is no alternative. Labor organizers fight for 91% majorities - in the face of bosses' gerrymandering, disinformation and voter suppression - and *get shit done*.
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Shifting the norms - having the conversations - is the tactic, but *getting shit done* is the *goal*. The Biden administration - a decidedly mixed bag - has some incredible, technically skilled, principled fighters who know how to get shit done. Take #LinaKhan, who revived the long-dormant #Section5 of the #FederalTradeAct, which gives her broad powers to ban "unfair and deceptive" practices:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge
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Khan's wielding this broad power in all kinds of exciting ways. For example, she's seeking a ban on #noncompetes, a form of bondage that shackles workers to shitty bosses by making it illegal to work for anyone else in the same industry:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/02/its-the-economy-stupid/#neofeudal
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Noncompete apologists argue these protect employers' investment in training and willingness to share sensitive trade secrets with employees. But the majority of noncompetes are applied to fast food workers - yes, the same workers who just won a 30%, across-the-board raise - in order to prevent Burger King cashiers from seeking $0.25/hour more at a local Wendy's.
Meanwhile, the most trade-secret intensive, high-training industry in the world - tech - has *no* noncompetes.
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That's not because tech bosses are good eggs who want to do right by their employees - it's because noncompetes are banned in California, where tech is headquartered.
But in other states, where noncompetes are still allowed, bosses have figured out how to use them as a slippery slope to a form of bondage that beggars the imagination.
38/
I'm speaking of the #TrainingRepaymentAgreementProvision (AKA, the #TRAP), a contractual term that forces workers who quit or get fired to pay their ex-bosses tens of thousands of dollars, supposedly to recoup the cost of training them:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/04/its-a-trap/#a-little-on-the-nose
Now, TRAPs aren't just evil, they're also bullshit.
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Bosses show pet-groomers or cannabis budtenders a few videos, throw them a three-ring binder, and declare that they've received a five-figure education that they must repay if they part ways with their employers. This gives bosses broad latitude to abuse their workers and even order them to break the law, on penalty of massive fines for quitting.
40
If this sounds like an #UnfairLaborPractice to you, you're not alone. #NLRB general counsel #JenniferAbruzzo agrees with you. She's another one of those Biden appointees with a principled commitment to making life better for American workers, and the technical chops to turn that principle into muscular action.
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In a case against #Juvly Aesthetics - an Ohio-based chain of "alternative medicine" and "aesthetic services" - Abruzzo argues that noncompetes *and* TRAPs are Unfair Labor Practices that violate the #NationalLaborRelationsAct and cannot be enforced:
https://www.nlrb.gov/case/09-CA-300239
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Two ex-Juvly employees have been hit with $50-60k "repayment" bills for quitting - one after refusing to violate Ohio law by performing "microneedling," another for quitting after having their wages stolen and then refusing to sign an "exit agreement":
If the NLRB wins, the noncompete and TRAP clauses in the workers' contracts will be voided, and the workers will get fees, missed wages, and other penalties.
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More to the point, the case will set the precedent that noncompetes are generally unenforceable nationwide, delivering labor protection to every worker in every sector in America.
Abruzzo has been *killing it* lately: just a couple weeks ago, she set a precedent that any boss that breaks labor law during a union drive *automatically* loses, with instant recognition for the union as a penalty (rather than a small fine, as was customary):
44/
Abruzzo is amazing - as are her colleagues at the NLRB, FTC, DOJ, and other agencies. But the law they're making is downstream of the norms *we* set. From the California lawmakers who responded to fast food industry threats by introducing *more* regulations to the strip-bar patrons who refused to cross the picket-line to the legions of fans dragging #DrewBarrymore for scabbing, the public mood is providing the political will for real action:
https://www.motherjones.com/media/2023/09/drew-barrymores-newest-role-scab/
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The issues of corruption, worker rights and market concentration can't - and shouldn't - be teased apart. They're three facets of the same fight - the fight against #oligarchy. Rarely do those issues come together more clearly than in the delicious petard-hoisting of #DaveClark, formerly the archvillain of #Amazon, and now the victim of its bullying.
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As Maureen Tkacik writes for *The American Prospect*, Clark had a long and storied career as Amazon's most vicious and unassuming ghoul, a sweatervested, Diet-Coke-swilling normie whose mild manner disguised a vicious streak a mile wide:
https://prospect.org/power/2023-09-14-catch-us-if-you-can-dave-clark-amazon/
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Clark earned his nickname, #TheSniper, as a Kentucky warehouse supervisor; the name came from his habit of "lurking in the shadows [and] scoping out slackers he could fire." Clark created #AmazonFlex, the "gig work" version of Amazon delivery drivers where randos in private vehicles were sent out to delivery parcels. Clark also oversaw tens of millions of dollars in wage-theft from those workers.
48/
We have Clark to thank for the Amazon drivers who had to shit in bags and piss in bottles to make quota. Clark was behind the illegal union-busting tactics used against employees in the #Bessamer, Alabama warehouse. We have Clark to thank for the Amazon chat app that banned users from posting the words "restroom," "slave labor," "plantation," and "union":
https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/05/doubleplusrelentless/#quackspeak
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But Clark doesn't work for Amazon anymore. After losing a power-struggle to succeed Jeff Bezos - the job went to "longtime rival" #Andy Jassy - he quit and went to work for #Flexport, a logistics company that promised to provide sellers that used non-Amazon services with shipping. Flexport did a deal with #Shopify, becoming its "sole official logistics partner."
50/
But then Shopify did *another* logistics deal - with Amazon. Clark was ordered to tender his resignation or face immediate dismissal.
How did all this happen? Well, there are two theories. The first is that Shopify teamed up with Amazon to stab Flexport in the back, then purged all the ex-Amazonians from the Flexport upper ranks. The other is that Clark was a double-agent, who worked with Amazon to sabotage Flexport, and was caught and fired.
51/
But either way, this is a huge win for Amazon, a monopolist who is in the FTC's crosshairs thanks to the anti-corporate vibe-shift that has consumed the nation and the world. As the sole major employer for this kind of logistics, Amazon is a de facto labor regulator, deciding who can work in the sector. The FTC's enforcement action isn't just about monopoly - it's about labor.
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Now, Clark is a rich, powerful white dude, not the sort of person who needs a lot of federal help to protect his labor rights. When liberals called the shot in the progressive coalition, they scolded leftists not to speak of class, but rather to focus on identity - to be #intersectionalists.
That was a trick. There's no incompatibility between caring about class and caring about gender, race and sexual orientation.
53/
Those fast food workers who are about to get a 30% wage-hike in California? Overwhelmingly Black or brown, overwhelmingly female.
The liberal version of intersectionalism observes a world run by 150 rich white men and resolves to replace half of them with women, queers and people of color. The leftist version seeks to abolish the system altogether.
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The leftist version of intersectionalism cares about bias and discrimination not just because of how it makes people *feel*, but because of how it makes them *live*. It cares about wages, housing, vacations, child care - the things you can't get because of your identity.
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The fight for *social* justice is a fight for *worker* justice. Eminently guillotineable monsters like Tim "Avocado Toast" Gurner advocate for increasing unemployment by "40-50%" - but Gurner is just saying what other bosses are thinking:
https://jacobin.com/2023/09/tim-gurner-capitalists-neoliberalism-unemployment-precarity
Garner is 100% right when he says: "There’s been a systematic change where employees feel the employer is extremely lucky to have them, as opposed to the other way around."
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Real estate CEO Tim Gurner, of “millennial avocado toast” fame, has gone viral again for saying low unemployment has made workers arrogant and joblessness must rise. His remarks reveal a usually unspoken truth: capitalists rely on the subordination of workers.
And then he says this: "So it’s a dynamic that has to change. We’ve got to kill that attitude, and that has to come through hurt in the economy."
Garner knows that the vibes are upstream of the change. The capitalist dream starts with killing our imagination, to make us believe that "there is no alternative."
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If we can dream bigger than "better representation among oligarchs" when we might someday dream of *no oligarchs*. That's what he fears the most.
Watch the video of Garner. Look past the dollar-store Gordon Gecko styling. That piece of shit is *terrified*.
And he should be.
eof/
Cory Doctorow
JamesAshburner
CharlieG