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☆ How TV Writing Became a Dead-End Job
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Noam Scheiber | More About Noam Scheiber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For the six years he worked on “The Mentalist,” beginning in 2009, Jordan Harper’s job was far more than a writing gig. But by 2018, when he worked on “Hightown,” a drama for Starz, the business of television writing had changed substantially. The job of overseeing the filming and editing fell largely to the showrunner, the writer-producer in charge of a series. “On a show like ‘The Mentalist,’ we’d all go to set,” Mr. Harper said. They say the new approach requires more frequent job changes, making their work less steady, and has lowered writers’ earnings.

Persons: Jordan, “, ’, Mr, Harper Organizations: CBS, Starz

☆ Amazon Union Dissidents, in Challenge to Leader, Move to Force Vote
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Noam Scheiber | More About Noam Scheiber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On Friday, the reform caucus sent the union’s leadership a letter laying out its proposal to hold prompt elections, saying it would go to court Monday if the leadership didn’t embrace the proposal. The group said in its letter that enacting the proposal could “mean the difference between an A.L.U. which is strong, effective, and a beacon of democracy in the labor movement” and “an A.L.U. which, in the end, became exactly what Amazon warned workers it would become: a business that takes away the workers’ voices.”Mr. Smalls said in his text that the union leadership had worked closely with its law firm to ensure that its actions were legal, as well as with the U.S. Labor Department. Jeanne Mirer, a lawyer for the union, wrote to a lawyer for the reform caucus that the lawsuit was frivolous and based on falsehoods.

Persons: Connor Spence, Brett Daniels, Brima, ” Mr, Smalls, Jeanne Mirer, Spence, ” Organizations: Amazon, U.S . Labor Department Locations: Staten

☆ Affirmative Action Ruling May Upend Hiring Policies, Too
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Noam Scheiber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

But “employment decisions are more often individualized decisions,” focusing on the fit between a candidate and a job, she said. The more meaningful effect of the court’s decision is likely to be greater pressure on policies that were already on questionable legal ground. Those could include leadership acceleration programs or internship programs that are open only to members of underrepresented minority groups. For example, a company’s policy may encourage recruiters to seek a more diverse pool of candidates, from which hiring decisions are made without regard to race. That is partly because of the growing attack from the political right on corporate policies aimed at diversity in hiring and other social and environmental goals.

Persons: ” Pauline Kim, Louis, ”, Mike Delikat, ” Mr, Delikat, “, ’ Organizations: Washington University Locations: St

☆ Harvard Scholar Who Studies Honesty Is Accused of Fabricating Findings
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-24 | by ( Noam Scheiber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Over the past two decades, dozens of behavioral scientists have risen to prominence pointing out the power of small interventions to improve well-being. The scientists said they had found that automatically enrolling people in organ donor programs would lead to higher rates of donation, and that moving healthy foods like fruit closer to the front of a buffet line would result in healthier eating. Many of these findings have attracted skepticism as other scholars showed that their effects were smaller than initially claimed, or that they had little impact at all. But in recent days, the field may have sustained its most serious blow yet: accusations that a prominent behavioral scientist fabricated results in multiple studies, including at least one purporting to show how to elicit honest behavior. The scholar, Francesca Gino of Harvard Business School, has been a co-author of dozens of papers in peer-reviewed journals on such topics as how rituals like silently counting to 10 before deciding what to eat can increase the likelihood of choosing healthier food, and how networking can make professionals feel dirty.

Persons: Francesca Gino Organizations: Harvard Business School

☆ Starbucks Union Plans to Strike Over Pride Décor and Labor Practices
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( J. Edward Moreno | Noam Scheiber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Thousands of workers at organized Starbucks stores across the nation will stage strikes over the next week, their union said on Friday, a move that comes after workers in some states said management prohibited them from putting up decorations for Pride Month, accusations that the company has said are false. Starbucks Workers United said employees at more than 150 stores would strike over the company’s labor practices and its “hypocritical treatment of LGBTQIA+ workers.”The union represents about 8,000 of the company’s workers in more than 300 stores. “Starbucks is scared of the power that their queer partners hold, and they should be,” Moe Mills, who works at a Starbucks location in Richmond Heights, Mo., said in a statement provided by the union. The union said that it was striking over the changes to Pride decoration policies, which it argued must be negotiated, as well as the company’s broader response to the organizing campaign, including widespread retaliation against union supporters. The union said in its statement that workers were “demanding that Starbucks negotiate a fair contract with union stores and stop their illegal union-busting campaign.”

Persons: ” Moe Mills, ” Organizations: Pride, Starbucks Workers United, Starbucks Locations: Richmond Heights, Mo

☆ UPS Workers Authorize Teamsters Union to Call Strike
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Noam Scheiber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

United Parcel Service workers have authorized their union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, to call a strike as soon as Aug. 1, after the current contract expires, the Teamsters announced Friday. The Teamsters represent more than 325,000 UPS employees in the United States, where the company has nearly 450,000 employees overall. The union said 97 percent voted in favor of strike authorization. “The results do not mean a strike is imminent and do not impact our current business operations in any way,” UPS said in a statement, adding that it was “confident that we will reach an agreement.”A UPS strike could have significant economic fallout. The company handles about one-quarter of the tens of millions of parcels shipped each day in the United States, according to the Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index.

Organizations: Parcel Service, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Teamsters, UPS, Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Locations: United States

☆ Labor Board, Reversing Trump-Era Ruling, Widens Definition of Employee
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Noam Scheiber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In 2019, when the board was controlled by appointees of President Donald J. Trump, it elevated one consideration — workers’ chances to make more money based on their business savvy, often described as “entrepreneurial opportunity” — above the others. It concluded that such opportunities should be a key tiebreaker when some factors pointed to contractor status and others indicated employment. In its decision in 2019, the board said that a ruling during the Obama administration had improperly subordinated the question of moneymaking opportunities. The latest decision returned the board to the standard laid out in the Obama era, explicitly rejecting the elevation of entrepreneurial opportunity above other factors. The turnabout was criticized on Tuesday by businesses that rely heavily on contractors.

Persons: Donald J, Obama, Uber, Evan Armstrong Organizations: Trump, Coalition for Workforce Innovation

☆ Supreme Court Backs Employer in Suit Over Strike Losses
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Noam Scheiber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Some legal experts have said that a union setback in the case would discourage workers from striking by making the union potentially liable for losses that an employer incurs during a work stoppage. Professor Garden did note, however, that the decision was less far-reaching in discouraging strike activity than it could have been. As a result, Mr. O’Neill said, the law does not shield workers or unions from liability for such damage. 21-1449, involved unionized employees of a concrete mixing and pouring company who walked off the job during contract negotiations, leaving wet concrete in their trucks. The employer argued that it suffered substantial monetary losses because the abandoned concrete was unusable.

Persons: ”, Garden, Michael O’Neill, O’Neill Organizations: University of Minnesota, Landmark Legal Foundation, Brotherhood of Teamsters

☆ Companies Are Taking a Harder Line on Union Organizers, Workers Say
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Noam Scheiber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In some cases, the apparent escalation of company pushback has coincided with a slowing down of the union campaigns. At Starbucks, filings for union elections fell below 10 in August, from about 70 five months earlier, and no Apple store has filed for a union election since November. And in advance of a recent union election at an REI near Cleveland, management sought to exclude certain categories of workers from voting, according to the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. It said the chain, a co-op that sells recreational gear, had made no such challenge in two previous elections, in which workers voted to unionize. (The union said the company backed down after workers at the Cleveland-area store walked out, and the store voted to unionize in March.)

☆ Amazon Is Everywhere. That’s What Makes It So Vulnerable.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Noam Scheiber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Is there a more familiar sign of corporate dominance than the Amazon delivery van? Today, the Amazon vans are almost inescapable. But this seeming monument to Amazon’s strength is in some ways closer to the opposite: a symbol of its vulnerability. The vans are just the most visible piece of ‌the company’s vast delivery network. It has also made Amazon susceptible to a potent form of labor organizing — choke point organizing — in which workers threaten to hobble a company’s operations by shutting down key sites, known as choke points.

☆ Strippers and California Club Reach Accord on Union After Long Fight
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Noam Scheiber | Ava Sasani | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“We felt like we could help them,” Ms. Shindle said in an interview during last fall’s mail-in election. Some said the physical space was often hazardous, including exposed nails and holes onstage and broken glass on the floor. Lilith and other dancers asked not to be identified by their legal names for fear of being harassed or stalked. Another dancer, who uses the name Velveeta, said the club put dancers at risk by allowing customers to linger after hours. “Customers will be there watching us cash out, seeing the cash we’re taking with us,” she said.

☆ Will a Chatbot Write the Next ‘Succession’?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Noam Scheiber | John Koblin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When the union representing Hollywood writers laid out its list of objectives for contract negotiations with studios this spring, it included familiar language on compensation, which the writers say has either stagnated or dropped amid an explosion of new shows. But far down, the document added a distinctly 2023 twist. Under a section titled “Professional Standards and Protection in the Employment of Writers,” the union wrote that it aimed to “regulate use of material produced using artificial intelligence or similar technologies.”To the mix of computer programmers, marketing copywriters, travel advisers, lawyers and comic illustrators suddenly alarmed by the rising prowess of generative A.I., one can now add screenwriters. “It is not out of the realm of possibility that before 2026, which is the next time we will negotiate with these companies, they might just go, ‘you know what, we’re good,’” said Mike Schur, the creator of “The Good Place” and co-creator of “Parks and Recreation.”

☆ Ben & Jerry’s Paves Way for Union at Vermont Store
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Noam Scheiber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ben & Jerry’s announced Friday that it had reached an agreement with workers at its flagship store in Burlington, Vt., on a set of rules to ensure a fair union election, after the workers’ announcement last week that they were seeking to organize. The agreement is likely to pave the way for the store to become the only unionized Ben & Jerry’s location in the United States. All of the nearly 40 workers eligible to join a union at the store have indicated their support for doing so. The company indicated that the agreement could make the store a better place to work. Rebeka Mendelsohn, a shift manager who has helped lead the organizing campaign, said she hoped the agreement would encourage workers at other Ben & Jerry’s stores to consider unionizing.

☆ Battle Over Labor Secretary Nominee Reflects a Larger Fight for Biden
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Noam Scheiber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

And once again, there are signs that the administration may fall short, with at least two Democrats and an independent wavering over whether to support Ms. Su. The administration may not be able to lose any of those votes if her nomination is to succeed. Ms. Su noted her role helping the department expand apprenticeships and other training programs under Mr. Walsh, and working at his side to avoid a potentially costly freight rail strike. She said she would seek employers’ advice on improving worker safety, and described the reverence she gained for small business owners after watching her immigrant parents operate a dry cleaner and a pizza franchise. Democrats argue that Ms. Su, who has strong backing from labor unions, would be a strong worker advocate and enforcer of provisions like the minimum wage, safety regulations and restrictions on child labor, as well as the right to join unions.

☆ You’re Now a ‘Manager.’ Forget About Overtime Pay.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Noam Scheiber | More About Noam Scheiber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“There were shortages of people who had kids at home,” said Catherine Ruckelshaus, the general counsel of the National Employment Law Project, a worker advocacy group. “I would almost say there’s never been a time when those workers are more empowered,” he said. (Pay for all workers grew much faster than pay for managers from 2019 to 2021, though pay for managers grew slightly faster last year.) Experts say the denial of overtime pay is part of a broader strategy to drive down labor costs in recent decades by staffing stores with as few workers as possible. If an employee did not show up for an afternoon shift, she typically had to stay late to cover.

Persons: ”, Catherine Ruckelshaus, “, Ed Egee, there’s, Deirdre Aaron, Ms, Palliser, Panera Organizations: National Employment Law, National Retail Federation, Labor Department

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