POLITICS
Ohio AFL-CIO backs Tim Ryan in U.S. Senate race
Spectrum News
By Taylor Popielarz
June 15, 2021
“Tim has spent his career fighting for working people in Ohio and we know he will continue that work in the Senate,” Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga said in a statement to Spectrum News. “It is a common sight to see Tim Ryan at a union hall, or at a rally or on a picket line – he is always standing at our side, no matter what the circumstances are.”
JOINING TOGETHER
Mapbox Faces Union Drive as Labor Organizers Extend Push in Tech
Bloomberg
By Brody Ford and Josh Eidelson
June 15, 2021
Employees at Mapbox Inc., which makes mapping tools used by Instacart Inc. and Snap Inc., have announced their intention to unionize, making them the latest group of tech workers to embrace organized labor in a traditionally nonunion industry. The union seeks to represent all 222 U.S. employees, technical or not, at the SoftBank Group Corp.-backed company. Nearly two-thirds of workers have already signed union cards with the Communications Workers of America, which has increasingly focused on tech workplaces in recent years.
Mapbox employees have unionized, adding another union to CWA's organizing push
Protocol
By Anna Kramer
June 15, 2021
Workers at Mapbox, a startup that provides custom maps to Facebook, Instacart, Snap, Lonely Planet and other companies, have announced their intention to form a union with the Communication Workers of America. The union is asking for voluntary recognition from Mapbox management. The Mapbox union will be part of the CODE-CWA, the group at CWA leading a focused effort to unionize tech industry workers. The Alphabet Workers Union and the Glitch union, the first tech union to formally negotiate a contract with tech management, are both members of CODE-CWA.
IN THE STATES
Striking Alabama Coal Miners Are Getting Attacked With Pickup Trucks: Report
Jalopnik
By Erin Marquis
June 14, 2021
The United Mine Workers Of America released video last week of two of the three attacks on its picketing members by people driving large trucks. The union says these assaults were carried out “...by persons working for Warrior Met Coal, Inc.” Around 1,100 coal miners have been on strike since the beginning of April, seeking better pay and working conditions, according to the Guardian. Miners accepted a staggering $6-an-hour pay cut, agreed to a strict attendance policy and a steep reduction in benefits five years ago when the last owner of the No 7 mine in Brookwood, Walter Energy, filed for bankruptcy. Strikers say they now can’t afford basic necessities like food and housing. The miners told the Guardian they are simply seeking payment and benefits similar to other local unionized mines. While the strikers have received a great deal of support from the labor community, their struggle has not received much attention in the press.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Key Union Agrees to Health and Safety Rules for Broadway Tours
The New York Times
By Michael Paulson
June 14, 2021
Broadway producers and the labor union representing stage actors have reached an agreement on health protocols for touring shows that should allow hundreds of performers to return to work at theaters around the country beginning this summer. The 17-page agreement says that producers must require all members of the traveling company to be fully vaccinated and mandates free weekly virus tests. Also: “absolutely no interaction” will be permitted between performers and audience members. The union, the Actors’ Equity Association, announced the touring agreement with the Broadway League in an email to its 51,000 members Monday evening.
AMAZON
The Amazon That Customers Don’t See
The New York Times
By Jodi Kantor, Karen Weise and Grace Ashford
June 15, 2021
That success, speed and agility were possible because Amazon and its founder, Jeff Bezos, had pioneered new ways of mass-managing people through technology, relying on a maze of systems that minimized human contact to grow unconstrained. But the company was faltering in ways outsiders could not see, according to a New York Times examination of JFK8 over the last year. In contrast to its precise, sophisticated processing of packages, Amazon’s model for managing people — heavily reliant on metrics, apps and chatbots — was uneven and strained even before the coronavirus arrived, with employees often having to act as their own caseworkers, interviews and records show.