#Malaysia has become a hotspot for global #electronics & #semiconductor investment, with country's electrical & electronics export seeing a sharp increase of 54.2%. However, the surge of electronics & semiconductor investment in Malaysia is sharply contrasted with low #unionization; only 6% of all #Malaysian#workers are #unionized, the majority in the public sector.
Workers at the Creative Growth Art Center, a non-profit in Oakland, California that supports artists with disabilities, are forming a union. The Art Newspaper reports that the move was motivated by concerns over hiring practices, wages and benefits, an over-reliance on volunteer labor, and poor treatment of staff with disabilities. Story may be paywalled.
I realized something today. I think HR departments exist to pretend to offer the same protections to employees as a union would. That is, HR's job is to give the impression you don't need a union while of course not providing the actual protections of one.
How NOT to write a headline about hardworking people whose jobs — their work environments — is to blame for the unsafe conditions in airport control towers.
This is the best part of this story: “Andrews said the employees were looking for help communicating with new management, who workers said is consistently ignoring any concerns they bring forward.”
When people know why unions exist (to help speak for employees!) they seek them out!
I was waiting for this video by @adamconover after the successful WGA strike and he gives us a history lesson (that all workers already ought to know by now) that labor unions a century ago was what gave us all of our labor protections and benefits such as the 40-hour week and overtime pay. #Unionization should again make a big comeback.
The EU Pay Transparency Directive came into effect in June 2023, and the member states have three years to incorporate it into domestic law.
Key points:
Pay ranges must always be disclosed in job ads.
Companies cannot ask about previous or current pay.
Companies cannot prohibit employees from disclosing their pay details.
Employees can request information about their pay level, and average pay levels broken down by gender and category of workers doing the same or equal work.
The Pay Transparency Directive is an imperfect step in the right direction.
Proper labor laws combined with #unionization are powerful tools against rising inequality in our world.
A thread with some facts about mental health and well-being at work.
In 2022, Deloitte surveyed 2100 employees, managers, and C-Suite executives in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia as part of their Well-Being at Work Survey.
Some takeaways:
one-third of employees struggle with mental health and well-being
while executives are not exempt from mental health issues, they underestimate how much their employees are struggling
Heard a senior academic recently say, in regards to not being able to afford talent for intern positions, that "Grad students these days have different standards. When I was in grad school, I had roommates and ate ramen". To be crystal clear: renting a room in a house with 5 roommates in Boston costs $1,000/month, not including utilities. $15/hr before taxes means 70+ hours of work just to pay rent.
This obviously is not relegated to grad students. Data show that across the country, the number of hours worked in order to afford median #rent has skyrocketed. It's no wonder that #unionization is on the rise. We're in an acute #CostofLiving crisis, and having a boat does not preclude you from also having compassion.
Oh and did I mention that paid vacation [24 days/year], paid sick leave [up to 6 weeks/year] and paid parental leave as well as afforcable healthcare are non-negotiable minimums per law?
All these return to office mandates are a short term stealth management technique to force people to quit, thereby avoiding severance and other intermediate term costs. Management is ignoring the likelihood that these bad decisions will incentive workers to #unionize in the intermediate to longer term. Combined with fear of losing jobs to #AI, I see #unionization growing in the next decade. #futurism#strategy
reflecting on how the #unionization efforts at twitter were, apparently, to hear it from people who were involved, massively stymied by a contingent of people who wanted to uphold liberal civility and prevent people who have previously been "abrasive" from joining the effort #union#unions#twitter
BREAKING: Starbucks to shut down all Ithaca locations as a part of its union busting efforts.
This means that over 30 people will lose their jobs, as a result of Starbucks' illegal anti-union efforts.
Ithaca was the first city that had 100% of its Starbucks stores unionized & now it will the first city to have all of its Starbucks stores shuttered.
The story hasn't broken locally yet (SB did a news dump last night); message me if you want to cover this