Folks,
Greetings from the Burgh, where KRS-One is in town to play a free show. (There is also someone named Taylor Swift in town).
340,000 Teamsters Vote to Strike at UPS with 97% Approval
Earlier today, 340,000 Teamsters announced that their membership voted by a 97% margin to go on strike. Their strike would begin on July 31st.
“This vote shows that hundreds of thousands of Teamsters are united and determined to get the best contract in our history at UPS. If this multibillion-dollar corporation fails to deliver on the contract that our hardworking members deserve, UPS will be striking itself,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien. “The strongest leverage our members have is their labor and they are prepared to withhold it to ensure UPS acts accordingly.”
For more, check out the Washington Post.
Donate to Help Us Cover the Summer of Strikes
We are seeing a big uptick in strikes this summer, and Payday hopes to be able to travel to cover it.
Please, donate to help us cover the “Summer of Strikes”. If, you can, sign up as one of our 751 recurring donors today.
Amazon Delivery Drivers Strike in California
In California, Amazon Delivery Drivers, members of the Teamsters are on strike over unsafe working conditions.
“The back of an Amazon van feels like an oven in the summer,” said Cecilia Porter, an Amazon Teamster driver in a statement. “I’ve felt dizzy and dehydrated, but if I take a break, I’ll get a call asking why I’m behind on deliveries. We are protecting ourselves and saying our safety comes first.”
Reddit CEO Fight Back Against Strike by Moderators
Finally, the CEO of Reddit is fighting back against the leaders of a strike that made much of the site inaccessible this week. From NBC News:
Huffman, also a Reddit co-founder, said he plans to pursue changes to Reddit’s moderator removal policy to allow ordinary users to vote moderators out more easily if their decisions aren’t popular. He said the new system would be more democratic and allow a wider set of people to hold moderators accountable.
Reddit’s current policy says moderators may be removed by higher-ranking moderators or by Reddit itself for inactivity or violations of Reddit-wide rules. They may also remove themselves. Many have held their positions for years.
“If you’re a politician or a business owner, you are accountable to your constituents. So a politician needs to be elected, and a business owner can be fired by its shareholders,” he said.
“And I think, on Reddit, the analogy is closer to the landed gentry: The people who get there first get to stay there and pass it down to their descendants, and that is not democratic.”
Moderators have argued that the high level of control over their communities is well-deserved because of the hours of free labor they’ve put into making and enforcing rules on their subreddits. Any plan to reduce their influence might result in another backlash.
Alright yinz, that’s all for today. Donate to help us cover the “Summer of Strikes”. Please, if you can, sign up as one of our 751 recurring donors today.
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See yinz next week,
Melk
