Posts Tagged: Labor

Best Labor Day tablet deals: Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab

If you’re looking to grab a tablet, whether it’s a budget-oriented Lenovo or a high-end iPad Pro, this Labor Day sale is the perfect time to do it.
Digital Trends

Best Labor Day iPad deals: Save on iPad Air, iPad Mini, and iPad Pro

These are the iPad deals that are making us look twice this Labor Day weekend. Grab one while you can.
Digital Trends

Labor Day sales: 32 best early deals you can shop right now

If you’re looking to take advantage of the best Labor Day deals, these ones are the best you’ll find as we ramp up to Labor Day.
Digital Trends

House lawmakers ask for investigation into Apple store labor practices

Apple is facing additional scrutiny over its alleged crackdown against pro-union retail workers. House Representatives Emanuel Cleaver and Sylvia Garcia have sent a letter to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) asking for an investigation into alleged labor abuses at Houston and Kansas City, Missouri stores. The politicians are concerned about claims Apple fired five Kansas City staff in retaliation for unionization efforts, and disciplined multiple Houston employees for attempting to organize.

In March, the Communications Works of America union (CWA) filed charges with the NLRB over the purported retaliation. The CWA believes Apple used thin pretexts to fire and intimidate employees, such as slightly late arrivals and even typos in timesheets. Some of the workers were reportedly forced to sign a release of claims against the company if they wanted a severance package. These practices are illegal, Cleaver and Garcia say.

The House members also pointed to the NLRB's January finding that Apple was violating labor rights with rules barring leaks and discussions of employment conditions. The representatives are worried about a "recurring pattern," according to the letter. In December, the board said Apple also broke the law by holding anti-union meetings in Atlanta.

We've asked Apple for comment. The company has previously argued that it can better care for retail staff without unions. At the same time, it has addressed concerns by raising pay, improving benefits and easing its scheduling rules.

The letter doesn't obligate the NLRB to respond, and there's no certainty that an investigation will lead to official action. Even so, it's notable that Apple's stance on retail labor has drawn Congress' attention. It won't be surprising if there's more interest from the federal government, whether or not the NLRB responds to the letter.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/house-lawmakers-ask-for-investigation-into-apple-store-labor-practices-195248699.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Court rules Elon Musk broke federal labor law with 2018 tweet

Elon Musk broke US labor law in 2018 when he tweeted Tesla factory workers would forgo stock options if they chose to unionize, according to a federal appeals court. On Friday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a decision spotted by Business Insider, upheld a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling that found Musk made unlawful threats around employee compensation.

In May 2018, a Twitter user asked Musk about his stance on unions. “Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted,” he tweeted in response. “But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2X better than when plant was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare.”

The tweet immediately drew the attention of labor activists, and in 2021, the NLRB, responding to a complaint from the United Auto Workers union, found Musk had threatened employees. Tesla has argued the tweet was Musk’s way of pointing out that workers at other automakers don’t receive stock options. NLRB chair Wilma Liebman saw it differently. "The employee is going to hear it as, 'If I vote to unionize, stock options will no longer be an option,'" she told Bloomberg in 2018.

After reviewing the decision, the Fifth Circuit Court sided with the NLRB. "Because stock options are part of Tesla's employees' compensation, and nothing in the tweet suggested that Tesla would be forced to end stock options or that the UAW would be the cause of giving up stock options, substantial evidence supports the NLRB's conclusion that the tweet is as an implied threat to end stock options as retaliation for unionization," the panel wrote.

The court ordered Musk to delete the tweet. As of the writing of this article, the message is still live. The Fifth Circuit Court also upheld an order from the NLRB that Tesla reinstates Richard Ortiz, a worker the automaker fired for organizing employees at its Fremont factory in California.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/court-rules-elon-musk-broke-federal-labor-law-with-2018-tweet-195420903.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Google workers in Japan have joined a labor union in response to planned layoffs

Dozens of Google Japan employees have organized under the Tokyo Managers’ Union. It’s the first labor union at Google Japan, according to Meiji University Assistant Professor Ken Yamazaki, who also posted a copy of the group’s statements from a press conference. Apparently, the employees chose to organize out of fear that they could be abruptly laid off, especially since some of them are in Japan on work visas. 

Their concerns stemmed from the tech giant’s announcement back in January that it’s cutting 12,000 jobs — that’s six percent of the company’s overall workforce — around the world. They said their counterparts in the US were terminated with just an email sent in the middle of the night, and that the Japanese office’s employees were left anxiously awaiting for the ax to fall over the past few weeks. The workers said they joined a labor union in response to that announcement and to news about the fate of the company’s employees in other countries. 

For a dismissal to be legal in Japan, a company has to prove that it has reasonable grounds to terminate an employee. However, some companies terminate employees without good reason by claiming to have problems with the worker. The group is hoping that joining a union would protect them from sudden termination. In the US, one of the divisions most affected by the job cuts was the company’s Area 120 in-house incubator, which works on experimental apps and products. The division used to develop 20 projects simultaneously, but that’s now down to three after most people in the team lost their jobs.

When Google announced it was going to let 12,000 workers go, Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said he was “deeply sorry” and that he takes “full responsibility for the decisions that led [the company] here.” He admitted that the tech giant went on a hiring spree over the last few years, but that Google “hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today.” According to the company’s latest earnings report, its revenue for the fourth quarter of 2022 grew one percent from the year before, but its quarterly net income was down 34 percent year-over-year. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-workers-in-japan-joined-labor-union-064417794.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Best Labor Day Sales 2022: The best early deals to shop today

It’s Labor Day, and we all know what that means: Labor Day sales, your last chance to take home laptops, smartphones, TVs on the cheap.
Digital Trends

[Deal] Satechi’s Labor Day sale kicks off Friday with 15% discount sitewide

Labor Day weekend is almost upon us and you know what that means; another chance to pick up goodies from your favorite brands at discounted prices. Kicking off its sitewide deal from Friday is accessories and peripherals maker, Satechi, with a 15% reduction on everything in its inventory. Satechi has everything from wireless chargers, hubs, […]

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First ‘Harry Potter: Wizards Unite’ festival occurs Labor Day weekend

Niantic promised real-world events for Harry Potter: Wizards Unite in the same vein as Pokémon Go Fests when it announced the game's official launch. Now the company has revealed that it has already scheduled the new game's first fan event for…
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MoviePass rolling out changes to service, plans IMAX, 3D movie access by Labor Day

Over the last week MoviePass started rolling out an unwelcome change to its service – surge pricing for popular titles at popular times. Called Peak Pricing, MoviePass will tack on an extra $ 2 – $ 6 surcharge for moviegoers who insist on seeing the titles during these especially popular times. The move is part of an […]

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Google facing claim of ‘extreme’ gender pay differences from Department of Labor

Earlier this week Google shared via some social media networks a claim that it had closed their own gender pay gap globally and eliminated a racial pay gap in the U.S. Despite that claim, the company finds itself in hot water and facing some bad press thanks to a claim made in a U.S. court […]

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