At a
recent labor law conference, I squirmed in my seat as I listened to the keynote
speaker, Ardine Williams. She’s Vice President, Workforce Development, HQ2 at
Amazon. Wow, did I hear her right? She said it’s time to repeal the old wage
and hour laws of the 1930s. They don’t fit our economy.
She was
referring mostly to the federal minimum wage law. The same law prohibits child
labor. It also requires overtime at time-and-a-half after 40 hours per week.
That law was passed to incentivize employers to give workers a five day work
week.
This
argument was pressed in behalf of a man who is worth more than $100 billion.
***
Most of
us know Alexa (for the lucky few who don’t, it is Amazon’s household spy, a
small cone that overhears your conversations, and micro-targets ads to your
social media platforms…. I also believe [sort of] she speaks to agents in
Russia and China).
Who is
Athena? It’s a grass roots social and political group that is confronting
Amazon’s dominance in online retail, ... and
fresh groceries, ... and devices that connect your home to the internet, ... and front-door
and neighborhood surveillance, ... and professional services like plumbing and
contracting, ... and health care, ... and government procurement, ... and internet
infrastructure, and Hollywood entertainment, ... and, well, anything that can be managed with algorithms.
On the
labor front Athena is backing proposals for $15 an hour as a minimum wage for
all workers, including gig workers. An affiliated group— Economic Roundtable—
reports that about half of Amazon warehouse workers in Southern California live
in substandard housing. And for every $1 in wages, they receive 24 cents in
public assistance. In other words, taxpayers are subsidizing Jeff Bezos’s payroll. (I now
recall my unresolved angst in sitting through lunch while listening to Amazon’s
HQ2 VP wax eloquent about doing better by workers by cutting their safety nets).
In other
areas, Athena seeks local laws that give locally-owned companies competitive
advantages over monoliths.
Personally,
I want to unplug Alexa. My wife won’t go for it. She wins. But I’ll bet we
agree on Athena. J
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