Labor Organizers Look To Apps To Reach Wider Audiences

Out of the 7 million domestic employees worldwide, 1 in every 7 are employed in Brazil.” A mobile app, Laudeline, is making it easier for them to be informed of their rights. Through the app domestic workers in Brazil can access salary and benefits calculators, rights explanations, and they can even locate the nearest union. “What they often lack is familiarity with the law,” she said. “A friend of mine has said to me for years, ‘You have to open the window to see the world.’ This app is a way to open that window.”

The night shift janitor is an easy target. Working in isolation, cleaners across the country say they have been harassed, assaulted and raped by supervisors and co-workers while tidying office buildings, shopping malls and universities, as our investigation exposed.

Workers at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island voted to unionize after two years of organizing by the independent Amazon Labor Union. The union was started by a worker who was fired from the warehouse after protesting unsafe conditions during the COVID-19, and a current employee. The union raised funds through GoFundMe to carry out innovative organizing tactics, like making TikTok videos and bringing free food from diverse cultural backgrounds to feed workers coming and going from their around the clock shifts.

Meatpacking workers protested Covid-19 safety concerns and a coalition of advocacy groups filed a civil rights complaint with the government accusing Tyson and JBS USA of racial discrimination during the pandemic because the safety issues disproportionately impact line workers, who are largely people of color. Nevada’s Culinary Union also sued Las Vegas Strip casinos for unsafe working conditions. Two casinos have been dropped from the suit after deciding to negotiate privately with the union and Tyson has since instituted some safety measures, but broader impacts of the complaints remain to be seen.

Gender Equality Funds is a tool that makes it possible for people to know if the mutual fund companies in their 401(k)’s are gender inclusive. The tools pulls data from 4,000 mutual funds companies and gives them a gender score. The aim is to empower people to invest their money in socially responsible funds. “I believe this is going to be a tsunami of capital shifting away from companies that are not responsive on gender equality.”

Workers who seek to unionize in a bid for fairer working conditions are up against strong anti-union sentiments from powerful companies adept at preventing labor from mobilizing. That's where technology has been able to help. Walmart workers were able to successfully organize and stay informed about their rights through an app called WorkIt. Some apps have failed to gain traction, but others have resulted in limited reforms such as the Coworker app which is a tool to create petitions. Starbucks was forced to provide needle disposal bins after employees mobilized.

France, Italy, Germany, and now the U.S. are passing “anti-stress” laws, which make it illegal or harder for workers to receive emails after work. Research shows that when employees expect to be contacted after work through email, their levels of anxiety and stress go up. "I think this will lessen a lot of the anxiety that goes with having a job in the city and allow people to draw their own lines about when work ends."

After a coalition of activists launched a campaign that included phone banking, door to door canvassing, and social media advertising to get the city to pass a universal paid leave policy, they won. Austin passed one of the most progressive paid leave policies, ultimately benefiting more than 200,000 workers.

After watching a documentary film about women janitors getting assaulted during the night shift, janitors began to organize around a campaign called “Ya Basta — “Enough is Enough.” They began to protest for legislation that would protect them. A bill that would require supervisors to undergo sexual harassment training was sent to the floor, and janitors participated in a five day hunger strike calling for the governor to sign it. "Not just one or two, but thousands are behind me, speaking up. Maybe our world as immigrant women will change.”

With millennials unable to find regular work, people of color and women tired of discrimination during the hiring process, the number of people turning to freelancing has been growing. Networks like Enspiral and Upwork, are facilitating this shift by assisting in the search for employers, creating partnerships with other freelancers, creating unions that fight for living wages and work to fix other sundry issues that freelancers face.