Whole Foods tracks employee organizing, Netanyahu’s challenger makes deal, and Germany’s coronavirus response.
let’s GO!
Good morning! We’ve got some wild stories for you today so let’s get to it.
Amazon owns Whole Foods and Whole Foods is tracking unionization efforts: in their continued slew of anti-organizing, the Amazon-owned Whole Foods is using a heat map tool to track their employees’ risk of organizing. If that sounds dystopian and awful, welcome to 2020, baby!
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has brokered a deal amid coronavirus: with challenger Benny Gantz, forming a unity government that will keep Netanyahu in office while he faces corruption charges.
What being out of work due to coronavirus looks like in America and Germany: and it’s no surprise that there’s a world of difference. A glance at the two countries offers us an insight into more or less social democracy and how it translates to a crisis like the pandemic.
ICYMI, the U.S. is monitoring intelligence that suggests Kim Jong Un is in “grave danger” after a surgery. There isn’t much info spreading about this but we figured it was worth mentioning at the top.
Thanks for stickin’ with us and we’ve got a few stories you might be interested in.
AMAZON
Amazon-Owned Whole Foods is Literally Tracking Employees With a Heat Map to Prevent Unionizing
Amazon has earned itself a nasty reputation of busting workplace organization as of late. We covered the four firings that have occurred between their warehouses and offices (some of them are now organizing a virtual walkout this Friday), but new evidence suggests that they’re using pretty tough measures in their Whole Foods facilities.
They’re Literally Using an Interactive Heat Map
Tracking active or even just potential unionization isn’t uncommon among larger companies, including Amazon-owned Whole Foods. What is truly disturbing is the tool being utilized by Whole Foods.
An interactive heat map, powered by a scoring system, ranks every Whole Foods location by how likely they are to form or join a union. These scores use metrics including racial diversity and “tipline” calls to human resources.
Hayley Peterson broke the story on Business Insider with the corroboration of five people with knowledge of the project as well as internal documents actually viewed by Business Insider.
The heat map is utilized to funnel resources to the “highest need” stores,” in an effort to mitigate problems before they reach the point of unionization.
Of course—Whole Foods justifies this with “an ‘overwhelming majority’ of its employees prefer a ‘direct relationship’ with the company over union representation,” according to a statement sent to Business Insider.
High-Tech Union Busting
Employers often twist words when it comes to unionizing, much like Whole Foods and Amazon does, into insisting they’re okay with unionizing while simultaneously doing all they can to prevent it.
What Whole Foods is doing isn’t new in principle. However, it does represent an all-new flavor of union busting, where technology and automation help influence that process.
Why the knee-jerk reaction to unionization? Unions give employees bargaining power. In turn, they fight for better wages or benefits.
The anti-union justification: outside of it costing more, it’s that it can harm a company and cause outsourcing or layoffs of employees. There’s also the bogus “not in the worker’s best interest” reasoning.
Bottom line: we think unions are generally a good thing. This is a continued effort by Amazon to weaken the leverage that their employees have and it represents a serious threat to what is beneficial to workers.
ISRAEL
Netanyahu Will Continue as Israel’s Leader, Thanks to Deal Made
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He’s the head of Israel’s far-right government and has been the longest-serving leader in the history of the nation, since 2009. For over a year, a challenger sought to end that: Benny Gantz. Gantz vowed to fight Netanyahu’s reign “in the streets, in the town squares, in the neighborhoods, in the schools, in the media and the courts.” Now, in the wake of coronavirus and while Netanyahu faces corruption charges, Gantz has made a deal with Netanyahu for a united Israeli government.
Uninterrupted Politics
As Netanyahu continued to face trial on corruption charges, it seemed that the tide of Israeli politics was shifting. That came to a screaming halt now that his most prominent challenger for more than a year, Benny Gantz, has announced a deal.
Benny Gantz is a former army chief who is, even still, relatively new to politics. He was also the leader of a centrist coalition, Blue and White, that seemed more focused on disarming the kinds of systems that allowed Netanyahu to get so powerful in the first place than it was in promoting any kind of coherent vision.
Still, many saw Gantz as the best possible shot at taking away Netanyahu’s power, especially in the wake of Netanyahu’s pending corruption trial. Gantz had even vowed to never serve with a prime minister under criminal indictment during his campaign.
The deal: an emergency government to fight the coronavirus, with Gantz serving as deputy prime minister. Halfway through that three-year term, in October of 2021 Gantz is meant to get a turn as prime minister. Many of his supporters are disappointed with the decision and some Israeli analysts are skeptical that Netanyahu will hand over power or that the deal will last.
Lessons Learned?
Finding analogs in politics to make direct comparisons is difficult but sometimes an effective way of analyzing strategies or ideology. Here, we can’t help but think about the obvious similarities between Gantz and the Blue & White movement with “#NeverTrumper” Americans.
#NeverTrumpers ended up capitulating to the president’s wishes in a lot of cases just like Gantz has.
Writing for Jacobin, Douglas Gerrard writes, “In emphasizing differences of character rather than ideology, Gantz has an unmistakable analog.”
There is doubt that a centrist movement was able to, or will ever be able to, stop the will of Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel.
Bottom line: it’s difficult to say how many Americans, and to what degree, feel similarly about Donald Trump. Still, it highlights the need to criticize more than just one candidate’s character if you’re going to cause serious long-term political change.
CORONAVIRUS
Unemployment Due to Coronavirus: Germany Compared to The U.S.
Unemployment. If you’ve ever been stuck in an unemployment rut, you know just how scary it can be. Compounded with all the anxieties surrounding coronavirus and it’s no surprise that the huge amount of unemployed folks around the world are going through troubles. That said, it may be helpful to look at how other countries are handling unemployment, what that may actually look like, and if there are any lessons to be learned. In this case, let’s take a look at both Germany and the U.S.
The Picture
Let’s take a look at two approaches towards mass unemployment due to coronavirus, as laid out by this Vice article penned by Clio Chang.
The U.S. & the CARES Act: the relief program intended to address the 22 million layoffs from the past month. It includes $1,200 stimulus checks for most Americans and an extra $500 for each dependent 16 and under., $600 in additional unemployment benefits, and created a Paycheck Protection Programed, rewarding loans to businesses that can be forgiven provided the company uses 75% of that money to pay their workers. While some of these benefits seem great on the surface, if one does get laid, they actually need to be able to access unemployment benefits. With much of the unemployment bureaucracy overloaded with requests, it’s hard to say how many people are going to be unable to afford their bills in a week or month’s time.
Germany and the Kurzarbeit policy: which allows businesses to apply for short-term work subsidies instead of having to lay off employees. The government coughs up 60% of employee salaries and in return, the company keeps the workers on their payroll—and keeps them employed. This makes the pay smoother, as it goes through various companies’ existing payroll systems, and makes the transition back to normal much more fluid as well, as everyone still has their jobs intact.
Neither system is perfect. The flaws with what the CARES Act offers are near and dear to our heart, though there’s no denying that Kurzarbeit favors full-time employees and certain (high-paying) sectors. The program also doesn’t cover self-employment—hence the city of Berlin sending out 5,000-euro checks to those who qualified.
The Message
Bottom line: Part of the benefit of having such a strong social democracy, awash with comprehensive welfare benefits and safety nets, means that you can brace the impact of national emergencies like Germany has been able to do thus far. These systems aren’t particularly radical either—countries like the U.K. and Denmark began similar programs during the Great Recession.
END OF THE LINE...
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The Bread Line
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