Writing for the Atlantic, Sarah Lacy describes that Women in Tech Are Rising Higher in China Than in the U.S. Lacy notes the disparity between the percent of U.S. tech companies that, when asked how many women have C-level jobs at their company, answered “one or more” (53%), and the percentage of Chinese tech companies that answered “one or more” (almost 80%).
Also at the Atlantic, Lolade Fadulu discusses American skepticism of automation displacing certain interactive jobs. Fadulu cites recent Pew Research Center reports in which almost 60% of respondents said they would not use a driverless car or use a robot caregiver out of concern for ceding control of those things to technology. Ironically, some evidence indicates that humans are worse drivers and caregivers than their automated counterparts (e.g. Fadulu notes that 37,000 of 2016’s fatal crashes were attributed to poor decision making by drivers).
Last week, a British court upheld a ruling that Uber must give drivers benefits. Uber, which lost its license to operate in London in September (see our coverage here), lost its appeal of a 2016 decision deeming Uber drivers “workers,” rather than “contractors.” This designation gives drivers more rights than they would receive as “contractors,” though not as many as they would receive if classified as “employees.”
Tesla, another Silicon Valley titan, has been accused by employees of a California production plant of racial discrimination. A class-action suit filed Monday described the plant as a “hotbed for racist behavior.” This suit is at least the third this year alleging employment discrimination in Tesla workplaces.
Daily News & Commentary
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September 16
In today’s news and commentary, the NLRB sues New York, a flight attendant sues United, and the Third Circuit considers the employment status of Uber drivers The NLRB sued New York to block a new law that would grant the state authority over private-sector labor disputes. As reported on recently by Finlay, the law, which […]
September 15
Unemployment claims rise; a federal court hands victory to government employees union; and employers fire workers over social media posts.
September 14
Workers at Boeing reject the company’s third contract proposal; NLRB Acting General Counsel William Cohen plans to sue New York over the state’s trigger bill; Air Canada flight attendants reject a tentative contract.
September 12
Zohran Mamdani calls on FIFA to end dynamic pricing for the World Cup; the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement opens a probe into Scale AI’s labor practices; and union members organize immigration defense trainings.
September 11
California rideshare deal advances; Boeing reaches tentative agreement with union; FTC scrutinizes healthcare noncompetes.
September 10
A federal judge denies a motion by the Trump Administration to dismiss a lawsuit led by the American Federation of Government Employees against President Trump for his mass layoffs of federal workers; the Supreme Court grants a stay on a federal district court order that originally barred ICE agents from questioning and detaining individuals based on their presence at a particular location, the type of work they do, their race or ethnicity, and their accent while speaking English or Spanish; and a hospital seeks to limit OSHA's ability to cite employers for failing to halt workplace violence without a specific regulation in place.