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Instacart Employees in One Chicago Store Have Just Voted To Join a Union (engadget.com) 47

Posted by EditorDavid from the labor-day dept.
"Gig economy workers may have won an important, if conditional, battle in their push for better conditions," reports Engadget: Instacart employees in the Chicago suburb of Skokie have voted to unionize through their local branch of United Food and Commercial Workers, giving them more collective bargaining power than they had before.

The move only covers 15 staffers who operate at the Mariano's grocery store, but it's the first time Instacart employees have unionized in the U.S. and could affect issues like turnover rates, work pacing and mysterious employee rating algorithms. In a statement, Instacart said it "will honor" the unionization vote pending certification of the results, and that it intended to negotiate in "good faith" on a collective bargaining agreement. The company added that it "respect[s] our employees' rights to explore unionization."
Motherboard reports that prior to the vote Instacart had "enlisted high-level managers to visit the Mariano's grocery store where the unionizing workers pick and pack groceries for delivery. The managers distributed anti-union literature warning employees that a union would drain paychecks and 'exercise a great deal of control' over workers."

They also cite stats from the "Collective Actions in Tech" database showing there were 100 organizing actions in just the last year by workers at Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft -- and note that this month will also see the results of a vote by Kickstarter employees on whether to unionize.
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Instacart Employees in One Chicago Store Have Just Voted To Join a Union More

Instacart Employees in One Chicago Store Have Just Voted To Join a Union

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  • Not National News (Score:4)

    by Aighearach ( 97333 ) on Monday February 03, 2020 @12:52AM (#59683482)

    Not news, not for nerds. I hate to be "that buy," but this is what it has come to.

    15 people at a grocery store? What? There are real unionization efforts in the world that are newsworthy if you think it is a good topic for the site, but this is weak sauce.

    • Unions are coming for tech workers. Whether you think it's a good thing or a bad thing, it's a trend that will affect us.

      • Re:Not National News (Score:5, Insightful)

        by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Monday February 03, 2020 @05:23AM (#59683840)

        Unions are coming for tech workers. Whether you think it's a good thing or a bad thing, it's a trend that will affect us.

        Instead of a Slashdot story every time a small shop unionizes, it would be more interesting to have some stories a year or two after unionizing, with some information about how it turned out.

        Did they keep their jobs? Did their wages go up? Is their company thriving? Are they satisfied with the union? In hindsight, do they feel that they made the right choice?

        • Instead of a Slashdot story every time a small shop unionizes, it would be more interesting to have some stories a year or two after unionizing, with some information about how it turned out.

          Is there any reason the two types of stories are mutually exclusive?

          • Is there any reason the two types of stories are mutually exclusive?

            In theory, no. In practice, yes. Slashdot readers have only so much patience for repetitive stories.

            Yet another story about 15 people unionizing in a Chicago grocery store is pointless. It seems that someone with a pro-union agenda is posting these stories to show a wave of unionization in tech. But 15 people in the Midwest really isn't a "wave", and grocery store shelf-pickers are not really "tech".

            So if we are going to have stories about unionization in tech, Slashdot should pick stories that contain

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
        Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • They've been trying for decades, but most people in the computer industry are perfectly capable of seeing that letting one more corrupt organization skim our paychecks to buy hookers and blow for mobsters and politicians isn't going to improve our lives in any way at all.

          If I don't like a job, I quit and get a better one. I don't need some fucking goon to get in the way of my negotiations.

          -jcr

          I hate to burst your bubble, but you're not special or smarter than the working class. You have this power because there is a shortage of people qualified to do what you do. You are an anomaly in time and this will not be the case forever. If you're treated well at your job, like I am, it's not because your employer wants to, but because they feel they have to keep other tech companies from poaching us. It is simple supply and demand. Once the supply increases, you'll find your situation resembling oth

          • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

            by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
            Comment removed based on user account deletion

            • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

              by mobby_6kl ( 668092 )

              I made no such claim, but wow! You sure did a number on that strawman, sparky!

              Yes you did:

              They've been trying for decades, but most people in the computer industry are perfectly capable of seeing that letting one more corrupt organization skim our paychecks to buy hookers and blow for mobsters and politicians isn't going to improve our lives in any way at all.

              You're saying that IT people, yourself included, presumably, are smart enough to see the truth. Implying that it's in contrast to the idiots in manufacturing, retail and other sectors who are easily conned into joining unions against their interests.

              I guess it's possible that you didn't realize this is what you were saying, but that's on you.

              PS. don't sign your posts we can see the name already

              • Disagree. A lot of IT workers just learned from union history, which locked other sectors into the model. That's what I think he's saying.
              • The idiots in manufacturing, retail and other sectors were easily conned into voting for Trump against their interests. So let's not be so fast to defend them. They're not our friends, they're our enemies. Why do you think we have so many immigrants to compete with them for their jobs? It's not because we listen carefully to their interests, that's for sure.
              • Comment removed based on user account deletion

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by ranton ( 36917 )

            I hate to burst your bubble, but you're not special or smarter than the working class. You have this power because there is a shortage of people qualified to do what you do. [...] I am extremely well paid and have a good job, but support unions. I know that my job is not the result of my excellence [...] that is only paying well because there are not enough people with my skill level to fill demand and there hasn't been for 30 years.

            There is quite a lot of cognitive dissonance going on in your post. You feel you are not exceptional, or apparently even above average, but you acknowledge you have a level of skill which fills a gap left unfilled by society for at least 30 years so far. Do you think people just don't like better paying jobs? You don't have to be a genius to be a talented STEM worker, but an IQ of 110 or so is almost a prerequisite. That isn't a high bar, and is no different than other highly skilled professions you mention

          • There is no shortage of tech workers; that is a lie. I know amazing people with amazing tech skills and decades of constant learning experience in the trenches that cant find work in tech hubs because the tech recruiters and staffing companies want to promote this insane idea of a lack of people at all costs. and so they import as many as they can in to the area despite the fact there are already people here in Seattle that could easily fill all that demand. I myself was the victim of a car crash a few m
            • I live near Boston and get e-mails once a week from companies asking me to relocate to Seattle. I've never lived/worked in Seattle, but I can tell you there is a huge shortage in Boston. We interview lots of candidates we shouldn't...those who can't do the job, who come to interviews stinking of body odor so bad it lingers 20 minutes after they leave the room, who can't speak English...and I don't mean thick accent...I mean they can't say or understand sentences in English....to the point at which they ca

          • Obviously employment is a supply and demand market. Duh. I'm unclear how you think unions will alter that calculus. If employers suddenly find, in 10 years, they need half as many developers then unions won't change that fact.

            As for your questions as to why tech people tend to dislike unions it's because they fly in the face of meritocracy (I both know and enjoy how that word needles certain types). We all think we're better than our peers and don't want to be dragged down by the commons. Of course, most of

      • Instacart shoppers are tech workers?

    • Re:Not National News (Score:4, Informative)

      by flyingfsck ( 986395 ) on Monday February 03, 2020 @04:09AM (#59683732)
      The pendulum swings. Low wage earners in the USA are horribly exploited at the moment. The difference between top manager salaries and low level flunkies is so large that some companies only need to fire one manager to be able to double the wages at the low levels. I do not normally support the idea of unions, but at the moment, it is probably the only way to improve the lot of the wage slaves, since top management in general just don't care.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by DNS-and-BIND ( 461968 )

        But wait a minute...we hate unions, remember? They voted for Trump! And low-wage workers too...those are the deplorable morons who were so stupid that they couldn't understand clear instructions from the media to vote for Hillary.

        If we cared about unions or low-wage workers, we wouldn't have allowed illegal immigrants and H1Bs. But we want as many of those as possible to punish the unions and low-wage workers for voting Trump. So, fuck 'em, right?

        • Well sort of. We imported a bunch of h1b and illegals but forgot that actions have consequences and market forces are real and real humans respond to change in their environment. Thus, blue collar wages dropped, traditional union jobs like construction went to illegals, and union members voted for change. Trump 16 happened. Since 16 we have done nothing for them but fight every attempt to tighten the borders. Trump 20 will happen. These are not hard things to figure out. Cause. Effect. It's real.

      • Unions are great, I support unions. It doesn't make 15 people news, or a grocery store a tech company.

    • So changes in it definitely belong on /..

      You won't see this or any other Union news covered nationally outside of the occasional auto worker strike because establishment media is anti Union. They're owned by billionaires after all.

      • You understand that 'big media' is largely already full of union workers, right? TV and Cable shops are Union, as are national and local newspapers of any significance, but yeah, they are all virulently anti-Union.

        I don't recall trump getting a single major Union endorsement, don't recall seeing trump on stage with Trumka, Weingarten, or other national union leaders in 2016.

        You confuse the individual choices of union MEMBERS to Union endorsements by LEADERSHIP.

        Chris Christie led the way when he ran for Gov

        • Yeah, teamsters and the like build the sets and run the cameras, and a few of the writers are in guilds, but the folks at the top are very much non-Union. The writers, the programmers (not computer programmer, folks who decide what to cover), etc are non-Union and very much anti-Union.

          The guy who nails the set together and the gal who does the infographics don't get to decide how Bernie Sanders is covered. Go look up Cenk Uiguer's experience with MSNBC. They offered him a swank Sunday gig if he played b
          • he won after decades of private Unions being crushed and Public Unions being hammered with bad press. He didn't need the Unions because he had the 1% backing him with huge sacks of corporate cash.

            Don't you ever get tired of being sold out by your political leaders? I know I do.
  • How can these workers put their own interests ahead of a technological revolution? We're trying to change the world!
  • "Employers, treat employees properly. OR ELSE."

    The queue of expired politicians alone will take a while, though.

  • 15 employees in one Chicago store (Score:4, Funny)

    by guruevi ( 827432 ) on Monday February 03, 2020 @01:19AM (#59683542)

    ... just got fired. I hope they get their 15c per hour increase which the union will then happily take back through increased mandatory membership fees.

  • Pfft. (Score:3)

    by Chas ( 5144 ) on Monday February 03, 2020 @01:34AM (#59683572) Homepage Journal

    Mariano's (Roundy's/Kroger) locations are already overpriced.
    Partly due to their out of state (they're based in Wisconsin) support apparatus and partially because they're positioned as one of these foofy "premium supermarket" type places.
    All this is gonna do is make them MORE overpriced.

  • Lay them off and replace them with Chinese labour.

  • So What? (Score:2)

    by kenh ( 9056 )

    The move only covers 15 staffers who operate at the Mariano's grocery store, but it's the first time Instacart employees have unionized in the U.S. and could affect issues like turnover rates, work pacing and mysterious employee rating algorithms.

    First off, are these truly Gig Economy Workers? Are they paid per hour or per delivery?

    Second, why should Instacart care if the employees want to share their wages with a Union? The company (Instacart) has no obligation to remain in business if costs exceed revenue.

    Motherboard reports that prior to the vote Instacart had "enlisted high-level managers to visit the Mariano's grocery store where the unionizing workers pick and pack groceries for delivery. The managers distributed anti-union literature warning employees that a union would drain paychecks and 'exercise a great deal of control' over workers."

    So what? That's called making the counter-argument. The employer already said they'd honor the union once the vote is verified, why try and cast the employer as doing something nefarious?

  • ...that store manager or regional manager is googling the price of the deposit/return cart machines right this morning?

    You're instacart "employees". You're utterly replaceable. If there was anyone that wanted to work, they could take your job in a heartbeat...so I guess now is as good a time to make hay as ever (when unemployment is tiny and illegals are finally being dissuaded from coming to the US).

    But let's not be shocked when you're replaced by a vending machine, shall we?

  • ... get sued. One store dropped off their network is not a big deal. It would send the message instacart needs to send and caution others to not make the same choice. But then the people in that store can sue en mass for illegal labor discrimination. So basically this is it for instacart and others like them that abuse temporary/gig economy workers; Its the beginning of the end.

  • Automatization... (Score:3)

    by skaralic ( 676433 ) on Monday February 03, 2020 @02:29PM (#59685882)
    Automatization just got closer.

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