Thread by @doctorow

You've heard about the #GreatResignation, the legions of American workers who have reached a breaking point with their abusive, underpaid jobs and jumped ship. 1/

It's a remarkable, spontaneous, uncoordinated uprising that sees Alice quitting her job and Bob quitting his, and then Alice getting Bob's old job at a better wage, and Bob getting Alice's old job at a better wage, too. 2/

After 40 years of wage stagnation, workers are finally starting to claim back some of the share of the profits that had been diverted from people who do things to people who own things.

But as great as the Great Resignation is, it could be greater. 3/

Many workers who would like to switch jobs can't, because they are bound by "non-compete agreements" that ban them from working for rival companies. Noncompete agreements are a way to make sure that bad companies can retain good workers. 4/

Wherever we find noncompetes, we find sluggish economies dominated by incompetent and malicious firms. California's tech sector only exists today because the state constitution bans noncompetes. 5/

Without that ban, the industry would have died in its cradle, strangled by the founder of the first microchip company, a brooding paranoiac who devoted his life to eugenics.

onezero.medium.com/a-the-traitoro… 6/

It's ironic, because people think of noncompetes as being necessary to creating a thriving innovation sector, and the most innovative sector of the past 40 years is legally enjoined from using them. 7/

The reality of noncompetes is that they are mostly used in low-waged sectors, primarily fast food, to prevent cashiers and cooks from moving between franchises. 8/

Writing in @Newsweek, @OpenMarkets Institute legal director @sandeepvaheesan explains how noncompetes have chained these workers to dead-end jobs and deprived them of the bargaining power revolution of the Great Resignation.

newsweek.com/hot-labor-mark… 9/

One angle Vaheesan delves into is Amazon's use of noncompetes for its low-waged warehouse workers, including seasonal temps. These workers have to promise not to take a competing job for 18 months after their employment: 10/

"Engag[ing] in or support[ing] the development, manufacture, marketing, or sale of any product or service that competes or is intended to compete with any product or service sold, offered, or otherwise provided by Amazon... 11/

"(or intended to be sold, offered, or otherwise provided by Amazon in the future) that Employee worked on or supported" for 18 months after leaving Amazon."

Think about that for a second. 12/

What product or service does not compete with something Amazon is currently doing or might do in the future? 13/

Amazon is essentially saying that if you work for the company for six weeks over Christmas, it reserves the right to block you from working for anyone else for the next year and a half. 14/

Many states prohibit noncompetes and more are coming on board, but companies are doing end-runs around these bans. For example, many companies actually *charge you to quit your job* (it's called #LiquidatedDamages):

bloomberg.com/news/articles/… 15/

Others bill you for "training repayment" - they subject you to sham trainings with artificially inflated price-tags, then insist that you repay these costs when you quit.

protectborrowers.org/the-nations-to… 16/

And even where noncompetes aren't enforceable, employees often don't know it. Employers intimidate these employees into staying in dead-end jobs and not fighting for higher wages and better conditions. 17/

Last July, the Biden admin dropped a sweeping, powerful executive order on antitrust that takes aim at noncompetes in all their guises. In December, the FTC published a "statement of regulatory priorities" promising to take action:

reginfo.gov/public/jsp/eAg… 18/

The Great Resignation is pretty great indeed, but it could be a *lot* greater. 19/

ETA - If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2022/02/02/its…