Cory Doctorow Profile picture
Feb 2 20 tweets 5 min read
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/  Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wi
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…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @doctorow

Feb 4
The covid vaccine picture is awfully confusing. The current vaccines are doing a great job of preventing serious illness (at least, for people who are boosted), but they're not nearly so effective at preventing infection and transmission. 1/ A closeup looking up a gapi...
What's more, the new variants are more contagious and less likely to cause severe infection, but they also appear to confer less immunity against re-infection:

bloomberg.com/news/articles/… 2/
At the same time, #VaccineApartheid continues to reign supreme: the WTO's vaccine waiver initiative stalled in the face of opposition from Big Pharma and the Gates Foundation, and the world's poorest people are forced to serve as reservoirs and incubators for new variants. 3/
Read 22 tweets
Feb 3
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Money is power; When crypto-exchanges go broke, you'll lose it all; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2022/02/03/liq…

#Pluralistic 1/ Image: Rob and Stephanie Le...
Money is power: A political economy parable (with a side of environmental racism).

2/   Image: Rob and Stephanie ...
When crypto-exchanges go broke, you'll lose it all: The fatal flaw in the "neither fish nor fowl" gambit (there is such a thing as society).

3/ Image
Read 16 tweets
Feb 3
If you've spent much time around cryptocurrency people, you've probably heard a rant or two about "sound money" and the need to "depoliticize money." 1/ A black and white photo of ...
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/2022/02/03/liq… 2/
This is a foundation of blockchainism: the belief that money is born separate from states, and states invade on the private realm when they "meddle" in the money system. 3/
Read 41 tweets
Feb 3
"Political economy" may sound like an obscure technical matter, but it's a really very simple (and incredibly important) idea: That the economy is inevitably political, and there is no way to depoliticize economic theory. 1/ A vintage 'Greetings from F...
That is, every aspect of economics - taxation, antitrust, contract and labor law, etc - is fundamentally political. There is no objective perch on which an economist can stand and decide which tradeoffs are empirically best. 2/
What's more, any claim to about such a neutral test of economics is itself political: when economists assert that "Pareto optimal" is the same as "fair," they're saying that the people who lose in a Pareto optimal arrangement *should* lose. 3/
Read 36 tweets
Feb 2
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: To fight inflation, fight monopolies; How noncompetes shackle workers to dead-end jobs; Agricultural right to repair law is a no-brainer; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2022/02/02/its…

#Pluralistic 1/ Image: Cryteria (modified) ...
To fight inflation, fight monopolies: Cartels raise prices using supply chain and "generous" benefits as cover for price-gouging.

2/ Image
How noncompetes shackle workers to dead-end jobs: "You can't work for anyone who competes with Amazon for the next 18 months."

3/ Image
Read 21 tweets
Feb 2
John Deere was once an American icon, beloved by workers for good wages and job security, and by farmers, who co-innovated new agricultural techniques and technologies. Today, it's a case-study in the horrors of finance capitalism. 1/ A vintage John Deere tracto...
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… 2/
Today, the company is rotten to the core. Despite skyrocketing profits, the company has continued to grind down its workers, sparking a strike by all 10,000 of its workers. 3/
Read 19 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

:(