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The San Francisco Chronicle reports
A San Francisco technology company laid off a group of software engineers as they were trying to join a labor union, according to a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board.
The Communications Workers of America [CWA] claims Lanetix, which makes cloud-based software for transportation and logistics companies, violated federal labor laws by cutting 14 software engineers in January in San Francisco and Arlington, Va.
Most of the engineers were fired [January 26], about 10 days after they filed a petition seeking union representation, according to the complaint filed by the CWA's Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild. A hearing to determine a date to hold the union vote was scheduled for [February 1].
[...] While unions have made inroads in representing Silicon Valley bus drivers, security officers, food service workers, and custodians, the Lanetix case could break new ground because union activity is still unusual for software engineers, who are generally highly paid and in short supply, labor lawyers said.
[...] there are [reasons other than gripes about pay, whereby] unions can attract higher-paid tech workers, including "if you feel mistreated by the company or if you feel there's favoritism going on or lack of job security", said labor law attorney Steve Hirschfeld, founding partner of Hirschfeld Kraemer of San Francisco.
"There's a myth that if you're a highly paid employee, you either can't join a union or wouldn't be interested", Hirschfeld said.
The Lanetix case is "significant because it is a tech company and they're well-paid engineers", he said. "That's still a rarity today for that group of employees to be organized. (But) the feeling among many tech workers is that they're viewed as being expendable."
[...] The Lanetix engineers signed union cards to join the CWA's Washington-Baltimore News Guild. (The Pacific Media Workers Guild, which represents some San Francisco Chronicle employees, is also affiliated with the CWA.) According to the complaint filed with the board, the union said Lanetix began "threatening and coercing employees" for engaging in union activities starting in November. The complaint said one engineer was fired for participating in group discussions on Slack, an internal messaging service.
The union filed a petition with the board on Jan. 16 to represent the workers. The company terminated "all engineers and senior engineers in retaliation for demanding recognition", the complaint said.
The engineers were called into a meeting and told of layoffs due to the company's lackluster fourth quarter performance, CWA organizer Melinda Fiedler told Bloomberg Law.
"By the time they left that meeting, their computers were gone", Fiedler said.
Cet Parks, executive director of the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, said the workers were told the company was moving engineering offices to Europe.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @03:13AM (3 children)
All of this is available and actually used in the USA today...
Exterior walls: concrete block or poured concrete, covered in stucco
Interior walls: metal studs, plus drywall or cementboard
Insulation: fiberglass
Roof: Metal
Floor: concrete slab with ceramic tile
Pipes: copper and cast iron
Wires: copper, in galvanized conduit
Doors: glass and steel
Doorframes: steel
Cabinets: stainless steel
Counters: quartzite, granite, or marble
For the furnishings and more...
Bed: waterbed with wool blankets
Clothing: wool
Table: glass top on steel legs
Window treatment: steel miniblinds
Kids toys: erector set, aquarium, steel/aluminum framed bicycle or unicycle, steel slinky, glass marbles
Garden: ice plant, jade plant, aloe vera
Food: canned, glass bottles, unwrapped fruit/vegetable
Hair: removed (don't forget to shave pets)
That should keep you safe. You won't need fire alarms at all. There is enough safety margin to add a propane turkey fryer.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday March 13 2018, @03:28AM (2 children)
Bushfire in Australia: understanding ‘hell on Earth’ [csiro.au]
For comparison purposes: most of the steel melt at and below 1450C [wikipedia.org].
In spite of that, I'm not going to relocate in US.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13 2018, @06:30AM (1 child)
All 3 plants I listed feature thick and juicy leaves. They are a bit like cactus, but without the sharp parts.
The bush fire stops when it hits your garden. Make your garden as large as required. If you have neighbors, enlist them in your garden project. Other options include concrete, pools, and ponds.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday March 13 2018, @06:45AM
Australia - gotta love it, be it only for the sheer number of way it tries to kill you.
Among them - flash flooding [google.com.au]; can happen in the same areas as bush fires** - you imagine what a flood will do to your succulents garden or concrete or ponds.
** well, sometime it doesn't; but if there's noone to live through a bushfire or a flash flood, does it really happen?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford