The Fox: Issue 3 – A-L-U – War by Facebook – Daniel and the Lion’s Den – Weird Flex

Hello and welcome to the third edition of The Fox – a newsletter for all tech workers, and their allies, fighting for fair pay and decent work. 

A-L-U 

Only one place to start. Watch this again. Like the people said: thank you Jeff Bezos for going to space – because back down here people created a union.

Yes, the Empire Will Strike Back. Yes, Amazon are now apparently banning words like “union”, “plantation” and “this is dumb” (lol) from their worker chat app.

But the win for the workers of the JF48 Amazon warehouse on Staten Island is a glorious moment for the tech worker justice movement. Let’s savour it.  

War by Facebook 

Here at The Fox, we try to take a light-hearted tone, as the world’s quite bleak enough already. But there’s no gags to be made about Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Facebook content mods have been on the digital frontline, facing an onslaught of lies, horrific violence and confusing and contradictory policy updates from California. 

Reuters has reported on the nightmare situation mods are facing moderating the war on Facebook. Send your solidarity to these mods – and lift up their stories as much as you can.  

Daniel and the Lion’s Den 

Brighter news elsewhere: put your paws in the air for whistleblower and former mod Daniel Motaung, whose case against Facebook and outsourcing company Sama has taken off in Kenya.

FB has 21 days to respond or the case will go to court. A good time for “nearly the entire legal team” of FB to quit then. Not enough ‘Zuck Bucks’ to continue defending the indefensible?  

Daniel has written a piece telling his story in his own words, please take a moment to check it out. 

Weird Flex  

Last up – ICYMI, driving apps have a new minion lurking in the US’s halls of power. Flex, the new lobbyist crony of Uber, Lyft et al, has launched a glossy TV campaign in the US aimed at making the life of an app driver look independent and freeing from a traditional working life.

But as an app driver told the Guardian: real flexibility in working life looks like providing paid family leave, medical leave and parental leave.

Flex is the next step in the PR war against gig workers getting the rights and protections they should be entitled to. It’s good to know your enemy foxes – keep an eye out. 

Until next time – That’s All Fox. 

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