NLRB Win for Workers 🏆 U.S. Congress Hearing on Starbucks & Union Busting (Big L for Howard Schultz 🤡) & “Who Wants To Be A Trans Ally”

Workplace Weekly is back in session! Kicking off, reflect briefly on a recent controversy in Denmark's labor landscape. We discuss the accusations against a prominent union boss who is facing allegations of inappropriate conduct and the potential (lack of) ramifications for the union and the broader labor movement in Denmark, exploring the challenges of maintaining integrity and trust within organisational leadership. Fanny and Kate dive into the NLRB's recent decision that upholds employees' rights to discuss their former employers regardless of receiving severance. We got our H&H Legal Eagle to Mansplain the decision too, in case you want to know more. We explore the potential impact of this decision on the future of employee rights and workplace transparency. Next on the agenda, the hosts turn their attention to a highly anticipated moment: Howard Schultz facing Congress to answer questions about Starbucks and its alleged union-busting tactics. We play yet another round of "Who Wants To Be...," pitting companies against an AI to determine who can demonstrate allyship most effectively.

Transcript

Speaker 0 (00:00:00) - You are listening to Workplace Weekly, covering workplaces and labor activism, and trying to have a remotely decent time doing it. Call us Craig. David calls. We are born to do it. Let's do this thing.

Speaker 1 (00:00:14) - I like it.

Speaker 3 (00:00:23) - Hello and welcome back to another cracking episode of Your Favorite Workplace Podcast, workplace Weekly. We're back for episode six. I'm here with Fannie Mundell. Hi Fannie. Hi Kate.

Speaker 1 (00:00:35) - Hello.

Speaker 3 (00:00:36) - So we had a little break. We've been working on a lot of good, good, uh, for everyone out there, but it's good to be back. Uh, not much has been happening on our end, you know, whether we gonna grab out, but what I will say is Fannie and I just discovered that we're both absolute fucking fi for Sim City build it. Yeah. Imagine two years we've known each other, spoken to each other almost every other day.

Speaker 1 (00:00:58) - Eight years I've played this game and you're the the first first person who's admitted to me.

Speaker 3 (00:01:03) - Yeah. And it was meant to be my hobby from therapy that I like anymore. It's not, it's become a fucking job, but I love it.

Speaker 1 (00:01:10) - Now I'm gonna hijack it as well.

Speaker 3 (00:01:11) - Yeah. She's already started to try and expand my city and back off. Yeah. Uh, but all is well. Fanny all is well with you. All

Speaker 1 (00:01:20) - Is great. We love you. The weather's getting better. Yeah. So I have no complaints.

Speaker 3 (00:01:24) - Exactly. But you do have a complaint and, uh,

Speaker 1 (00:01:27) - . I

Speaker 3 (00:01:28) - Do. You do straight up have a complaint. And that is something, a bee that's gotten under your bonnet that we're gonna kick this episode off with something very topical that's happened quite recently that we're putting onto all of our other recorded content. Take it away, Fanny.

Speaker 1 (00:01:40) - Yeah. Very recently, very locally for me. Mm-hmm. Um, as you know, Kate. Yeah. I live in, uh, Copenhagen. Yeah. In Denmark. Um, Denmark I guess is, uh, a little late to the game when it comes to the workplace issue surrounding me too. I've seen it in action over the last three or four years. That's when we really, I think Danes can collectively agree that Me Too came to Denmark. Yeah. Um, and I've watched pretty much every single case get handled horribly,

Speaker 3 (00:02:13) - Terribly, terribly. Always, always. No one's doing. Yeah. Yeah. It's not good.

Speaker 1 (00:02:17) - A lot of victim blaming a ton of sexism. Um, just all the things, all

Speaker 3 (00:02:24) - The classics. Yeah. All the

Speaker 1 (00:02:25) - Classes are just purging all the horrible, horrible, uh, like thought processes and rhetoric and everything like that.

Speaker 3 (00:02:31) - It feels like they didn't have the Beyonce feminist watershed moment in the same way that America did. So, like, it's hitting later, but it's also a lot of, I guess, things that maybe people abroad might find outdated when it comes to dealing with me too. Allegations Yes. And reactions. Right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:02:47) - I mean, let's start with the fact that, and that's not just Denmark. I think a lot of people have a, a misconstrued idea of what Me Too is and Yes, me too. For one, it, uh, started, it was started by a black woman. It's been adopted by rich privileged white women mostly. Yes. Um, but Me Too is about the workplace. Yeah. It's not about domestic violence. Yeah. It's, uh, not about your private romantic relationships. It's actually essentially about sexual harassments and, and anything in that nature occurring in the workplace. Yeah. Yeah. So that being, now that I've established that, cuz it drives me crazy mm-hmm. , um, what's going on now I find fascinating. Um, and very Danish . So a couple weeks ago we have a woman named Risco Lizette Ris Guard. I don't know what will make it easier for you to say, um, but Lizette is or was a very prominent figure within, uh, the Danish workforce. She was the president for the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions. Very big deal.

Speaker 3 (00:03:48) - Very big deal.

Speaker 1 (00:03:49) - So a couple of weeks ago it came out that she has had inappropriate conduct, which is included unwanted touching of the people who work for her. Right.

Speaker 3 (00:04:00) - Male female.

Speaker 1 (00:04:01) - Uh, my understanding, it's mostly male, but I believe that there is also a woman who's complained about it. Right. Um, and also in is a little bit different. Like you don't hear necessarily from the accusers that often. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so that being said, she, she quite quickly apologized. She took a leave of absence, very necessary. Had to wait. She, this is a woman in her in about her sixties, um, and who has worked from the bottom to the top, you would've found it really clutch. She dealt with a lot of sexism coming up, and when she then got elected president for the trade union, she got, she cut all, she trimmed the fat, basically.

Speaker 3 (00:04:38) - Yeah. Yeah. That's what happens. They get to the top of the ivory, ivory tower and they're sort of like, I'm gonna close the door. Same thing happened with Gabrielle Hamilton in the US there's a few people, a few women who were a little bit older and of, of that generation that come to mind when you point this out. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:04:55) - Yeah. As I said, she took her leave. She did a very public apology. That was also quite shocking to me because I guess from the other me Too cases in Denmark, I haven't seen a, a man, um, yet as, as direct questions. And also I've not seen a man answer them as directly. So, yes. Uh, she's point blank, been asked if she has touched, um, someone on their bottom mm-hmm. and very much avoided that question, but constantly reiterated that it wasn't for her to say if her behavior was inappropriate, it was for the people accusing her of that to decide that that was something that crossed a boundary. Yes.

Speaker 3 (00:05:35) - Which is like, when do you start, you know, we're not giving out cookies here, but like, it's a lot better to kind of give the floor or the space to the person that did experience it. I have,

Speaker 1 (00:05:45) - It's, I'm not saying it's the perfect answer. Right. What I can appreciate is there's no minimizing going on. And I do appreciate that in that moment she's aware that she doesn't get to sit there and say that Yeah. Her actions were interpreted.

Speaker 3 (00:05:59) - Yeah. There's, that's, that's I guess like, you know, we're not commending anything by any means, but what we're saying is that, that that response at least does allow that space that we otherwise Yeah. Weren't getting

Speaker 1 (00:06:10) - So quite Yeah. Very interesting. Very quickly, this has become a media frenzy.

Speaker 3 (00:06:15) - It's sensational.

Speaker 1 (00:06:16) - It's incredibly sensational. A woman who is in the middle of a Me Too storm. It's so sensational. And so you have the public commentary that I've been seeing, which is really upsetting. Like no one's winning in this at all. Yeah. So you basically have people saying in the same breath, watch her get exonerated because she's a woman. But at the same time they'll be like, plus all the people who are complaining about her are just like these whiny little men. I strongly disagree with this, obviously ly

Speaker 3 (00:06:40) - . Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:06:41) - Um, that really is frustrating. And to me it's kind of like the essence of Denmark to me. Mm-hmm. , um, as an international dane, the public discourse is really concerning. Um, no one really has a point to really be made other than the fact that they hate me too. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:06:58) - , what I

Speaker 1 (00:07:00) - Find fascinating is the timeline involved. This, if this has only been going on for about two weeks, she took her leave. She's been in the media frenzy. They were awaiting for the investigation. Right. But she got iced out and kicked out by the union last week

Speaker 3 (00:07:16) - Before the investigation, before

Speaker 1 (00:07:17) - Anything concluded, concluded, concluded. Yeah. Concluded.

Speaker 3 (00:07:21) - Oof. What to unpack here. I you just let me know when I'm ready to go,

Speaker 1 (00:07:24) - Because I think you should go. I mean, I'm ready to go. I think you should hit me.

Speaker 3 (00:07:29) - Number one. Everything that you've raised is very poignant because we also can refer to the men who have been in a similar position to this woman. And let's just break down a couple of the double standards. Number one, none of those men showed up and copped to an interview. We saw it firsthand. These men that are in these positions, whether it's the chefs, the beer bros, whoever, they won't sit down and cop to it in the same way. If they're sitting down, it's a very like, PR savvy kind of like, oh, we're not gonna answer that. And they kind of have these like, pre-programmed responses or they're just doubling down and denying it. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. So it's either I'm gonna show up and deny it all, um, and like word salad around you, or I'm not coming at all because why would I dignify anyone with a response.

Speaker 3 (00:08:18) - Yeah. Now the the other double standard that I think is in there is that we've seen a number of cases in Denmark over the last two years where the allegation exactly was inappropriate touching, for example mm-hmm. . Yeah. Men and women were the ones who were reporting this conduct. No one I saw ever got fired for that, let alone before an investigation occurred. Right. Yeah. Like, it's always what happened to innocent until proven guilty. Like isn't that the catch cry of like the, you know, male feminists Totally, yeah. Innocent until proven guilty. Yeah. I do think that like, we're not saying that this woman deserved to be treated differently or anything like that. What we're saying is there needs to be consistency Exactly. For all people that are accused.

Speaker 1 (00:09:09) - I think the point of this is to highlight how fast this went for her. Yeah. Right. Within two weeks she's out of there. Yeah. and they didn't even respect the legal process of it all. No.

Speaker 3 (00:09:21) - Um, which is interesting because if she genuinely did do all of this, if the interview was a big front and she really is just like this, like horrible, you know, sex monster in the workplace kind of vibes mm-hmm. a sex pest, then the investigation should be concluded so that every single person can have their say about what actually happened. And that there can be some due diligence around terminating this person. Right. Now we don't know the details of how they parted ways Exactly. But clearly there's, you know, uh, an underlying factor there. But what happens if, and this happens a lot in investigations with inexperienced people, especially when investigations are performed by HR or an internal body, right? Mm-hmm. , what happens if they fire this person before the results of their alleg of the investigation come forward and there's things wrong. Yeah. Like that is still an illegitimate firing, which can block the victims, the people that experience this from getting the exact justice that they deserve. Yeah. Or if you're a company, it's just so stupid because you've just spent easily, you know, 50 k in legal fees for that mistake. Well,

Speaker 1 (00:10:30) - Again, let's just emphasize that this is the confederation of trade unions that didn't wait for the proper processes to be completed.

Speaker 3 (00:10:40) - Now, next, if anyone ever wonders why certain things struggled to get over the line in Denmark, Wyatt was such a struggle, if anyone, and we got so many questions about people like, well, why didn't they report it to this and this, and every fucking person reported to these trade unions mm-hmm. and nothing was done. The system is broken. Yeah. That's the thing. And like you are a hundred percent right to point out the absolute juxtaposition of like probably the person who deserves the, the most Right. To fair recourse, either you think, uh, you know, being on the victim side or the accused side and it goes down like this. Yeah. So I don't thi I, in a way it's sort of definitely doesn't allow that gas light of Denmark's PR machine to sort of be like, everything's fair here. Everything's good. You knew this rule. It's not, it's not a fair game over there. What

Speaker 1 (00:11:29) - I also find interesting is, you know, we, when we talk about these issues yeah. We talk about boundaries and sexual harassment and, and all those things, but, um, power, you know, power Absolutely. Perhaps something that almost never gets acknowledged when we're talking about men in the middle of me too cases in the workplace. But this, you know, from my understanding of it, and let me be clear again, I don't think her behavior was appropriate at all. Mm-hmm. . Um, and I know it's hard to compare things, but, you know, her inappropriately touching wasn't a physical threat per se to mm-hmm. to some of the people in the office, but it was a power play. Yes.

Speaker 3 (00:12:11) - Yeah. Yes. That's the thing. And you're so right, like power doesn't, it's not allowed in the other conversation, even though the power dynamic is usually the driving factor of the incident in occurring anyway. Yeah. And that's the thing, she's the big boss. Right. Just like if we just go to this utopian world where, I'm not talking about her, but anyone in this position, she is hit someone on the ass in, um, uh, in the office kitchen or something like that and No, and that person has been like, what the fuck? Yeah. But that person is like, that's the big boss. I ain't saying anything. It's just playful or whatever. Mm-hmm. , avalanche, snowball avalanche. The power dynamic is driving it because if you know you are, I did that to each other, who'd be like, dude, like not on in the workplace, . Like, so I think, you know, that power dynamic driving things needs to be brought into the conversation again consistently mm-hmm. to the, the men where there is a physical threat often with this sort of stuff. Yeah. And it's not, again, not doubt in playing, but it is just sort of saying, well, if we don't have standards in how we uphold standards, what are we doing out here? Exactly.

Speaker 1 (00:13:18) - ,

Speaker 3 (00:13:18) - It's a, it's a, it's a wild west. And I think that that's why Denmark, in terms of its work culture, cuz the world is a workplace. So everything that unfolds in a workplace is unfolding in the world. So sexual harassment going unaddressed happens in a bar in Denmark. All the fucking time.

Speaker 1 (00:13:34) - All the fucking time. I mean, you know, the work culture in Denmark and I act, I don't know, maybe you would know from some of the other places you live. Mm-hmm. But the work culture there, I haven't even been able to participate it in it, thankfully. Yeah. Danish companies have their Christmas party traditions. I know other countries do too, but that one really freaks me out. I

Speaker 3 (00:13:51) - Mean, they take some big liberties.

Speaker 1 (00:13:54) - Uh, so infidelity is a common occurrence at these parties. Yeah. Um, like very, very common occurrence. It's someone where you turn a blind eye. I've personally never experienced it. My future husband has been about to go to one where his coworkers pretty much said that they didn't care that we were together. . Okay. They were gonna go for it. Okay. Um, so it's those sort of dynamics that are just Yeah. Constantly in play over there. The lines are really blurred between the fun and the professional.

Speaker 3 (00:14:25) - It's kind of like, but we, but we are progressive. Like we've done the work, we don't need to have conversations about our culture. Yeah. Because like, we've done the work and it's sort of like when the work experience is this bad for the amount of people that it is for, and like when you look at actually step back and look at the scandals of Danish work culture, like, I wish we could do it per capita because it's kind of like, it's pretty fucked up.

Speaker 1 (00:14:46) - It's really bad.

Speaker 3 (00:14:47) - It's really bad. And I think it comes from this place of like, well we don't need to talk about it. Like, men should be men and this should happen like this and that should happen. Like, we're not racist. There's no black people even here. Yeah. . Yeah. That kind of stuff really holds the Danish culture back from progressing. They're very defensive. We saw that. It's immediate defensive,

Speaker 1 (00:15:05) - Very defensive, very quite nationalistic. I actually do at this point, liken Lama Americans. There's,

Speaker 3 (00:15:10) - It's the United States of

Speaker 1 (00:15:11) - Europe. Yeah. There's this mentality of like, we're the best here. The best, the best, the best. Yeah. Let me remind you that they still don't have equal pandemic . Um,

Speaker 3 (00:15:19) - That's why I think this case will be very interesting to follow along with because it is going to say a lot about where Danish culture is at in 2023. Yeah. And where the workplace standards are at in 2023. You've had year after year from 20 20, 20, 21, 20 22. Massive, huge workplace abuse stories, right? Yeah. So where are we at with that? You know, curious

Speaker 1 (00:15:46) - To find out.

Speaker 3 (00:15:47) - Curious to find out. So we'll leave it there for our intro. I hope you enjoyed just a little ruminating on what's happening in Denmark. Of course there'll be some links in the show notes for you. Now let's get on with episode six. It's jam packed. Big up. Big up. Woo woo.

Speaker 1 (00:16:12) - Welcome to Workplace Weekly episode six, big Workers' Rights Energy Brewing. On this episode, we are talking about a huge decision about what workers can and cannot say post severance. Another segment of your favorite workplace game show. Who wants to be? Who

Speaker 3 (00:16:28) - Wants to be?

Speaker 1 (00:16:30) - And we're going to reflect on mafia Daddy Howard Schultz feeling the burn in the kitchen of Congress. Accountability as well as getting like sideways by Republicans. Shit got weird. But now we need to stand with Starbucks workers. I I. So we're gonna talk about it.

Speaker 3 (00:16:45) - We are gonna talk about it. But before that, fa I have a pressing question. Hit

Speaker 1 (00:16:49) - Me.

Speaker 3 (00:16:50) - Are you at this time legally bound to say or not say anything in relation to work or workplaces? Yeah, yeah,

Speaker 1 (00:16:58) - Yeah. Yes I am. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:17:00) - , I am too. With a lot of clients. Yeah. Uh, with you, with other employees at hand in heart with cases, legal agreements and things around confidentiality are very much part and parcel with our day-to-day lives. Mm-hmm. . But what if, but what if there was a decision where those agreements, if you were fired, for example, under some bad circumstances, uh, were null void. And then you could just go on social media and kind of talk about what happened.

Speaker 1 (00:17:34) - That sounds like the dream. It

Speaker 3 (00:17:35) - Does sound like the dream. Do you think it would've made a difference in your work when you were dealing with this stuff? Yeah. It would've been huge. Right?

Speaker 1 (00:17:44) - I think it was. If it was a normalized thing, then everything we've done for the last two years would've looked marginally different.

Speaker 3 (00:17:50) - Yeah. When you say it like that , when you say it like that, yeah. That's hitting home. Yeah. So the reason why I ask is there was a huge decision recently. This is coming from the National Labor Relations Board in the United States. And this decision, this is from Vice on the 24th of March, 2023. Reporting non-disparagement clauses are retroactively voided. N L Arby's top cop clarifies. So the general counsel of the N L R B issued a memo basically clarifying one of the biggest open questions for the labor board, which was around non-disparagement clauses. Now we wanna inform you, we wanna tell you this because there are some huge implications and the reporting is good. It's great to see that people were popping off on Twitter. Uh, but we really need to break down this decision and it's gonna sound a little dry, but go with us cuz we asked Casper, who was our official legal consultant. Yes. That's all we can say , to put together a brief to us too. And I believe my directive was mansplaining this decision for us Please. So, via Casper, here we go with what this decision actually means for a worker like you,

Speaker 1 (00:19:06) - McLaren and McComb overruled. Baylor University Medical Center and I G T basically reinstating the existing precedent and expanding on it. So in a nutshell, under Baylor and I C T and Employers mere offer of a severance agreement with unlawful terms cannot be unlawful in the absence of other unlawful behavior or coercive circumstances that would infringe on section seven rights. Under Baylor coercive language was not considered to have a reasonable tendency to coerce employees unless it also offered in circumstances deemed coercive independent of the agreement itself. The Baylor and I C t decisions were arguably bad law, which reversed almost a century of settled law, abandoning the examination and analysis of the severance agreement at issues, and instead shifting focus to the circumstances under which the agreement was presented to employees.

Speaker 3 (00:19:57) - Exactly. And bear with us, it all comes together. McLaren returns to the approach followed pre Baylor holding that an employer violates Section eight A one interferes with retrains or coerces employees in the exercise of their Section seven rights. When offers a severance agreement with provisions that would restrict employees exercise of their rights. The focus is on the language of the severance agreement. The position is that we're in agreement unlawfully conditions, receipt of severance benefits on the forfeiture of statutory riots. The mere offer of the agreement itself violates the act because it has reasonable tendency to interfere with or restrain the prospective exercise of Section seven rights, both by separating the employee and those who remain employed. Whether the employee accepts the agreement is immaterial. So just quickly, let's just sum that up. If all these companies were putting in like, Hey, um, if we fire you, you can't talk shit about us. Mm. That was never legal. Mm. Is what we're saying here. Yeah. Following

Speaker 1 (00:20:59) - The board is concerned with protecting section seven rights and it is the high potential that coercive terms and severance agreements may kill the exercise of Section seven rights, which dictates the board's traditional approach of viewing severance agreements requiring the forfeiture of section seven rights, whether accepted or merely proffered as unlawful unless narrowly tailored.

Speaker 3 (00:21:20) - The agreement in question in McLaren and McComb broadly prohibited the signatories from making statements that could disparage or harm the image of the employer and further prohibited them from disclosing the terms of the agreement to any third party. The provisions were deemed to be too broad, which the board found to have a clear chilling tendency on the exercise of section seven rights by the subject employee. This is because a signatory would have been barred from filing an unfair labor practice charge, assisting in any N L R B investigation, aiding and assisting coworkers speaking to their union, any other government agency, the media, and virtually anyone else, all of which are employee protected conduct under Section seven.

Speaker 1 (00:22:01) - Basically what the ruling means is that severance or settlement agreements with such sweeping non-disparagement and confidentiality clauses are unlawful and therefore not enforceable. The ruling goes further saying that merely offering agreements with such clauses is unlawful in practice. What this means is that non-disparagement clauses and confidentiality clauses must be narrowly defined and must not interfere with Section seven rights to be lawful.

Speaker 3 (00:22:28) - This is the last note from Casper here. This ruling also has a retroactive effect. So there are a lot of businesses pooping their pants about this mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (00:22:36) - . And they should.

Speaker 3 (00:22:38) - And they should. They really should. And Fannie, do you have any initial thoughts on this? This decision, even though what's in the us

Speaker 1 (00:22:46) - Um, you know, confidentiality agreements is something that I actually have a really strong opinion about. Yeah. Um, cuz I understand their purpose, but I see them being abused Yes. Even in your average workplace. Yeah. Um, yeah. So to see something like this, I think that's great. I think it's really important that we talk about it because I think all of you should, uh, go check your former work contracts and Absolutely. See what you're allowed to do now. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:23:09) - Yes. And and that's the thing is what immediately happened when this news was announced was everyone on social media was just like, quote, tweeting the vice article where it was reported first and just completely going off. Yeah. My favorite was a former vice worker who tweeted about being sexually harassed, reporting it to their manager at Vice and Yeah. Basically getting fired. So then they they were able to talk about it. So it's, you know, really look at those work contracts and especially look at any contracts that you have today mm-hmm. , because if you are working in the US and that clause is in there illegal. Oh yeah. Illegal. Yeah. Shouldn't be happening. I'm very curious how this changes the dynamic moving forward because everyone knows I'm predicting a full all out war of culture and politics that will be decided in the workplace that is happening the way the transaction of work is, is the only place in our lives that we are economically engaged. Mm-hmm. with some kind of leverage. Yeah. So businesses need us to make money and that's why strikes and unions and actions like this are effective because what's the first thing people do? They stop working, they stop engaging in the transaction. It's the one economic position we can take as workers. The other thing that is very powerful is information. Mm-hmm. .

Speaker 1 (00:24:31) - Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:24:31) - The ability to share information. So this feels like a huge leverage for workers who have genuine grievance to have another outlet to go to the media. How many times, how many stories do we know untold because of a clause like this and not being able to go forward with the media?

Speaker 1 (00:24:51) - Countless,

Speaker 3 (00:24:52) - Countless, countless the shit we know the

Speaker 1 (00:24:55) - Shit we know. And can you imagine what our podcasts would've been like if we weren't restricted by that? I mean,

Speaker 3 (00:25:01) - That's the point. Yeah. That's exactly the point. This is a game changer. I couldn't be happier to see this happening. This is a topic we're gonna be going deeper and diving way more into as this goes on, but for now, I definitely think a little bit of a celebration. We get so few.

Speaker 1 (00:25:17) - Grab your contracts.

Speaker 3 (00:25:19) - Grab your contracts. Mm-hmm. . All right. That's it from us at the top of the show. Enjoy the rest of the show.

Speaker 3 (00:25:31) - We want to improve the conversations that people have about workplaces, but that can't be a one-sided conversation. Well, if we are white man, it fucking would be Anyway. If you want to engage with Workplace Weekly, perhaps you have a question for our Workplace Savage segment or you wanna share your fuck you UI quit story or your look at My Little Workplace Victory story. Do send us a DM on social media via instagram@handandheart.eu or Twitter via h underscore and underscore h media. Or send an email to admin hand in heart.eu. We also have an anonymous submissions page on our website, hand in Heart. Do EU slash workplace weekly where you can send a voice message or leave us a written submission, get involved with us and engage. You never know. We might be able to help. Okay. So we're ready to get into another topic, Fanny. Now, March 31 was the International Transgender Day of Visibility, which is an annual event dedicated to celebrating transgender people and raising awareness of the discrimination faced by transgender people worldwide as well as of course Absolutely. Celebrating their contributions to society. It was a day that was initially started by a trans activist, someone who wanted to have a more celebratory space for trans people. Obviously, you know, being, uh, a hardcore lesbian, um,

Speaker 1 (00:27:01) - Your own words,

Speaker 3 (00:27:02) - , you guys. I I trigger you every time. And I love it. Obviously, you know, my community for the last 15 years of my life has been, you know, I I definitely feel like, especially when I was first in the queer community, that I was very much taken in by trans folks. Especially because I think they, out of anyone can shine a light on what it's like to live a life with constant oppression and to navigate through that, but also to do it in very beautiful ways. Mm-hmm. , the trans community is and will always be incredibly important to me as a person when I see days like the transgender day of visibility, and I've seen it change so much over the years. I do worry a lot and I worry a lot because we, it's great that we have a day of visibility, but I feel like our eyes and ears need to be on trends, folks in our workplaces.

Speaker 3 (00:27:56) - Mm-hmm. every day. Yeah. Right now mm-hmm. . There is, and I hate the word unprecedented, but it's true. There is an unprecedented global wave of activism helmed by people like JK Rolling, for example, whatever her name is, that idiot. You know, you've got anti-trans people touring mm-hmm. with events specifically talking about this as being one of the greatest threats to normal society that is so fucking concerning. Yeah. The way that trans people are being treated in their workplaces. It is up to us to stand up and people, you know, they'll say about trans folks in the workplace and things like that. Oh, well how do I take a stand? How do I take a stand? You just do it. Yeah. So someone says something disparaging whether that person is around or not. You shut it down, you report it to whoever you could report it to. If you don't have HR at work, call a discrimination board. Yeah. Do not let that shit slide. That is what trans visibility is about. It's not about cherry picking people in the office Mm. To give a trophy to once a year. It's about standing up for them every single day. Yeah. And saying, you as a person, a yes. Visible to me. But the oppression you face is mm-hmm. and I'm not accepting it. Mm-hmm. got a little more passionate than I want to do there.

Speaker 1 (00:29:18) - I loved it though. You're fired up as you should be.

Speaker 3 (00:29:20) - Yeah. I am fired up. We kind of, we wanted to find a way to talk about this and to highlight some of the points and things that we might feel about trans statements and these sorts of days of visibility with our favorite game show.

Speaker 1 (00:29:35) - Ah, who wants to be, who,

Speaker 3 (00:29:47) - Who wants to be, who wants to be

Speaker 1 (00:29:50) - A trans ally?

Speaker 4 (00:29:51) - And this is my best friend, Valentina. She's an ally. Talk Valentina ally.

Speaker 3 (00:29:57) - You know, let's do it. So we, uh, we got Chris involved and longtime fans of the podcast. Chris is probably Chris. Yeah. We love Chris. We love Chris.

Speaker 1 (00:30:07) - Chris is

Speaker 3 (00:30:08) - The best. And actually we should say Chris has been instrumental in everything that we've ever done, ever, and has never asked for anything.

Speaker 1 (00:30:16) - Anything.

Speaker 3 (00:30:17) - Yeah. Ever from, you know what I mean? Like that that is a great person. And we should just say Chris will always be a part of everything we do because he just is Yeah. We love him.

Speaker 1 (00:30:27) - He's like our number one fan and we're his .

Speaker 3 (00:30:30) - Exactly. Yeah. And ahead of the game, knowing Chris detailed, nuanced always wants to be on the money with these things. He sent us some notes about this. So let's just quickly recap what is the game? We present statements and then we present statements written by ai. Hmm. We have to guess which one is AI and which one is the actual company or whatever. Yeah. And there's an assessment period. We like to assess, we like to know which one was better, who did a better job Yeah. Before knowing who it is. So we've roped Chris in to being the Game master because I wanted to experience the game on a very pure level.

Speaker 1 (00:31:05) - Yeah, no, totally. Go on blind. Like Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:31:08) - Yeah. It's just thrilling. And we both are like, neither of us know Fanny. I know.

Speaker 1 (00:31:12) - I I feel like we, yeah, there was a cheating curve with the one we did last time.

Speaker 3 (00:31:16) - . There definitely was. But this is Workplace Weekly. We constantly are iterating over things and getting it better and better. Yeah. So you wanna, you wanna give us some insights into Chris's, uh, notes there, Fanny?

Speaker 1 (00:31:27) - Yes, I do. I mean, so Chris did a great job, um, trying to pull from the internet and, uh, left us with a few of his thoughts. He was really disappointed over how few trans day visibility statements that there actually were from 2023 from really big companies. And maybe it's important to see the genuine statements in this context in 2023 as a big company. Even saying something hollow or possibly performative will make you stand out from the crowd at the same time. It's a really low bar. So it is worth asking why are we not seeing more from more big companies? Chris looked in various places, including company websites, Instagram and LinkedIn, but settled on Twitter in the end. It's possible that the downfall of Twitter has maybe affected the amount of content, but he didn't really find much else in any other place.

Speaker 3 (00:32:19) - Yes. And well, you did a great job of, uh, translating that in, uh, third person. I think I'm just gonna read what Chris wrote. .

Speaker 3 (00:32:27) - Um, and this is specifically about using AI and it's such a good point. And we, AI is something we're really going to get into as we move through the Workplace Weekly episode. So I love that Chris has included this as the notes before we can play the game. I use chat D B T to generate AI responses, but I would like to note that just as large companies behind seemingly positive statements can be built on discrimination bias and mistreatment of workers. So can language models. I'm not endorsing this tool only using it to show a computer model, which is arguably, at least in part, built on the exploitation of workers, the theft of others' work, and the reproduction of harmful biases, and which surely cannot care about transgender day visibility beyond saying that it does if you ask it to, and it's able to turn out statements which can pass for those published by large companies, gofi for consistency. Both genuine statements were found via corporate Twitter accounts and both fake statements were generated by chat G p t chat G P t three. He's detailed on the 3rd of April, 2023 and are unedited the prompts were, please write a corporate tweet about trans day visibility for the company. And here we go. Let's get into it. This is who wants to be

Speaker 1 (00:33:40) - A trans ally?

Speaker 3 (00:33:41) - Boom. Roll Armanda. All right. We've got Company A. Yes. This is Experian

Speaker 1 (00:33:53) - Statement one. Are we ready?

Speaker 3 (00:33:55) - I'm ready.

Speaker 1 (00:33:57) - Today. We proudly join in the celebration of Trans Day of Visibility, shining a light on the triumphs and struggles of the trans community at Experian. We believe that diversity and inclusion makes us stronger as a company and a society. Hashtag trans Day of visibility hashtag Experian Cares.

Speaker 3 (00:34:15) - All right. We've got statement two into the mix. At Experian, we strive to create a safe and inclusive environment for our trans employees, and we are proud to honor them today and every day.

Speaker 1 (00:34:27) - I already have, I think I ha I have this in the bag. Oh,

Speaker 3 (00:34:30) - You have this in the bag? I think I do, yeah. Okay. All right. Hit me.

Speaker 1 (00:34:33) - I think that statement two is the ai, I feel like the hashtags really kind of give it away, right? You know, as you're looking at me, I'm feeling really insecure with my kids. .

Speaker 3 (00:34:47) - I mean, I love that this is the most low stage game that's ever been invented. I

Speaker 1 (00:34:52) - Still get stressed.

Speaker 3 (00:34:54) - , I'm stressed. I'm excited. I think we need this shit in our lives. Yeah. Look, I'm, I'm with you there. And it does feel like there's just, it feels like you can tell the AI apart. Right? Do

Speaker 1 (00:35:04) - You agree with me? Do

Speaker 3 (00:35:05) - Agree with you. And that's the thing is it's like, you know, it's, I think it's a good thing that we can tell that if a human wrote it or not. Yeah. But we don't know if we're right yet. And we had Chris record the answers, so now we're gonna find out. So we

Speaker 1 (00:35:17) - Don't know either. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:35:19) - I'm gonna blast the volume here. Let's see what Chris has said.

Speaker 6 (00:35:22) - Company A, the genuine statement is statement two.

Speaker 3 (00:35:28) - What, what,

Speaker 1 (00:35:29) - What, what? We were wrong. What? Dang, I didn't, the Experian cares threw me. I didn't think AI could come up with that. That sounded so corny that I was like, no way

Speaker 3 (00:35:41) - I'm shaken.

Speaker 1 (00:35:42) - I'm really upset because that means that the last time we played it, it was totally rigged. Truth is

Speaker 7 (00:35:50) - The game was rigged from the start.

Speaker 1 (00:35:52) - Oh, . Yeah. Suggested. All right. I heard.

Speaker 3 (00:35:55) - And the thing is for me is that like, it is, it's amusing, like Yeah, because, you know, but it's also just goes to show, like, I

Speaker 1 (00:36:02) - Prefer statement too. It's less forced. But then again, that's the thing. I don't fit within this demographic of people, so I, I don't really get to say what hits best, I guess. I don't think it's hashtag experience cares. I don't think a credit rating agency needs to tell me that they care.

Speaker 3 (00:36:22) - . Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah. I mean, and it's, you know, that's the thing about the machine is it's learning from what it's seeing and what it's seeing. I don't know, I guess funny and I don't like it. Yeah. Can. And we are the, we obviously are the judge and jury.

Speaker 1 (00:36:36) - Yeah. And executioner. . .

Speaker 3 (00:36:39) - All right. Should we get into company B Lex? Mark, you took the first statement last time. I'll just run with this. Yeah. And

Speaker 1 (00:36:45) - Both have hashtags and now can't, can't go off of that again.

Speaker 3 (00:36:50) - I dunno. All right, so this is Lexmark the printer company. This is Chris. Like, good, good. Find

Speaker 1 (00:37:04) - Random, random companies. .

Speaker 3 (00:37:07) - Today is trans day visibility today and every day Lexmark celebrates trans people for being who they are. And we stand in solidarity with our trans employees, customers, partners, and community members. Hashtag T D O v hashtag trans day visibility hashtag trans hashtag L G B T Q

Speaker 1 (00:37:26) - Statement two. Here we go. Today and every day we celebrate diversity and equality on trans day of visibility, we stand with the transgender community and extend our support. Hashtag trans day of visibility. Hashtag print with pride.

Speaker 5 (00:37:44) - ,

Speaker 3 (00:37:44) - I didn't hear.

Speaker 1 (00:37:45) - I I literally, that was my genuine reaction cuz I didn't read that till just now.

Speaker 3 (00:37:50) - I actually hope that statement two is not genuine. I think it's, I'm gonna be so upset. I think

Speaker 1 (00:37:55) - It is.

Speaker 3 (00:37:56) - You think it is? So you think it's statement two?

Speaker 1 (00:37:58) - I'm playing the odds right now. Okay. Um, really poorly, but yeah, I think it's statement two. Okay.

Speaker 3 (00:38:03) - I'm, I'm gonna look in statement one purely because I am a hopeless optimist and I really don't want that one to be true. So let's, let's take it to Chris. Let's see what he's got to say for us. I'm on Tender hooks. Tender hooks,

Speaker 6 (00:38:17) - Company B, the genuine statement is statement one. What?

Speaker 1 (00:38:25) - Ah, you know what? I'm mad because there's totally a math movie about probability and I should have lessened to my gut.

Speaker 3 (00:38:33) - Yeah. . Yeah. But, but can I just say that I'm so glad that it's not print with pride and I'm also disturbed that the, that

Speaker 1 (00:38:41) - AI could come up with that. That's what, because I was also, that was my thought too. AI couldn't I need to stop thinking what AI can do because clearly, I don't know,

Speaker 3 (00:38:51) - I think a we shouldn't know because we don't know and they're not really communicating the information about this stuff particularly well. Yeah. Pretty much every artificial intelligence project, uh, that has sort of made waves over the last, you know, decade or so, facial recognition technology Yeah. Has racial bias. Yeah. We know that AI is inherently a misogynist. Um, and I think it's worth as we go along, like sort of understanding, like it's learning from us and I think what we've forgotten is that we're shit. Yeah. Uh, and we need to address that because it could go either way. I know the game is that we put one in, but it could have gone either way.

Speaker 1 (00:39:33) - I mean, this is really confusing. Genuinely the print with pride. I think I'm gonna have, uh, aftershock for a little while with that. That,

Speaker 3 (00:39:42) - But you know what,

Speaker 1 (00:39:42) - I can't believe they came up with that.

Speaker 3 (00:39:43) - I could see craft beer doing a hashtag like drink with pride. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like that's, that's why I'm so shaken by it is I'm just like, wow. At face value, the types of corporate, um, sort of messaging that we're used to accepting, or that we would consider to be the standard is kind of it, it is hollow. That's the point. Is it is hollow. And how do we move beyond saying hollow things to doing very tangible, thoughtful, mindful things for community members like those in the trans community. How are we really accelerating their pathway to rights? This is overdue.

Speaker 1 (00:40:19) - Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:40:20) - You know? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:40:21) - All I can say is I, I echo Chris's thoughts. You know, we start also with International Women's Day, right? We did. Yeah. It's fewer and fewer to me, I feel are posting about it. Yes. Now you also have the Twitter gender pay gap bot and stuff like that calling out people who do Yeah. Post about it. Yeah. It's disappointing that instead of learning to be better mm-hmm. Educating yourselves, more people are just retracting Yeah. And saying, oh, cool. Like, I'm not gonna be a part of this conversation anymore. It's like no one, no one's said that. It's just stop trying to control it. Yeah. And then it's stop trying to fucking profit off of it.

Speaker 3 (00:40:58) - Exactly. Yeah. That's the thing. It felt like they all dipped their toe in the pond of exploitation. Mm-hmm. got the toe bitten off and then we're like, we didn't even wanna swim anyway. Yeah. And it's like, well, there you go. Case in point, exhibit A I've rest my case. Yeah. You know, here it is. And I think this is a really interesting way of kind of just like getting it to that shallow level that it really is. Yeah. And being like, fuck that. They were never serious. And unless you are putting out a statement about the direct way that you have helped the community, you were talking about Shut up. Shut up. You are right to retract from it if you're not gonna gonna say something meaningful and if you're not gonna show up in these people's lives meaningfully Yeah. Simple as that. Well, I have to say funny. I don't know about you. Do you have any more thoughts on this?

Speaker 1 (00:41:43) - I don't. You know what, this was really fun and we should keep doing it.

Speaker 3 (00:41:45) - Well, that's what I was gonna say. I just thought like, the new format and upgrading the format, I, I feel I

Speaker 1 (00:41:50) - Like our game master. I think this needs to keep

Speaker 3 (00:41:52) - Happening. Yeah. This is how it goes from now on. Chris, you've officially got the job,

Speaker 1 (00:41:56) - You're hired,

Speaker 3 (00:41:56) - You're hired. Catch your next time for who wants to be. Hello. We are here for a, a new segment, fresh tender, and it is called the airing of the grievances. It's the segment where we can put out some content about something that's caught our eye and usually we're aggrieved about it. I can say that. . Yeah. And Fanny, you are just boiling.

Speaker 1 (00:42:39) - Boiling. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:42:39) - Um, in a good way. In good ways and bad ways. What, what's got you, uh, what's got you this way?

Speaker 1 (00:42:45) - I have been, uh, really intrigued following some of the union efforts or the unionizing efforts over in the States. Mm-hmm. particularly, we're here to talk about Starbucks today.

Speaker 3 (00:42:55) - Starbucks.

Speaker 1 (00:42:55) - Mm. We've all had one. I don't even drink coffee, but I've had a tall vanilla bean frappuccino with whipped cream on top more than a few times. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:43:03) - And look, I mean, I travel a lot for work and the one thing that is consistent and you can't deny, or at least open or at least anywhere, is usually a Starbucks. Mm-hmm. . So I've definitely consumed my fair amount. Uh, and when I was in New York, I became good friends with Yeah. The baristas. We had a nice tip banter thing going on. I mean, the workers at Starbucks, you know, are pretty cool. Yeah. And I like them and I've been fascinated by the story.

Speaker 1 (00:43:30) - Yeah. I mean, so I mean, let's, we'll do a quick rundown Yeah. Over what's going on. And the history of Starbucks and unionizing is actually, it runs deep all the way back to the eighties. We're not gonna go all the way back to the eighties today. We're just gonna go back to the end of 2021. Mm-hmm. , that's where across 20 21, 20 22. Over 6,000 workers across nearly 300 Starbucks locations have voted to unionize. The employees really aim to use collective bargaining to get a number of improvements such as a higher pay, more hours and better safety protections. And the last one being more necessary, uh, especially since employees became frontline workers during the pandemic. Yeah. You and I have worked in hospitality. Yep. I think, yeah. That was messed up during the pandemic. How much we relied on hospitality people, myself included,

Speaker 3 (00:44:18) - Even those that don't know. Fannie had a huge role, um, in advocating for the hospitality industry during the Corona Pandemic. And this time period that we're talking about with Starbucks was at that really crucial time.

Speaker 1 (00:44:30) - Yeah. Suddenly you're, you're telling people how to go about, um, a pandemic and they're not fans of it. The emotional labor alone is crazy. Yes. Moving 'em forward though, they would love better safety protections because of this. They also want more say in what their working lives are like. And they wanna hold a company that talks of progressive values accountable. Does that sound familiar? Ooh.

Speaker 3 (00:44:53) - I was just like all the little ghosts around me right now.

Speaker 1 (00:44:56) - As it currently stands, no store has negotiated a collective bargaining contract yet. And pro-Union Starbucks locations have been closed also as soon as the workers filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board, which is a governmental agency tasked with handling disputes between employers and unions. Starbucks asked the agency to delay the union vote, which was then rejected by the N L R B. Also, according to this union, Starbucks is strongly opposed to the unionization efforts of its stores. And in addition to asking the N L R B to delay the CERT certification of the Buffalo Union election results, the company also asked the agency to prohibit Starbucks workers from organizing their stores individually. So it started in Buffalo, New York. Basically they're arguing that all the 20 different Starbucks locations in Buffalo had to unionize together. They couldn't do

Speaker 3 (00:45:51) - Gerrymandering. The gerrymandering dude ,

Speaker 1 (00:45:53) - They, uh, they couldn't organize in their locations individually. Thankfully this was also rejected by the N L R B. Crazy, crazy. Starbucks has basically been accused of union busting. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:46:06) - It's, yeah. They've been, they've been accused, but there's also over a hundred decisions from the N L R B, which is basically saying Yeah, you did, you bust pretty

Speaker 1 (00:46:14) - Much verifies it. But, um, the gas line is still real. And KB you tuned into it. Oh, like crazy. Last week

Speaker 3 (00:46:21) - I did. So there was a congressional hearing about Starbucks Union busting the whole situation. And of course, uh, the former C e o I believe he's stepped down now. Howard Schultz,

Speaker 1 (00:46:34) - Sorry not to interrupt you. He's the interim right now.

Speaker 3 (00:46:37) - That's Yes, . Yeah. Thank you. And this is why fact track. Um, so anyway, daddy Howard Schultz daddy chill. Um, now he is, he, he's like, if a gas light, um, and Audacity had a baby , you know what I mean? And it wore a suit and walked around. That's Howard Schultz. The guy's slimy and he thinks he's so extraordinary, but he is not extraordinary but funny. I'm gonna hand it over to you. Mm-hmm. I did watch the live stream of this. I watched shit on the Twitch channel for the Starbucks union workers because I'm invested deep in this. And I just have to say, I think the union did a fantastic job of not only making sure that people could watch this in real time Yeah. But also the commentary. Ah,

Speaker 1 (00:47:26) - Wow. So good.

Speaker 3 (00:47:27) - Wow. It was,

Speaker 1 (00:47:28) - The content that came out afterwards was impressive.

Speaker 3 (00:47:31) - It's, they're doing a fantastic job Yeah. Of advocating for themselves in a media space with no fucking resources. Yeah. You know, of course there's articles here and there, but wow. They're doing a great job. So that's where I watched this. I know that you've been following up on it pretty heavy. What stood out to you? What are your thoughts?

Speaker 1 (00:47:48) - Uh, you know, so much of it just rings a bell. You know, we're talking about companies that kind of lead with some sort of progressive angle. Mm-hmm. and then lo and behold, they're not as progressive ass. They claim I'm tired of it. I dunno about you . I'm so done. I'm

Speaker 3 (00:48:04) - So tired of it.

Speaker 1 (00:48:05) - Yeah. And moreover, watching Howard Schultz in Congress was pretty funny. Oh,

Speaker 3 (00:48:11) - This man,

Speaker 1 (00:48:13) - The, the dodging of the questions matrix-like levels of Oh, dodging. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:48:20) - I mean it's fascinating cuz we rarely go, rarely get to see those performative statements kind of take on a life in the form of someone like Howard Schultz and to watch him sidestep things. You know, specifically from Bernie, he raised the number of decisions from the N L R B. Yeah. Which had been decided in the favor of the workers

Speaker 8 (00:48:39) - Over the past 18 months. Starbucks has waged the most aggressive and illegal union busting campaign in the modern history of our country. That union busting campaign has been led by Howard Schultz, the multi-billionaire founder and director of Starbucks who is with us this morning only under the threat of subpoena

Speaker 3 (00:49:06) - And the way like this man was just like fucking tango. Step one, step two, step three. Just like dodging, like you said, matrix level shit.

Speaker 1 (00:49:13) - Very, I mean what maybe the most, uh, circulated clip is just Howard Schultz directly being asked if he had conversations that could have been Dino's Union busting Roll

Speaker 3 (00:49:23) - It.

Speaker 9 (00:49:24) - State where the NLRB has certified 19 elections, as you know, at Starbucks stores they have issued 71 complaints covering 31 unfair labor practice charges. And NLRB judges have issued two decisions now finding that Starbucks violated federal law. So let me just ask you a simple question. Do you agree that it is workers who get to decide whether they want a union?

Speaker 10 (00:49:48) - Senator Murray? I I agree that the person at Starbucks has the right under the law to decide whether or not they want to join a union. And Starbucks coffee company also has the legal right to provide a vision for our employees, which currently represent 99% of the 250,000 who wear the green apron that are.

Speaker 3 (00:50:11) - So when you see that, what do you think?

Speaker 1 (00:50:13) - I think he's full of shit. I don't know what else to say. I

Speaker 3 (00:50:16) - Think mafia daddy, like it's that between the lion sort of stuff. That's it. Do you know what it

Speaker 1 (00:50:21) - Is? He's in bed with those people

Speaker 3 (00:50:22) - For sure. It's, I'm sorry, that's how you took it. Yeah, I'm sorry. That's how it made you feel. Yeah, it's totally that shit. But to see it in front of a government agency was just mind blowing. I have a couple of things here. So I wanna say that there was definitely some, some licking going on from the Republicans. Like you had MIT Romney this bitch Oh my. Out here being like,

Speaker 11 (00:50:46) - It's kinda funny that you were a Democratic presidential candidate, but I agree with you.

Speaker 3 (00:50:52) - It was really fascinating to see the juxtaposition of the political spectrum at play here because you know what the Democrats are meant to represent what the Republicans are meant to represent. It was really fascinating. I just wanna give a shout out to Senator Murray because I thought her line of questioning was spectacular. This is a masterclass on how you do not allow someone to dodge accountability with that little answers. You have heard what they've had to say, you've said that's bullshit and you fucking bulldoze them. That's the masterclass. That's what we need to see. You need to just completely disregard what they're saying and not sort of feel this pressure of politeness to sort of be like, oh, but like he's saying it so like I just have to entertain it like it's a true thing. No, in this setting, in this realm, if you say something untrue, it gets bulldozed over. Now the final sort of thing that I wanna say about Mr. Schultz getting his moment in the sun there was that all of this is about giving workers a voice, giving workers a seat at the table. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (00:51:55) -

Speaker 3 (00:51:56) - Schultz is out here acting like these workers don't wanna see it at the table to make workplaces better, to make their business better, to remain employed with the business and to continue to be employed with the business. He pretends none of that is a part of the decision. What he pretends is that they wanna see it at the table so they can dominate it mm-hmm. so they can take power away. Yeah. That is not what the Starbucks union is trying to do. What they are trying to do in terms of a power grab is get a seat at the table so that they can be involved in the decisions about their workplaces. It's as simple as that. And I'm so tired of companies being like, oh, but we gave you fucking paternity leave. Oh, but we call you this thing that's not an employee. So like,

Speaker 1 (00:52:45) - You're a partner, not a barista. Forget

Speaker 3 (00:52:48) - The fuck. Exactly. Shit.

Speaker 1 (00:52:50) - Get fucked. I'm so over it.

Speaker 12 (00:52:52) - Get a big dog up. You, you fucking deserve it.

Speaker 3 (00:52:55) - Fuck you all. Because they wanna dictate what our best employment circumstances look like and pretend it's not a transaction. Yeah. Done with it. That's my piece. Fa I'm handing it back to you. What else you got for me here? What, what's, what's on it?

Speaker 1 (00:53:07) - Hey, now, now we're back in real time so we're gonna continue to follow it. We know that, uh, one of the key union organizers and Starbucks employees only last week, two days, I believe it was two days. Yeah. After he was in Congress. Mm-hmm. , she was let go from her job. Um, she's one of many, uh, pro-union workers for Starbucks who have been let go of their jobs. Mm-hmm. where they're citing, you know, violations of company policies that are kind of non-existent and you've had the N L R B pretty much conclude that they were in fact fired due to retaliation. Yeah. Yeah. So all I can say is, um, read up on it yourself and keep listening here for when we wanna update you and definitely go follow the Starbucks wor uh, workers United on Instagram cuz that is great. Great stuff.

Speaker 3 (00:53:54) - One of the things that they're doing, I think we forget that every time a union, um, puts themselves into a media landscape Mm. That they're doing us a service, they're educating us on different rights. When you hear about a case of retaliation and a specific decision, you can actually sort of put two and two together in terms of, well how does this affect the average workplace? Mm-hmm. , it's again, that moment of seeing people being mistreated and sort of being able to educate yourself and say, well, am I being mistreated? Are there people around me being mistreated? So it is not just a one way street or transaction in that sense. Like you can get a lot from following what's happening with the unions, particularly in the United States. Fanny is a hundred percent correct. We're getting kind of laser focused on unions as we move forward for a little something we're cooking up for y'all. So on that note, dugo and follow fannie's advice, follow the union. Definitely look at some of the clips of Howard Schultz Absolutely copying a grilling because don't even look at the Republicans looking up sideways, like it's just so embarrassing for everyone. It's so cringe. But watch him get roasted. All right,

Speaker 1 (00:55:04) - We're up. Bam.

Speaker 3 (00:55:12) - Workplace Weekly was produced by Kate Bailey and Fannie Mundell for Hand in Heart Media. The publishing arm of Hand in Heart Gahar. You can follow Hand in Heart on Instagram via hand in heart.eu via H underscore and underscore H Media. If any inquiries related to this broadcast, please email admin hand in heart.eu. Our music was composed and performed by AM Amanda and produced by Amand with Kyle's startup. You can follow Armand on Instagram or listen to their music on Spotify, apple, or SoundCloud. If you love Armand's music, please consider buying it from Bandcamp support. Indie Always. Our artwork was created by Nick's Renton, a fantastic photographer and graphic designer. And you can find them in the links in the episode description. You can always Find Workplace Weekly on Apples, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and vm, and basically wherever you get your podcast for those wanting an R S S V, the link is in the show notes. Thank you so much for listening.