If the myth of tech over the past decade has been one of constant innovation, algorithmic scale, and new products and devices that “simply work,” the truth is that all of those illusions were made possible by the obfuscation of labor: the contract content moderators who sanitize the feeds of Facebook and YouTube from violence and extremist content; the warehouse workers at Amazon fulfillment centers trying to meet the guarantees of same-day shipping; the gig workers of all kinds — Uber drivers, food delivery cyclists, Instacart shoppers, among them — all of whom are at the whims of increasingly efficient platforms and wayward legislation. And that’s not even to speak of the white-collar tech workforce that, while better compensated, is still being taken advantage of by NDAs and mandatory arbitration clauses that keep hidden the realities of discrimination and harassment in the office. But now, some workers across tech companies are organizing for better treatment and pay. Others are making efforts to unionize. Most importantly, the movement will reach everyone who works in tech — and anyone who uses those platforms. The story of the tech industry over the next decade will be the reckoning brought on by its workforce.
The unionized workers at the Towson, Maryland store voted to authorize the strike over the weekend, but there’s still no word on when it will start. “As discussions with Apple management continue, we remain committed to securing tangible improvements that benefit all employees,” the union representing the workers said.
The employees, who are represented by the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers, will hold a vote this Saturday on whether or not to go on strike. The union says Apple hasn’t addressed workers’ concerns despite “persistent efforts to engage in constructive and meaningful dialogue.”
Microsoft is making tough Xbox decisions amid a game industry that’s hurting.
As a part of its five percent reduction in workforce, Take Two is closing down Roll7, a London-based studio that developed the OlliOlli games, and the Seattle-based Intercept Games that made Kerbal Space Program 2. In a statement to Game Developer, a Take Two spokesperson confirmed that the company would still support the popular, if goofy, flight simulator.
As previously reported in Alex Heath’s Command Line newsletter, layoffs at the $2 trillion company have cut “at least 200 employees” in the Core engineering group, according to CNBC.
That division handles “building the technical foundation behind Google’s flagship products, protecting our users’ online safety, and maintaining our global IT infrastructure.” Some roles moved to India or Mexico, and includes at least 50 in Google’s Sunnyvale offices.
The new deal adds protections around using digital voice replicas, reports Reuters.
The terms “artist,” “singer,” and “royalty artist,” under this agreement only include humans. In this agreement, clear and conspicuous consent, along with minimum compensation requirements and specific details of intended use, are required prior to the release of a sound recording that uses a digital replication of an artist’s voice.
AI voice cloning improvements mean we’ll probably see more agreements ensuring performers are informed about how copies of their voices are used.
Last Week Tonight’s segment about food delivery pulls heavily from Josh Dzieza’s terrific, award-winning feature, with a strong reminder to always tip.
The layoff comes after reports that the company is doing away with its Just Walk Out cashierless retail tech at its large format stores. GeekWire reports AWS VP Dilip Kumar cited the change in emails about the cuts internally.
As CNBC notes, Amazon has laid off more people since 2022 than at any point in its history. This year, that’s included Twitch and Amazon Health.
The city’s chatbot for business owners is telling people to break the law, including telling bosses they can take employees’ tips (they can’t), and that stores can go cashless (also wrong, as of 2020). The chatbot is powered by Microsoft Azure AI.
Mayor Eric Adams has announced other AI tools recently, including a gun detection system that will soon be installed at subway turnstiles.
In spite of unfair labor practice complaints and a round of layoffs, the 150 members of the AEGIS (CWA) union at Sega of America have a new contract. It guarantees members annual wage increases, warnings before layoffs, hybrid work schedule commitments, and severance packages.
There has been a growing unionization movement in the video game industry over the last few years, and AEGIS’s new contract marks the first ratified contract at a major developer.
The Information reports Meta has had issues keeping AI talent and has resorted to hiring researchers without an interview. Meta has been losing researchers to Google’s DeepMind, OpenAI, and Mistral, which was founded by former Meta engineers.
One reason could be the salaries AI researchers could earn. Meta reportedly pays AI researchers up to $2 million, which is less than the $5 million to $10 million paid by OpenAI.
The union’s animation voice actors voted 95.52 percent to 4.48 percent on Friday to ratify contracts that were similar to the deal that ended the actors’ strike last year but didn’t include the same definition, as Variety notes.
The contracts (summarized here) run from July 1st, 2023 through June 30th, 2026, and include pay raises and add limits on the use of AI to replicate voice actors.
SpaceX already filed one lawsuit claiming the agency’s actions o (on a complaint about workers who say they were fired illegally for criticizing Elon Musk) are unconstitutional and now there’s this complaint issued Wednesday night.
SpaceX is accused of using severance agreements with ”unlawful confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses, and an unlawful limit on participation in other claims against SpaceX,” among other issues. The parties can either settle (seems unlikely), or there will be a hearing on October 29th.
The Alphabet Workers Union alleges Google and subcontractor Cognizant “unlawfully terminated” a group of YouTube Music contractors in February, who had been working for months for Google to recognize them as employees. The union claims Google fired the contractors “in retaliation” for organizing.
Bloomberg prompted GPT-3.5 to sort equally-qualified resumes for jobs like software engineer and financial analyst. Over the course of thousands of tests, Bloomberg found resumes with names distinct to Black Americans were least likely to be ranked as top candidates.
The layoffs keep rolling, Gemini is in trouble, and now Google employees are bracing for lower raises.
Deadline reports that film and TV labor unions are ready to strike if talks break down with Hollywood studios tomorrow. Studios previously narrowly averted a strike with one of the unions, the Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), in 2021.
Now, the IATSE is preparing to bargain for health and pension benefits with two other unions for “the first time since 1988,” according to the Teamsters.
According to Bloomberg, Rockstar will ask employees to return to the office five days a week beginning in April. In an email sent to employees, Jenn Kolbe, head of publishing, wrote security and productivity were the main reasons for implementing RTO as well as the “tangible benefits” of in-office work.
Security issues are indeed a concern for Rockstar as it suffered a massive data breach in which hackers leaked early footage of GTA VI. But it’ll likely be a hard sell convincing employees to return to the office full-time and could result in increased attrition.
Just one day after PlayStation laid off 900 employees (which followed layoffs from Activision Blizzard, Riot Games, Discord, Unity, and others), EA announced on Wednesday that it’s cutting 5 percent of workers, which amounts to around 670 roles.
The game publisher also said that it’s “moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry,” allowing it to focus on its own IP, sports, and online communities.
[Electronic Arts]
Fourteen Amazon employees can no longer access the European Parliament building without an invitation, WIRED reported Wednesday. And it’s all because they skipped a hearing about working conditions in its fulfillment centers and declined to let policymakers tour them (Amazon blamed the busy holiday period, WIRED said).
Wired writes about how tech job interviews have gotten even more demanding after the series of layoffs that rocked the industry these past few years:
Emails reviewed by Wired showed that in one interview for an engineering role at Netflix, a technical recruiter requested that a job candidate submit a three-page project evaluation within 48 hours—all before the first round of interviews.
A Netflix spokesperson said the process is different for each role and otherwise declined to comment.
A similar email at Snap outlined a six-part interview process for a potential engineering candidate, with each part lasting an hour. A company spokesperson says its interview process hasn’t changed as a result of labor market changes.