#Local - California
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When the app tries to make you robo-scab
When we talk about the abusive nature of gig work, there’s some obvious targets, like algorithmic wage discrimination, where two workers are paid different rates for the same job, in order to trick occasional gig-workers to give up their other sources of income and become entirely dependent on the app:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men
Then there’s the opacity — imagine if your boss refused to tell you how much you’ll get paid for a job until after you’ve completed it, claimed that this was done in order to “protect privacy” — and then threatened anyone who helped you figure out the true wage on offer:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/07/hr-4193/#boss-app
Opacity is wage theft’s handmaiden: every gig worker producing content for a social media algorithm is subject to having their reach — and hence their pay — cut based on the unaccountable, inscrutable decisions of a content moderation system:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/10/e2e/#the-censors-pen
Making content for an algorithm is like having a boss that docks every paycheck because you broke rules that you are not allowed to know, because if you knew the rules, you’d figure out how to cheat without your boss catching you. Content moderation is the last place where security through obscurity is considered good practice:
https://doctorow.medium.com/como-is-infosec-307f87004563
When workers seize the means of computation, amazing things happen. In Indonesia, gig workers create and trade tuyul apps that let them unilaterally modify the way that their bosses’ systems see them — everything from GPS spoofing to accessibility mods:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/08/tuyul-apps/#gojek
So the tech and labor story isn’t wholly grim: there are lots of ways that tech can enhance labor struggles, letting workers collaborate and coordinate. Without digital systems, we wouldn’t have the Hot Strike Summer:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/02/not-what-it-does/#who-it-does-it-to
As the historic writer/actor strike shows us, the resurgent labor movement and the senescent forces of crapulent capitalism are locked in a death-struggle over not just what digital tools do, but who they do it for and who they do it to:
https://locusmag.com/2022/01/cory-doctorow-science-fiction-is-a-luddite-literature/
When it comes to the epic fight over who technology acts for and against, we need a diversity of tactics, backstopped by tech operated by and for its users — and by laws that protect workers and the public. That dynamic is in sharp focus in UNITE Here Local 11’s strike against Orange County’s Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa.
The UNITE Here strike turns on the usual issues like a living wage (hotel staff are paid so little they have to rent rooming-house beds by the shift, paying for the right to sleep in a room for a few hours at a time, without any permanent accommodation). They’re also seeking health-care and pensions, so they can be healthy at work and retire after long service. Finally, they’re seeking their employer’s support for LA’s Responsible Hotels Ordinance, which would levy a tax on hotel rooms to help pay for hotel workers’ housing costs (a hotel worker who can’t afford a bed is the equivalent of a fast food worker who has to apply for food stamps):
https://www.unitehere11.org/responsible-hotels-ordinance/
But the Marriott — which is owned by the University of California and managed by Aimbridge Hospitality — has refused to bargain, walking out negotiations.
But the employer didn’t walk out over wages, benefits or support for a housing subsidy. They walked out when workers demanded that the scabs that the company was trying to hire to break the strike be given full time, union jobs.
These aren’t just any scabs, either. They’re predominantly Black workers who rely on the $700m Instawork app for gigs. These workers are being dispatched to cross the picket line without any warning that they’re being contracted as strikebreakers. When workers refuse the cross the picket and join the strike, Instawork cancels all their shifts and permanently blocks them from new jobs.
This is a new, technologically supercharged form of illegal strikebreaking. It’s one thing for a single boss to punish a worker who refuses to scab, but Instawork acts as a plausible-deniability filter for all the major employers in the region. Like the landlord apps that allow landlords to illegally fix rents by coordinating hikes, Instawork lets bosses illegally collude to rig wages by coordinating a blocklist of workers who refuse to scab:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/10/company-that-makes-rent-setting-software-for-landlords-sued-for-collusion/?comments=1
The racial dimension is really important here: the Marriott has a longstanding de facto policy of refusing to hire Black workers, and whenever they are confronted with this, they insist that there are no qualified Black workers in the labor pool. But as soon as the predominantly Latino workforce struck, Marriott discovered a vast Black workforce that it could coerce into scabbing, in collusion with Instawork.
Now, all of this isn’t just sleazy, it’s illegal, a violation of Section 7 of the NLRB Act. Historically, that wouldn’t have mattered, because a string of presidents, R and D, have appointed useless do-nothing ghouls to run the NLRB. But the Biden admin, pushed by the party’s left wing, made a string of historic, excellent appointments, including NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, who has set her sights on punishing gig work companies for flouting labor law:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/10/see-you-in-the-funny-papers/#bidens-legacy
UNITE HERE 11 has brought a case to the NLRB, charging the Instawork, the UC system, Marriott, and Aimbridge with violating labor law by blackmailing gig workers into crossing the picket line. The union is also asking the NLRB to punish the companies for failing to protect workers from violent retaliation from the wealthy hotel guests who have punched them and screamed epithets at them. The hotel has refused to identify these thug guests so that the workers they assaulted can swear out complaints against them.
Writing about the strike for Jacobin, Alex N Press tells the story of Thomas Bradley, a Black worker who was struck off all Instawork shifts for refusing to cross the picket line and joining it instead:
https://jacobin.com/2023/07/southern-california-hotel-workers-strike-automated-management-unite-here
Bradley’s case is exhibit A in the UNITE HERE 11 case before the NLRB. He has a degree in culinary arts, but racial discrimination in the industry has kept him stuck in gig and temp jobs ever since he graduated, nearly a quarter century ago. Bradley lived out of his car, but that was repossessed while he slept in a hotel room that UNITE HERE 11 fundraised for him, leaving him homeless and bereft of all his worldly possessions.
With UNITE HERE 11’s help, Bradley’s secured a job at the downtown LA Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, a hotel that has bargained with the workers. Bradley is using his newfound secure position to campaign among other Instawork workers to convince them not to cross picket lines. In these group chats, Jacobin saw workers worrying “that joining the strike would jeopardize their standing on the app.”
Today (July 30) at 1530h, I’m appearing on a panel at Midsummer Scream in Long Beach, CA, to discuss the wonderful, award-winning “Ghost Post” Haunted Mansion project I worked on for Disney Imagineering.
If you'd like an essay-formatted 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:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/30/computer-says-scab/#instawork
[Image ID: An old photo of strikers before a struck factory, with tear-gas plumes rising above them. The image has been modified to add a Marriott sign to the factory, and the menacing red eye of HAL9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' to the sky over the factory. The workers have been colorized to a yellow-green shade and the factory has been colorized to a sepia tone.]
Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg
CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
#pluralistic#hot strike summer#unions#UNITE HERE#labor#computer says no#tuyul apps#jacobin#gig economy#nlrb#marriott#Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa#instawork#scabs#Aimbridge Hospitality Group#University of California#nlrb section 7#unfair labor practice#ulp#UNITE HERE Local 11#mansion tax#race#algorithmic wage discrimination#Veena Dubal#disciplinary technology#chickenized reverse-centaurs#reverse-centaurs#como is infosec#Jennifer Abruzzo
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me collecting library cards in Libby like the infinity stones to assemble enough catalogs to find any book I want whenever I want
#you can just get every county card in the state of California btw#LA gave me the fuckin run around even tho I actually spent a decade there#me while my actual local library has JACK SHIT#oh my god no wonder this place functions without an ounce of nuance
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one of the funniest things to me about ace attorney’s strange botched localization is that it requires knowledge of gun restriction laws in japan and the fact that they are the complete opposite of the practically nonexistent gun laws in the US where they localized the games to SUPPOSEDLY be set. and then you have to logic your way around “well this is a dystopian distant future of 2017 where the court system no longer exists but there are somehow even stricter gun laws” and it’s like you’re playing ace attorney in real life with your brain
#same with the knowledge of the japanese court system before 2009 ish as well#but the gun law bit in particular is SO funny to me every time#because they’re always like ‘as you know in this country it’s impossible to get a gun without being a cop’#and then it’s supposed to be localized to california. which. LOL#like can you imagine not knowing anything about japanese gun laws or the weird localization of aa and seeing that and being like WHAT are#you talking about
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"Construction of a massive municipal park—over 20 years in the making, is finally underway in the city of Irvine.
They say if California became its own country, it would have one of the world’s largest economies. The new Great Park of Irvine is a reflection of the always lofty ambitions of the state, and is expected to dwarf Central Park by more than 500 acres.
It was on May 23rd this year that the “Great Park Project” broke ground on the long-derelict El Toro Marine Corps Base, 21 years after voters approved a ballot measure ordering the state to create a park on the site.
Expected to take another 10 years to complete, the park will span 1,300 acres and include several museums, an amphitheater, a veterans memorial garden, an aquatics center, a sports complex, and not one but two lakes.
“After many years of community input and after the last year of intensive planning and design, we are excited to be launching what is a $1 billion investment to establish the world’s next great metropolitan park,” said Irvine City Councilman Michael Carroll who serves as Chairman of the Great Park Board...
First item of work on the agenda is to demolish and clear away 77 old military buildings while leaving the El Toro air traffic control tower which will be leased by the FAA. However a portion of the Irvine Great Park, as it’s being called, is already open to visitors and includes a soccer pitch and some other amenities including tethered balloons to take visitors up into the sky."
-via Good News Network, July 12, 2023
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More of this, please!!!
Also, I checked, and somehow the tethered balloon thing is not only real it's actually free. They go up 400 ft in the air
#california#irvine#united states#local politics#military base#parks#greenspace#public park#central park#talk about swords into ploughshares tbh#good news#hope
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went to the monterey bay aquarium today (ily monterey bay aquarium). i got to see the beautiful beautiful mola mola which i have missed since the last one left and also the into the deep exhibit which was so good, and i tried to take pictures of my fish with the real-life fish but mostly it was too dark
(with bonus preview of newest fish)
#monterey bay aquarium#fish#my art#embroidery#dolphinfish#sardine#rainbow trout#<- oooh that one’s the new one#california eel#or something along those lines#anyways. go to ur local aquarium and stare at fish for hours#highly recommend
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Fascinated with how the localization of Ace Attorney desperately wants you to believe it’s set in America despite it clearly being a satire of the Japanese legal system and has cases set in obviously Japanese locations
#the localization: dude trust me we are so in america rn this is literally california lol#the game: *literally making me look around a rural japan village that’s only an hour train ride away from the wright and co office*#*several things that don’t happen in american court but do in japanese court*#*just all around very obviously set in japan*#localization: yep definitely America all right :)#ace attorney
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Faetooth, 2024
#doom metal#sludge metal#metal#doom#sludge#fairy doom#faetooth#doomgaze#musicians of tumblr#los angeles#California#heavy music#new music#shoegaze#dune altar#local music#stoner metal
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tbh The Polls(TM) don't have nearly as bad a stranglehold on me as they have in the past -- at least for the national election. i am DESPERATE to see polling on measure T (local ballot prop to do with housing) but i can't find any :<
#the trashcan speaks#dumbfuck california local politics my beloved...#'this might bring MORE JOBS and MORE PEOPLE to our area... and that's BAD!!!'#current events cw#politics cw
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Reminder for all you SoCal folks: I'll be interviewing powerhouse illustrator and Decemberists art-in-residence Carson Ellis this coming Saturday here in Ojai! More about it on my blog.
The venue is Bart's Books, regularly listed as one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world. It's an outdoor shop built around the former home of Richard Bartinsdale, an avid reader inspired by Parisian book carts on the banks of the Seine.
The event will be outdoors (heyoo, covid safety!) and free to the public. Come thru from 6-7pm!
#carson ellis#ojai#the decemberists#one week in january#local events#socal#southern california#bart's books#bookstore#bookcore#lucy bellwood
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Wttt FloCali presents: A Day at the Beach
I swear there been a lot of FloCali art being produced, so imma join
They’re gonna build the largest sandcastles and dig the deepest hole ever
@theywhoshantbenamed here’s SoCal!
#my art#wttt#welcome to the table#ben brainard#wttt fanart#digital art#wttt california#procreate#wttt art#wttt florida#wttt flocali#florida man in socal#they’re idiots your honor#adhd and autism solidarity#wttt news: Florida man adopted by local Sk8er Boi#proceeds to turn the Pacific Ocean to soup
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while ghost hunting would be fun, it is a twelve year old's imagining of a job, and I think dipper would be disappointed by how many ghost reports amount to nothing. but personally, I feel like he would kill it as a wildlife biologist
#(this is presuming that some number of ghost reports Are real in the gravity falls universe)#(but that they tend to be highly localized to areas that otherwise experience supernatural phenomena (as ford described))#(and dipper is unlikely to find any place as rich in real actual paranormal anywhere near gf's level)#and is this me projecting? perhaps#but I think the analytic but also personal approach to discovering and becoming a part of how the many variables in an ecosystem interact#and depend upon and grow from each other ccould really appeal to dipper#and it would be a transferrable skillset with is supernatural investigations!#a comprehensive understanding of ecosystem dynamics can apply to both rabbit predation in california as it can to#unicorn/gnome interactions in gf. this I believe#gravity falls#dipper pines
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had a really lovely day where i went with my visiting california friends on a day trip to western mass to visit their college town and various associated areas incl. asparagus ice cream from a working dairy farm (pic)
and then went to another friends house for dinner and had a very incredible time drinking wine and playing card games on their balcony and screaming with laughter and got just drunk enough to spend my walk home pretending i was in a music video for all the songs that came up on my sun's out playlist in the middle of the street because it's 1am on friday and nobody's outside. the ice cream was actually really good btw
#photo record#chatpost#YAY I LOVE HAVING FRIENDS! california friends move back to mass challenge#what i really NEED to do is get these local friends to have me over to their house more often. it's so nice to like. talk to people#i'm not gonna get too into it but the friend i spend the most time with irl is someone i have to watch what i say around all the time#it's soooooo nice to just. talk to people like normal and not walk on eggshells. lol.#my favorite thing in the world is to give somebody shit and to have shit be given to me in return. i love to rib and be ribbed.#I LOVE TO LAUGH!!!! i need to hang out with more people who will make me laugh.#but today was full of laughter. amen.
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I love watching video essays on YouTube about really well-known, popular theme and amusement parks that so many people went to as children and have really core memories surrounding
that my semi-rural Midwestern ass has never even heard of before the video showed up in my recommended
#I esp like Jenny Nicholson's content bc I would like to go to a Disney park sometime#(I went as a v v v young toddler to Disneyworld and don't remember so I'd like memories now lol)#but Florida is uhhhhhh Not Safe rn#and if I'm going all the way to California FUCK DISNEY I'm seeing REDWOODS#I wanna see San Francisco and Yosemite and some fun museums#but in general I'm living vicariously through these video essays#tho this summer the roommate and I do want to go to a local amusement park for a long weekend#(not naming it bc it would doxx me lmao. we don't have a lot of the amusement park chains around here. just local stuff.)#speecher speaks
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i voted today!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸
#got to vote yes on amendment to californias constitution enshrining the right to marry that felt good!!#and a proposition allowing local govts to enact rent control!!!
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#lanadelrey#lana del rey#femcel#coquette#spotify#girl blogger#lizzy grant#california#lana del slay#norman fucking rockwell#manic pixie dream girl#locally hated#lana is god#lana del ray aka lizzy grant#lana stan#lana is our queen#pink#girlcore
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What kinda bug is this
He was very small and could fly
#Bugs#bugblr#bug identification#help#is there a bug identifying tumblr account I can @?#For ID context bug was found in Southern California in a city by a small local farm
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