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Speaker 1: Welcome to How to Citizen The Bariton Day, a show

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Speaker 1: where we reimagine the words citizen as a verb, reclaim

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Speaker 1: it from those who weaponized it, and remind ourselves how

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Speaker 1: to wield our collective power. This is a new episode.

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Speaker 1: I'm Bariton Day. Like any healthy democracy, this show is

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Speaker 1: stronger when you participate, and we have a number of

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Speaker 1: ways for you to do that. If you're on the

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Speaker 1: social media, use the hashtag how to Citizen when you

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Speaker 1: post about the show, and we will lift up as

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Speaker 1: many as we can. If you want to be more direct,

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Speaker 1: you could always reach out to us via comments at

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Speaker 1: how to citizen dot com. We still check email around here,

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Speaker 1: and if you're doing the actions that we ask you

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Speaker 1: too at the individual show, let us know what you did.

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Speaker 1: Send an email to action at how to citizen dot com.

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Speaker 1: I am loving seeing your reflections the organizations you're starting.

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Speaker 1: It's really great. Let's keep it up and speaking to

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Speaker 1: keep it things up. We would be remiss if we

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Speaker 1: didn't ask you to rate and review the show wherever

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Speaker 1: you're listening to it. I suggest five stars, but that's

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Speaker 1: up to you. Citizen. A quick word on how we

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Speaker 1: make this show. We do most of them live in

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Speaker 1: zoom with a visible cameras on chat room, fired up audience,

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Speaker 1: which could include you. You have a chance to ask

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Speaker 1: our guest questions and literally help make the show. You

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Speaker 1: can sign up for these invites by going to how

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Speaker 1: to citizen dot com and joining my email list. And yes,

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Speaker 1: I love the live audience experience. But you're special because

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Speaker 1: you're right here, So don't worry. I'm gonna be back

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Speaker 1: check in with you, certainly at the end of the show,

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Speaker 1: where I give you particular ways that you can citizen.

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Speaker 1: Now a we to pass the mic to myself as

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Speaker 1: I set up this episode. We are gathered here today

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Speaker 1: to talk about work and the people who do it

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Speaker 1: in our society. For the past several decades, we've seen

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Speaker 1: a consolidation of power in our country and in our economy.

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Speaker 1: Productivity has gone up by seventent but wages have remained

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Speaker 1: stagnant for the last forty years. In the midst of

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Speaker 1: a pandemic, we are even more exposed to who has

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Speaker 1: power in the economy. And while we talk in abstract

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Speaker 1: terms about labor and capital, underneath of all that is people,

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Speaker 1: and as we know from this show, we are all

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Speaker 1: about that people power. One of the things we learned

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Speaker 1: from Eric lew in episode two is that when we

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Speaker 1: have power, we tend to consolidated. More power begets more power.

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Speaker 1: It compounds like interest, and we've seen that happen so

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Speaker 1: much with our economy and who has the power to

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Speaker 1: flex within it. But we also learned something else from

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Speaker 1: that seminal episode on power with Eric, that it's infinite

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Speaker 1: that we can generate it by shifting our attention, our focus,

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Speaker 1: our labors in the direction of distributing power more to

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Speaker 1: the people. There is a new labor movement afoot in

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Speaker 1: this country, and while we are drowning in the stories

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Speaker 1: of things that aren't working, there are people working to

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Speaker 1: make work itself work for so many of us. And

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Speaker 1: we are honored to have two of those individuals here

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Speaker 1: representing themselves and their organizations in building a new type

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Speaker 1: of movement for and with workers. Michelle Miller is the

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Speaker 1: co founder and co executive director of coworker dot org,

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Speaker 1: ap peer based platform that deploys digital tools and data

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Speaker 1: and strategies to help people improve their work lives. This

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Speaker 1: organization describes itself as a laboratory for workers to experiment

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Speaker 1: with power building strategies and win meaningful changes in the

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Speaker 1: twenty one century economy. Before co founding coworker dot Org,

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Speaker 1: Michelle spent a decade at the Service Employees International Union,

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Speaker 1: where she used creative media and the arts to advance

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Speaker 1: union campaigns. We are joined by Saru Jayaraman, the director

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Speaker 1: of the Social Movement Center at the University of California, Berkeley,

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Speaker 1: and because one job is not enough for this hard worker,

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Speaker 1: the president of One Fair Wage, which is fighting to

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Speaker 1: end sub minimum wages for tipped and other low wage

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Speaker 1: workers and ensure that everybody who works in America receives

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Speaker 1: at least a full fair minimum wage from their employer.

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Speaker 1: Prior to One Fair Wage, Saro co founded Restaurant Opportunities

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Speaker 1: Centers United to improve wages and working conditions for the

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Speaker 1: nation's restaurant workforce. Both Michelle and Saru have been at

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Speaker 1: this for a long time. In some cases they have

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Speaker 1: degrees in it. They teach it, they've studied it, and

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Speaker 1: they've practiced it. And they share something else in common.

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Speaker 1: They both have a White House connect I'm speaking, of course.

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Speaker 1: At the previous White House, Michelle co moderated a panel

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Speaker 1: with then President Obama on worker Voice, Saru was recognized

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Speaker 1: by that same White House as a champion of change back.

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Speaker 1: So I want to start with a quote actually from

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Speaker 1: the home page of coworker dot org, which says the following,

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Speaker 1: at co worker, we believe people should have agency and

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Speaker 1: power in their work lives. Most of us will spend

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Speaker 1: a third of our adult lives at work, more time

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Speaker 1: than we spend with our families, in school or participating

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Speaker 1: in our community civic life. Yet many of us are

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Speaker 1: silenced and unseen at our jobs. We deserve to have

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Speaker 1: a voice in shaping our working conditions and the ways

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Speaker 1: in which work happens. We are powerful, and together we

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Speaker 1: can transform our jobs and workplaces. Amazing sentiments, very well

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Speaker 1: stated and well said, and it sets the stage for

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Speaker 1: why we're here. Even though it's from Coworker det work,

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Speaker 1: that represents a lot of the work you've both have

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Speaker 1: been doing across your whole careers. You're both on the

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Speaker 1: front lines of new ways of looking at work, and

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Speaker 1: I want to understand from you how, even if the

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Speaker 1: types of workers your organizations focus on are different, some

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Speaker 1: of the tactics and struggles you're seeing may actually be

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Speaker 1: the same. Can you tell me about who you're supporting

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Speaker 1: with your work and what that looks like. Michelle, I'll

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Speaker 1: start with you. Sure, thank you so much. I'm very

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Speaker 1: happy to be here with all of you. Um SO

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Speaker 1: co worker is UM. We sometimes describe ourselves as the

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Speaker 1: welcome that to the labor movement on the Internet. We're

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Speaker 1: an open platform for anybody to start a workplace campaign

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Speaker 1: around something they care about that they want to change,

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Speaker 1: and we help the muse internet tools to build up

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Speaker 1: a committee of their fellow co workers, no matter where

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Speaker 1: those co workers are in the country. And so most

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Speaker 1: of the people that we support are people in service sector,

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Speaker 1: low wage jobs, people in the gig economy. We've worked

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Speaker 1: closely with the organizations that RU founded rock UM in

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Speaker 1: restaurant work, retail and gig and and many other parts

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Speaker 1: of the economy where people are sort of doing that

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Speaker 1: frontline work, frontline service work. The people that we interact

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Speaker 1: with every day UM as we are going about our

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Speaker 1: business so just quickly during COVID nineteen, one example is

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Speaker 1: we supported campaigns by grocery store workers at almost every

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Speaker 1: national and regional chain, and they were the people who

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Speaker 1: were able to recognize very quickly the potential health impacts

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Speaker 1: of having to work during the pandemic and the necessity

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Speaker 1: of having grocery store employees on the front lines. And

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Speaker 1: so they one hazard pay and made hazard pay like

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Speaker 1: just an understood demand that they were able to win

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Speaker 1: at the company level and then sort of in the

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Speaker 1: media level, where when people were talking about what workers

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Speaker 1: deserve in this moment, they were always including this idea

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Speaker 1: of hawzard pay, and that has been for those workers.

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Speaker 1: Just the act of coming together and winning hazard pay

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Speaker 1: at places like Trader Joe's and and Whole Foods and

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Speaker 1: other places engage them in an experience of their own

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Speaker 1: collective power that has kept them together over time to

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Speaker 1: ensure that those companies hang on to the protections that

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Speaker 1: they want. So that's a little bit about who we're

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Speaker 1: working with and how we're working on these campaigns. I

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Speaker 1: love the way you put that engage them in the

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Speaker 1: experience of their own collective power. You landed at the

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Speaker 1: right podcast right now, Michelle um Saru. I have a

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Speaker 1: similar question to you. You know, who is one fair

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Speaker 1: wage supporting with its work? What does that work look like?

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Speaker 1: Right after September eleven, two thousand one, I co founded

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Speaker 1: the Restaurant Opportunity Center together with workers, restaurant workers with

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Speaker 1: lost their jobs and their co workers lives at Windows

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Speaker 1: on the World, which was the restaurant at the top

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Speaker 1: of the World Trade Center Town one, and since that

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Speaker 1: time nineteen years ago, been fighting to raise wages and

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Speaker 1: working conditions in the restaurant industry and now more broadly

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Speaker 1: in the service sector, all tipped workers. Um So, they're

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Speaker 1: about thirteen points six million restaurant workers in America, or

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Speaker 1: there were right before the pandemic. Another couple million other

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Speaker 1: tipped workers now salon, car wash, wheelchair attendants, hair salon workers.

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Speaker 1: These are all tipped workers. And then gig workers who

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Speaker 1: received tips are also under our umbrella. And what we've

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Speaker 1: been collectively fighting for is, you know, at this point,

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Speaker 1: we're close to fifteen or sixteen million workers in America

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Speaker 1: collectively fighting to end the sub minimum wage for tipped workers,

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Speaker 1: which is still two dollars and thirteen cents an hour

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Speaker 1: in the United States of America. And I'll tell you

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Speaker 1: more about the history of why it's two dollars and

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Speaker 1: thirteen cents an hour. It's a literal legacy of slavery

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Speaker 1: and a little bit but just to say who these

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Speaker 1: workers are. They are women, they're just proportionally women of color.

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Speaker 1: They are adults, they're not teenagers, um the media ages

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Speaker 1: thirty five. And they are literally the lowest paid workers

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Speaker 1: in America. Every year the U. S. Department of Labor

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Speaker 1: has put out a list of the ten lowest paying jobs,

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Speaker 1: and every year, seven of the ten lowest paying jobs

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Speaker 1: in America are all in one sector, the restaurant and

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Speaker 1: service sector. So you know, it's the people who put

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Speaker 1: food on our tables, who, frankly, even before the pandemic,

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Speaker 1: couldn't put food on their own families tables. With the pandemic,

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Speaker 1: it became an issue of life and death because sixty

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Speaker 1: of these workers couldn't get unemployment insurance. About ten million

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Speaker 1: of these fifteen million workers lost their jobs, and sixty

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Speaker 1: of them couldn't get unemployment insurance, not because they weren't documented.

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Speaker 1: There was a whole other issue for immigrants, but for

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Speaker 1: documented workers, they couldn't get unemployment insurance because they were

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Speaker 1: living off tips and their states told them you earned

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Speaker 1: too little, it does look like you earned anything, or

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Speaker 1: you earned too little for us to award you benefits.

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Speaker 1: And so these workers were gaslight. They were told, because

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Speaker 1: we pay you too little, you're not going to get

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Speaker 1: benefits that, by the way, you pay taxes to get.

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Speaker 1: And now these same workers are being asked to go

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Speaker 1: back to work and enforce social distancing and mask rules

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Speaker 1: with the very same customers from whom they're supposed to

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Speaker 1: get tips to make up that two dollar wage and

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Speaker 1: bring it to the full minimum wage. So you know

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Speaker 1: who are these workers. They're the workers that frankly, are

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Speaker 1: going to either stop or perpetuate a super spreader event

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Speaker 1: this fall when indoor dining really becomes a thing in

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Speaker 1: a lot of the East Coast, and the CDC has

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Speaker 1: reported eating at a restaurant makes you twice as likely

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Speaker 1: to get the virus, which means both the workers and

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Speaker 1: everybody you know who eats in these restaurants is going

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Speaker 1: to be at incredible risks. So we're relying on these

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Speaker 1: workers who are protecting us, and we're paying them two

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Speaker 1: dollars at the same time. That's who these workers are.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for that overview, And I think bringing it

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Speaker 1: to the tension, the sort of contradictory, the paradoxical demands

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Speaker 1: that we've put on a certain set of workers to

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Speaker 1: ingratiate themselves to customers, will also disciplining them and becoming

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Speaker 1: some sort of rule enforcer and a and a public

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Speaker 1: health official. That doesn't quite add up. It just sounds unreasonable.

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Speaker 1: There is a word that we are getting more familiar

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Speaker 1: with in this show and encouraging people to embrace as well,

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Speaker 1: and that is power. And you know where does it

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Speaker 1: reside and who has it? And in the age old

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Speaker 1: question of employers and employees, there is a power dynamic

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Speaker 1: and we've seen some shifts in that, certainly at the

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Speaker 1: highest levels in the US over the past several decades,

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Speaker 1: a declining union membership as one example, or the distribution

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Speaker 1: of wages and earnings as another. But I'm curious what

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Speaker 1: are you both seeing and what's different now than it

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Speaker 1: was for fifty years ago. I can start, if you

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Speaker 1: don't mind. This is where I'd love to bring in

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Speaker 1: the history because why are we so focused on the

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Speaker 1: fact that six or seven million people earn a two

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Speaker 1: dollar wage. We're focused on it because it's the greatest

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Speaker 1: power that the industry has over its workers, which is

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Speaker 1: the power not to pay them at all and have

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Speaker 1: customers essentially pay them for them. It's the power to

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Speaker 1: say I will benefit from the value of your labor

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Speaker 1: without actually paying for it. It's the power to basically

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Speaker 1: have one group of working people, which is customers, pay

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Speaker 1: for another group of working people's wages. And what's amazing

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Speaker 1: in this moment is that literally thousands of workers are

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Speaker 1: now rising up and saying I've had enough of this,

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Speaker 1: and it's a hundred and fifty years overdue. Because tipping

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Speaker 1: originated in feudal Europe, it was something that aristocrats and

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Speaker 1: nobles gave to serve some vassals, but always on top

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Speaker 1: of a wage. When it came to the United States,

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Speaker 1: it was actually right around the time of emancipation eighteen

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Speaker 1: fifties eighteen sixties, and the restaurant lobby demanded the right

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Speaker 1: to hire newly freed slaves, mostly black women at the time,

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Speaker 1: and not pay them anything and have them live entirely

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Speaker 1: on tips. They wanted the ability to basically continue slavery

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Speaker 1: um to have black workers that they didn't have to

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Speaker 1: pay because they didn't value their labor much less so

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Speaker 1: because they were black women, and so that idea that

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Speaker 1: a black woman could be paid zero dollars an hour. Frankly,

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Speaker 1: a black person could be paid zero dollars an hour

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Speaker 1: and have to live off of tips. Became law in

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Speaker 1: ninety eight, is part of the New Deal when everybody

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Speaker 1: got the right to the minimum wage for the first

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Speaker 1: time in the United States, except for three groups of

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Speaker 1: black workers, farm workers, domestic workers, and tipped restaurant workers

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Speaker 1: who were told, you get a zero dollar wage as

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Speaker 1: long as tips bring you to the full minimum wage.

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Speaker 1: We went from zero in eight to two dollars and

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Speaker 1: thirteen cents an hour, a two dollar increase over one

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty years. And I think, I mean, we

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Speaker 1: all know it wouldn't be two dollars if it were men,

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Speaker 1: or if it were white men. But it's women, and

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Speaker 1: it's women of color, and they largely work at eye

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Speaker 1: hoops and Denny's and Red Lobsters, and they're struggling to

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Speaker 1: make ends meet because for a hundred fifty years, because

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Speaker 1: of the incredible power of a trade lobby called the

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Speaker 1: National Restaurant Association. We call it the other n r A.

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Speaker 1: It represents the chains, the eye hoops, the apple these

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Speaker 1: the olive garden. And here's the thing, like, you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe this absurd legacy of slavery would have gone away

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Speaker 1: if it hadn't been for exactly what you said, the

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Speaker 1: concentration of power among these chains who formed this formidable

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Speaker 1: trade lobby and have been named the tenth most powerful

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Speaker 1: lobbying group in Congress and in every state, the State

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Speaker 1: Restaurant Association is the number one voice on the minimum wage,

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Speaker 1: on paid sick leave, on paid family leave, on any

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Speaker 1: worker issue. At the federal level, the n r A,

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Speaker 1: the other n r A as we call it, is

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Speaker 1: the number one voice on employment issues in Congress. And

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Speaker 1: so until now it's been what we call Da Vita

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Speaker 1: versus Goliath. It's not David versus Golliath, it's the Vita

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Speaker 1: or Daniela versus Goliath, because these are women and women

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Speaker 1: of color up against the most powerful trade lobby in

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Speaker 1: the United States. And it's been a really, really tough fight.

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Speaker 1: We've actually won a full minimum wage with tips on

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Speaker 1: top three times in Michigan, Maine, and d c. And

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Speaker 1: in every instance, this incredibly powerful trade lobby lobbied and

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Speaker 1: bribed democrats, let's be real, to overturn the will of

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Speaker 1: the people in each of those places. And so it's

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Speaker 1: been a tough fight. You know, five steps forward two

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Speaker 1: steps back because we're up against this huge lobby and

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Speaker 1: finally we've reached this pandemic moment where we have literally

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Speaker 1: thousands of workers who are saying that's it. I'm done.

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Speaker 1: Enough is enough, because you know, you're asking me to

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Speaker 1: go back to work for two and three dollars, put

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Speaker 1: my life at risk and my mom they's life at

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Speaker 1: risk for two or three dollars when tips are down.

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Speaker 1: You're asking me to enforce these rules with these crazy

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Speaker 1: customers who I don't know if you'll have seen the

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Speaker 1: news clips, but they're assaulting servers right now. They are

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Speaker 1: assaulting servers for trying to enforce these rules, and so

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Speaker 1: workers have been going on strike. We organized the first

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Speaker 1: strike August thirty one. I don't know if it's possible

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Speaker 1: by tunity for me to share an image. I'd love

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Speaker 1: to share an image from the strengths. Is that possible? So, yeah,

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Speaker 1: this is a podcast, and you cannot see what's Aru

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Speaker 1: put up on her screen, So let me try to

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Speaker 1: paint the picture with words. She shared a photograph. The

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Speaker 1: setting is Time Square. There's a large crowd gathered to protest.

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Speaker 1: They're all wearing face masks, their photographs, their signs that

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Speaker 1: say things like paid sick days. Dominating the photo is

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Speaker 1: a towering twenty four ft cutout of a black woman

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Speaker 1: with long braids and a face mask that says fight,

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Speaker 1: don't stop are She's wearing an apron and looking directly

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Speaker 1: at the camera lens as she makes a fist with

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Speaker 1: her right hand and a gesture very reminiscent of Rosie Deriveter.

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Speaker 1: This isn't Rosie, though. This is Elena the Essential Worker.

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Speaker 1: We erected her in Times Square and also in Sokolow

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Speaker 1: Square in Chicago. There are five of hers. She'll be

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Speaker 1: appearing also in Philly and d C in Boston. UM

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Speaker 1: workers are going on strike all over the country to

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Speaker 1: say enough is enough. We will not go back to

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Speaker 1: work without a full fair minimum wage with tips on

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Speaker 1: top and talking about power. What I think is one

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Speaker 1: of the most extraordinary things about this moment is that

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Speaker 1: I've seen hundreds of restaurant owners who actually opposed us

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Speaker 1: on this issue, fought us on this issue, who suddenly

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Speaker 1: come to us and said, enough is enough. We think

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Speaker 1: you're right. The time has come to get rid of

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Speaker 1: this legacy of slavery and to move on. And so

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Speaker 1: workers are thrise s up and employers are responding, Michelle,

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Speaker 1: I'd love you too talk about power dynamics in the industry.

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Speaker 1: And I know you work in so many but one

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Speaker 1: of the ones that feel so different to me from

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Speaker 1: the world of tipped workers or grocery workers that we've

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Speaker 1: heard about so far is the world of tech workers.

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Speaker 1: And if I could kind of suggest getting your analysis

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Speaker 1: on what the workplace power dynamics look like, they're because

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Speaker 1: so many of us on the outside say these workers

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Speaker 1: are highly compensated, they get everything they want, they have

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Speaker 1: foodsball or what have you. What does that dynamic really

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Speaker 1: look like, and what may some of us not understand

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Speaker 1: about power in the tech workplace? So power really is

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Speaker 1: central to this question. I think tech provides a really

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Speaker 1: good illustration of how money doesn't always even equal power.

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Speaker 1: So shortly after the election, there were many tech workers

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Speaker 1: who started getting together and and you know, deciding that

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Speaker 1: they were not going to participate in creating lists for deportation,

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Speaker 1: that they were going to choose not to build surveillance software,

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Speaker 1: that they were going to not participate in the further

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Speaker 1: incursion of human rights via technology. And as they were

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Speaker 1: having these conversations, one of the things they really realized

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Speaker 1: was like, Oh, we've already kind of built all of this,

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Speaker 1: like we've been doing this for many years. And these

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Speaker 1: very well compensated workers, who in many of their companies

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Speaker 1: had various forums where they could speak up and talk

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Speaker 1: about things that were bothering them, had a sense that

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Speaker 1: when they started talking about the sort of fundamental money

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Speaker 1: makers inside of these companies, inside of places like Google,

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Speaker 1: which is like the collection of data on every single

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Speaker 1: user that touches even comes near a Google product, or

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Speaker 1: at Facebook, the enabling of disinformation campaigns and and advise

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Speaker 1: and and Twitter just being Twitter, that it was going

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Speaker 1: to take something more than speaking up once or twice

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Speaker 1: at a meeting. And so they came to us and

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Speaker 1: they asked us. Their first question was is it legal

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Speaker 1: and okay for us to use labor organizing around our

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Speaker 1: ethics questions with our companies um? Which was such an

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Speaker 1: interesting um way to approach this because for most low

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Speaker 1: wage workers, like the rules in the law have literally

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Speaker 1: never worked in their favor, and so there isn't that

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Speaker 1: that question doesn't come up as much as for tech workers,

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Speaker 1: even for folks who maybe came from more marginalized communities,

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Speaker 1: like the rules have generally worked out, and so the

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Speaker 1: first thing they had to do was really think about,

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Speaker 1: like interrogate the idea that labor law and labor organizing

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Speaker 1: is not necessarily governed by a set of fair rules

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Speaker 1: at the outset, and you might just have to take

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Speaker 1: a risk anyway to build the power that you need

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Speaker 1: in order to debate changes. And so we started working

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Speaker 1: specifically with a group of employees at Google who were

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Speaker 1: concerned about a series of issues inside the company, both

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Speaker 1: around internal harassment campaigns directed at people of color and

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Speaker 1: queer people and trans people who worked at the company.

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Speaker 1: That essentially what would happen would be that they would

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Speaker 1: raise issues around their ethics, concerns about products that the

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Speaker 1: company was building on internal message boards, and then more

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Speaker 1: like conservative or racist people inside the company would go

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Speaker 1: after them and attack them, and they couldn't get the

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Speaker 1: company to take their complaints about what was happening seriously

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Speaker 1: to kept asking someone to discipline the people who were

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Speaker 1: going after them, and they couldn't get the company to respond.

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Speaker 1: And so what they started having to do with something

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Speaker 1: that they had never done before, which is organized themselves

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Speaker 1: into a collective you know, we talked to them a

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Speaker 1: lot about how like, if you are all individually fighting this,

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Speaker 1: you are never actually going to make the progress that

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Speaker 1: you need. You have to do it all together and

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Speaker 1: then telling the story of what was happening to them publicly.

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Speaker 1: And so you know, for these employees, the fights that

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Speaker 1: they were having with these companies were not fights about

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Speaker 1: whether or not they were getting enough pay or whether

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Speaker 1: or not they were getting decent benefits, but really like

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Speaker 1: what does our labor produce and what is the environment

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Speaker 1: in which we are actually producing those things? So do

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Speaker 1: I want to use my labor which I bring into

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Speaker 1: this company to produce surveillance drones that are flying over

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Speaker 1: the Middle East and able to identify people based on

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Speaker 1: one pixel of information, which is what the project may

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Speaker 1: have ben campaign at Google was run by Googlers, and

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Speaker 1: and many of the Googlers who were involved in um

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Speaker 1: demanding that Google stop a partnership with the Department of

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Speaker 1: Defense to build those surveillance drones were themselves from Muslim

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Speaker 1: families who knew that the people in their own families

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Speaker 1: would be targeted in their own countries by these surveillance drones.

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Speaker 1: And you know at Facebook there were questions about, like

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Speaker 1: are we going to continue to turn a blind eye

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Speaker 1: to the ways in which our platform is enabling genocide

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Speaker 1: and Myanmar or um election funagling in Brazil. But again

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Speaker 1: like this question of like what does my labor do

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Speaker 1: and what is the result of what it performs, and

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Speaker 1: what is my relationship to that? And can I organize

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Speaker 1: around those things? And can I tell a company as

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Speaker 1: a collective body that you are not going to use

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Speaker 1: our labor, You're not going to use our engineering skills

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Speaker 1: to do harm to people that we share the world

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Speaker 1: with or that we share the country with. Another great

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Speaker 1: example of that was when the information about detention centers

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Speaker 1: being run by ICE was made public in in the

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Speaker 1: summer of how many tech workers quickly recognized that Salesforce

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Speaker 1: was providing software, that Wayfare was providing beds, that all

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Speaker 1: of these companies were deeply embedded in these practices and

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Speaker 1: actually enabling those practices to take place, And again people

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Speaker 1: collectively coming together and saying like, you don't get to

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Speaker 1: use my labor for this. And so what we've seen

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Speaker 1: is this sort of ongoing interrogation of the ways in

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Speaker 1: which the companies that people have been working for for

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Speaker 1: many years who previously had promised them that the work

435
00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:20,679
Speaker 1: they were doing was all about the betterment of the world.

436
00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:24,719
Speaker 1: That like technology, remember like that, like technology was going

437
00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:27,560
Speaker 1: to connect us all and make everything easier and better. Um,

438
00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:29,840
Speaker 1: and that the root of the lie and that promise

439
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:33,359
Speaker 1: when you are built into the United States of America's

440
00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:38,160
Speaker 1: imperial goals and further incursion on human rights, Like how

441
00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:40,119
Speaker 1: do you contest with the fact that you are involved

442
00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:42,240
Speaker 1: in that project and how do you use your labor

443
00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:45,919
Speaker 1: to stop those things? When I'm hearing from both of

444
00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:50,000
Speaker 1: you in different ways, is an attempt to rebalance power,

445
00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:55,000
Speaker 1: whether that power has been used to take advantage of

446
00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:58,200
Speaker 1: someone in a literal financial and physical sense or in

447
00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:01,399
Speaker 1: a more moral and ethical sense, that we need to

448
00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:05,080
Speaker 1: shift that balance of power between workers. And certainly they're

449
00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:08,400
Speaker 1: very large employers who are consolidated and have some outsize

450
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:10,800
Speaker 1: amount of power and making the rules. What do you

451
00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:14,800
Speaker 1: all think happens outside of the workplace. It feels like

452
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:17,800
Speaker 1: it's bigger than just the workplace. Are there ripple effects?

453
00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:23,159
Speaker 1: Are their consequences for the larger society in not doing

454
00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:25,600
Speaker 1: that and not rebalancing that power and that sort of

455
00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:29,040
Speaker 1: taking on and giving workers more of a voice to

456
00:26:29,119 --> 00:26:34,600
Speaker 1: use some of your language. Listen, the pandemic revealed so

457
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:38,080
Speaker 1: much that was so wrong for so long, you know,

458
00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:41,359
Speaker 1: the dysfunction of the system, not just for workers, but

459
00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:45,080
Speaker 1: for employers and consumers and frankly for our democracy. So

460
00:26:45,119 --> 00:26:49,000
Speaker 1: I'm going to go in that order. The dysfunction didn't

461
00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:52,880
Speaker 1: work for employers. You know, our industry has the highest

462
00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:56,960
Speaker 1: rates of turnover of any industry United States. It's that's

463
00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:00,520
Speaker 1: three turns in one position in one year. We actually

464
00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:03,560
Speaker 1: calculated the cost and it's in the millions for any

465
00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:06,960
Speaker 1: of these chains. They spend millions of dollars each year

466
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:11,080
Speaker 1: on rehiring and retraining and employee morale being low because

467
00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:15,400
Speaker 1: they pay so little, so that it hurts employers themselves,

468
00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:19,400
Speaker 1: even it hurts shareholders. It hurts people in these companies

469
00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:22,879
Speaker 1: who are not actually achieving their best potential as companies

470
00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:27,080
Speaker 1: because they're not paid. It hurts consumers because we end

471
00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:30,240
Speaker 1: up bearing the brunt of the public health disaster that

472
00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:35,199
Speaker 1: occurs when tipped workers cannot enforce these rules because they

473
00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:37,720
Speaker 1: have to rely on tips. But it also hurts consumers

474
00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:43,959
Speaker 1: because consumers are footing the bill for multibillion dollar corporations

475
00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:47,280
Speaker 1: by paying their workers wages in tips. You know, we

476
00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:52,160
Speaker 1: as consumers and taxpayers, we subsidize multibillion dollar corporations like

477
00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:55,359
Speaker 1: Darden which is all of Gardens parent company, and I

478
00:27:55,560 --> 00:27:58,760
Speaker 1: Hop and Denny's. We subsidize them through our tips, paying

479
00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:01,719
Speaker 1: their workers wages to their tips. But we also subsidize

480
00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:04,320
Speaker 1: them to the tune of sixteen point five billion with

481
00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:09,600
Speaker 1: a B dollars annually in taxpayer funded public assistance. This is,

482
00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:13,720
Speaker 1: you know, workers having to use Medicare or Medicaid, workers

483
00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:18,040
Speaker 1: you know, using various forms of emergency room care. I mean,

484
00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:21,960
Speaker 1: just all kinds of public assistance. But I think the

485
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:25,040
Speaker 1: biggest thing to think about when workers don't have power

486
00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:27,480
Speaker 1: and they end up with a two dollar wage, which is,

487
00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:31,200
Speaker 1: to me, the epitome of not having power. The biggest

488
00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:35,480
Speaker 1: challenge is to our economy and our democracy, because what

489
00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:38,960
Speaker 1: happens when the largest and fastest growing industry in America

490
00:28:39,320 --> 00:28:42,720
Speaker 1: is the absolute lowest pain. It means that we're going

491
00:28:42,760 --> 00:28:45,320
Speaker 1: from a country of one in three working Americans working

492
00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:47,680
Speaker 1: and living in poverty to a country of one and

493
00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 1: two Americans. Half of all working Americans working full time

494
00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:55,560
Speaker 1: and living in poverty. It means that our consumption power

495
00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:58,800
Speaker 1: as a country is non existent. I think we're feeling

496
00:28:58,840 --> 00:29:02,640
Speaker 1: that right now. When millions of people are out of work,

497
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:07,680
Speaker 1: unable to cover meals for their children, or or utilities

498
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:10,680
Speaker 1: or pay the rent, what happens to our ability to

499
00:29:10,760 --> 00:29:14,040
Speaker 1: consume as a country. And then, worst of all, for

500
00:29:14,080 --> 00:29:16,400
Speaker 1: those of you that have ever scratched your heads about

501
00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:19,360
Speaker 1: why we don't vote as a country, why is it

502
00:29:19,400 --> 00:29:22,960
Speaker 1: that Americans have such a low voter turnout rate? I

503
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:25,400
Speaker 1: will tell you why. It's because the largest and fastest

504
00:29:25,400 --> 00:29:28,520
Speaker 1: growing industries in America are people who work two in

505
00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:33,800
Speaker 1: three jobs and largely cannot, you know, afford to think

506
00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:39,040
Speaker 1: or let alone engage in political activity, and frankly also

507
00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:43,760
Speaker 1: feel disillusion and disengage because they're earning two dollars an

508
00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:47,240
Speaker 1: hour and they've seen both Democrats and Republicans sell them

509
00:29:47,240 --> 00:29:50,080
Speaker 1: down the river for the National Restaurant Association and leave

510
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:52,240
Speaker 1: them at two dollars an hour, even as other workers

511
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:55,120
Speaker 1: go up to fifteen. They've been left behind at two

512
00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:57,720
Speaker 1: and three and five. I know if it were me,

513
00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:00,600
Speaker 1: I wouldn't vote because I would say it's the point

514
00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:03,240
Speaker 1: both parties have left me at two and three dollars.

515
00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:06,440
Speaker 1: That's the result of a lack of power among low

516
00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:09,560
Speaker 1: wage workers, a lack of voice, a lack of ability

517
00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:12,800
Speaker 1: to change their circumstances. Those are the moments in which

518
00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:16,680
Speaker 1: fascist rise. When workers don't have voice or power. They

519
00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:20,440
Speaker 1: feel helpless, they feel hopeless, they feel disengaged. And what

520
00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:22,760
Speaker 1: I'm trying to say is that definitely is changing. There

521
00:30:22,800 --> 00:30:25,920
Speaker 1: is hope on the horizon. We've seen work these same

522
00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:28,680
Speaker 1: workers now rising up and saying enough is enough, not

523
00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:31,080
Speaker 1: just with regard to their wages, but also with regard

524
00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:35,000
Speaker 1: to voting. They're feeling some hope with regard to voting.

525
00:30:35,080 --> 00:30:40,680
Speaker 1: But the real consequence of us having allowed these workers

526
00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:44,120
Speaker 1: for so long to not have power and to not

527
00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:47,160
Speaker 1: get paid, and to not feel their voice or their power,

528
00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:51,880
Speaker 1: or even their humanity at two dollars an hour is

529
00:30:51,960 --> 00:30:57,200
Speaker 1: the loss of our democracy. Michelle, do you have anything

530
00:30:57,240 --> 00:30:59,880
Speaker 1: you want to add to this idea of the effects

531
00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:04,080
Speaker 1: on the workplace. I mean, as sorry was talking, I

532
00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:07,600
Speaker 1: was really thinking a lot about the deeper layers of

533
00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:11,040
Speaker 1: the loss of being able to vote and the fact

534
00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:14,880
Speaker 1: that someone is working two to three jobs and probably

535
00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:17,760
Speaker 1: taking care of someone in their family that doesn't have

536
00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:22,600
Speaker 1: adequate access to medical care, and probably is also responsible

537
00:31:22,640 --> 00:31:25,040
Speaker 1: for children and their family who don't have access to

538
00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:29,400
Speaker 1: decent child care and is are really bearing the brunt

539
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:33,840
Speaker 1: of a number of structural and institutional failures in this country.

540
00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:37,240
Speaker 1: Also then do not have the time or the mental

541
00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:41,360
Speaker 1: space to contribute to the policies that will change those

542
00:31:41,400 --> 00:31:45,480
Speaker 1: things and to actually be active members of our communities,

543
00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:49,959
Speaker 1: and the ways in which that tears at community like

544
00:31:50,160 --> 00:31:54,520
Speaker 1: that means that the commons only gets to be populated

545
00:31:54,600 --> 00:31:57,400
Speaker 1: by people who have enough money in time to show

546
00:31:57,480 --> 00:32:01,040
Speaker 1: up in the commons because everybody else at work. And

547
00:32:01,080 --> 00:32:04,360
Speaker 1: when you can't show up, the things that you know

548
00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:08,959
Speaker 1: about the ways in which the economy does function could function,

549
00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:11,000
Speaker 1: the ways in which we can care for each other,

550
00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:13,520
Speaker 1: the ways in which we distribute food and goods and

551
00:32:13,600 --> 00:32:17,680
Speaker 1: logistics are all lost. It is like an aggregate loss

552
00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:20,560
Speaker 1: to us in terms of actually being able to adequately

553
00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:24,160
Speaker 1: govern our society and make good decisions about the ways

554
00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:28,200
Speaker 1: in which we want to allocate resources to run a

555
00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:32,640
Speaker 1: good economy. It is not just a matter of the

556
00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:35,560
Speaker 1: fact that it's not fair and not right that folks

557
00:32:35,600 --> 00:32:38,160
Speaker 1: are working all the time and forced to event poverty

558
00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:41,040
Speaker 1: and suffering, although of course those things are true, but

559
00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:44,560
Speaker 1: there is a deeper loss around the contributions that people

560
00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:47,400
Speaker 1: can actually make to our culture and our society and

561
00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:51,160
Speaker 1: the ideas that drive our government. When you think about

562
00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:54,240
Speaker 1: the fact that most of the policy that has developed,

563
00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:57,320
Speaker 1: most of the stories that are told about our economy

564
00:32:57,360 --> 00:33:01,080
Speaker 1: are told by people who mostly operate and very similar

565
00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:04,320
Speaker 1: circumstances to one another economically, and came from the same

566
00:33:04,320 --> 00:33:07,840
Speaker 1: schools and live in the same places, you really can

567
00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:12,200
Speaker 1: start to grock like why we have not been able

568
00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:14,880
Speaker 1: to meet people and why people feel like there's nothing

569
00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:18,240
Speaker 1: worth voting for because the institutions don't even know how

570
00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:20,640
Speaker 1: to talk to and engage the people because they haven't

571
00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:24,080
Speaker 1: included them in their governance. We call the show how

572
00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:26,760
Speaker 1: to Citizen. We're trying to make it a verb. We're

573
00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:30,120
Speaker 1: trying to define together what that means for us as people.

574
00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:33,920
Speaker 1: But we also live in a society where corporations are

575
00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:39,640
Speaker 1: people like entities, and there's an idea of corporate citizenship

576
00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:42,840
Speaker 1: that sometimes means deeper things than other times, but there

577
00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:45,800
Speaker 1: is a set of responsibilities and I'm curious what you

578
00:33:45,840 --> 00:33:49,320
Speaker 1: all think of the role of a good corporate citizen.

579
00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:52,800
Speaker 1: How does a company citizen, Well, what does it mean

580
00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:55,360
Speaker 1: for them for the benefit of the society to do

581
00:33:55,400 --> 00:34:00,640
Speaker 1: that better. We now have eight hundred and fifty restaurant

582
00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:03,320
Speaker 1: companies who have joined forces with us and are coming

583
00:34:03,360 --> 00:34:06,920
Speaker 1: with us to governors and and to city councils and

584
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:12,400
Speaker 1: state legislatures and Congress to say, we need livable wages

585
00:34:12,600 --> 00:34:15,680
Speaker 1: for workers. We need it to be required across the board.

586
00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:18,239
Speaker 1: We need fifteen dollars with tips on top. We need

587
00:34:18,239 --> 00:34:21,480
Speaker 1: paid sickly, we need hazard pay. They are saying they

588
00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:25,839
Speaker 1: need those things as employers, both because they believe that's

589
00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:28,759
Speaker 1: good for workers and because they believe it's actually better

590
00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:31,480
Speaker 1: for the bottom line for their business. But I will

591
00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:34,440
Speaker 1: tell you that's not the chains. That's mostly not the chains.

592
00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:39,120
Speaker 1: These are independent restaurants across the country that, although they

593
00:34:39,160 --> 00:34:41,880
Speaker 1: also are struggling to survive, are saying, you know what,

594
00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:44,040
Speaker 1: we're struggling to survive, but we know our workers are

595
00:34:44,040 --> 00:34:47,400
Speaker 1: struggling ten thousand times more than we are. Where we

596
00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:50,879
Speaker 1: may lose our businesses, they'll lose their homes. And so

597
00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:55,080
Speaker 1: to me, they are model corporate citizens. They are the

598
00:34:55,160 --> 00:34:58,319
Speaker 1: employers who are saying this is not just about me

599
00:34:58,480 --> 00:35:01,879
Speaker 1: as the business owner making double triple digit profits. This

600
00:35:01,960 --> 00:35:06,040
Speaker 1: is about me as not just a member of my community,

601
00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:10,680
Speaker 1: but a provider for my community, an employer in my community. UM,

602
00:35:10,719 --> 00:35:15,000
Speaker 1: somebody who not only you know, shut down my business,

603
00:35:15,600 --> 00:35:19,239
Speaker 1: but then watched my workers suffer in my community, and

604
00:35:19,280 --> 00:35:24,760
Speaker 1: that impacts me. Um. The model corporate citizen is the Frankly,

605
00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:27,000
Speaker 1: the Henry Ford of today. I mean, let's be clear,

606
00:35:27,040 --> 00:35:29,840
Speaker 1: Henry Ford was a Nazi and a racist. Let's be

607
00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:33,960
Speaker 1: clear on who Henry Ford was. But the philosophy that

608
00:35:34,600 --> 00:35:38,000
Speaker 1: he espoused that I have to make sure that my

609
00:35:38,120 --> 00:35:41,480
Speaker 1: workers on the assembly line make enough to pay for

610
00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:46,120
Speaker 1: the cars, frankly, was a selfish philosophy. Was a philosophy

611
00:35:46,239 --> 00:35:49,640
Speaker 1: of I want to make sure there are consumers. And

612
00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:54,640
Speaker 1: we've gone so far a field from you know, even

613
00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:59,000
Speaker 1: Frankly basic economics Like that, to me is just basic economics.

614
00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:03,640
Speaker 1: We've gone so far a field to ingreed and avarice

615
00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:10,200
Speaker 1: and just extreme profit driven motive that they have cannibalized

616
00:36:10,239 --> 00:36:14,320
Speaker 1: their own consumer base. In the restaurant industry, for example,

617
00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:18,520
Speaker 1: before the pandemic, we had three segments fine dining, casual

618
00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:20,799
Speaker 1: or family style restaurant. Those about eye Hoops and the

619
00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:24,280
Speaker 1: Applebees that are full service but casual, and then quick

620
00:36:24,320 --> 00:36:27,680
Speaker 1: service anything without a waiter. Well, fast food and fine

621
00:36:27,719 --> 00:36:30,920
Speaker 1: dining were exploding because of the hour glass nature of

622
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:34,480
Speaker 1: our economy. The wealthy were eating out and low wage

623
00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:38,759
Speaker 1: workers were eating in fast food. But the casual restaurants

624
00:36:38,760 --> 00:36:42,440
Speaker 1: of America have stagnated. They've not died, but they've stagnated.

625
00:36:42,440 --> 00:36:44,760
Speaker 1: They aren't growing as fast as the other two segments

626
00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:48,160
Speaker 1: because the people who used to eat in casual restaurants

627
00:36:48,160 --> 00:36:52,959
Speaker 1: were guess who, restaurant workers. That's where restaurant workers would

628
00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:56,000
Speaker 1: go hang out after their ships. That's where they take

629
00:36:56,040 --> 00:36:58,799
Speaker 1: their families. And at two dollars and thirteen cents an hour,

630
00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:01,800
Speaker 1: they cannot afford eat even at the Olive Garden anymore.

631
00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:04,000
Speaker 1: They can't afford to eat at Denny's. They can't afford

632
00:37:04,040 --> 00:37:07,279
Speaker 1: to take their family out for a family meal at

633
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:10,680
Speaker 1: a family style restaurant. And that is an example of

634
00:37:10,719 --> 00:37:15,240
Speaker 1: a corporate cannibal that is destroying their own consumer market.

635
00:37:15,320 --> 00:37:19,759
Speaker 1: And so what we need is independent what we call

636
00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:22,480
Speaker 1: them high road businesses, businesses that are taking the high

637
00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:27,200
Speaker 1: road to profitability, that actually believe in investing in their

638
00:37:27,239 --> 00:37:32,240
Speaker 1: workforce and then fighting for policy change alongside their workers.

639
00:37:32,320 --> 00:37:35,919
Speaker 1: That's a true corporate citizen. Like a like a high

640
00:37:36,040 --> 00:37:39,759
Speaker 1: road corporate citizen giving their workers a day off to

641
00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:43,960
Speaker 1: go vote, that's a true corporate citizen. Michelle, what are

642
00:37:43,960 --> 00:37:47,839
Speaker 1: your thoughts on what a good corporate citizen is or does.

643
00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:50,640
Speaker 1: I want to talk a little bit about the structures

644
00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:54,799
Speaker 1: that make it difficult for companies to act like good

645
00:37:54,840 --> 00:37:57,799
Speaker 1: corporate citizens, because I think that they do all of

646
00:37:57,840 --> 00:38:01,960
Speaker 1: the things that Sorru described, but many companies are owned

647
00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:06,840
Speaker 1: by private equity firms hedge funds and have been financialized

648
00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:10,920
Speaker 1: to the point that companies themselves are treated as speculative

649
00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:15,439
Speaker 1: properties and rent seeking properties. I'm gonna pop in real

650
00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:18,919
Speaker 1: quick to help break something down that Michelle just said

651
00:38:18,960 --> 00:38:23,840
Speaker 1: when she described companies that have been financialized by hedge

652
00:38:23,840 --> 00:38:27,279
Speaker 1: funds and private equity. She's talking about a process known

653
00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:31,040
Speaker 1: as financialization. And I could just leave you hang in

654
00:38:31,120 --> 00:38:33,840
Speaker 1: and let you look it up yourself, but I believe

655
00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:36,040
Speaker 1: in you and I want to help you out, so

656
00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:40,240
Speaker 1: let me define this term real quick. Financialization is when

657
00:38:40,280 --> 00:38:44,120
Speaker 1: a company shifts away from generating its profits primarily through

658
00:38:44,200 --> 00:38:47,800
Speaker 1: selling actual goods and services and starts to rely instead

659
00:38:47,840 --> 00:38:53,560
Speaker 1: on financial instruments, debt, interests, capital gains. It's a trend

660
00:38:53,560 --> 00:38:56,839
Speaker 1: in the economy overall, as financial services make up an

661
00:38:56,840 --> 00:39:01,279
Speaker 1: increasing share of economic activity. Critics will argue that this

662
00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:05,319
Speaker 1: is a poor way to generate value. It is short term.

663
00:39:05,360 --> 00:39:10,160
Speaker 1: It prioritizes the gains of investors and insiders over workers

664
00:39:10,440 --> 00:39:13,080
Speaker 1: and the general public, so it is a less real

665
00:39:13,440 --> 00:39:17,520
Speaker 1: version of economic growth or in this case of corporate profits.

666
00:39:17,680 --> 00:39:21,440
Speaker 1: I hope that helped back to our conversation. A great

667
00:39:21,480 --> 00:39:25,520
Speaker 1: example is we work with Starbucks bustos for many, many years.

668
00:39:26,120 --> 00:39:30,000
Speaker 1: We started seeing like as soon as they gave workers

669
00:39:30,600 --> 00:39:33,680
Speaker 1: going across the board wage in what we started hearing

670
00:39:33,680 --> 00:39:37,320
Speaker 1: from workers was that labor hours were being sneakily cut

671
00:39:37,360 --> 00:39:40,840
Speaker 1: at stores all across the country. So like the CEO

672
00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:43,520
Speaker 1: couldn't make the decision to give everybody a raise and

673
00:39:43,600 --> 00:39:45,920
Speaker 1: just like have that be money that went into the

674
00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:48,719
Speaker 1: pockets of workers, That money had to be made up

675
00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:51,239
Speaker 1: for by cutting hours that people were able to work

676
00:39:51,239 --> 00:39:55,600
Speaker 1: and understaffing stores because they're actually beholden to a bunch

677
00:39:55,600 --> 00:39:58,880
Speaker 1: of shareholders. And when the pandemic hit, we had baristas

678
00:39:58,920 --> 00:40:03,080
Speaker 1: who were asking at Starbucks clothes all of their cafes

679
00:40:03,560 --> 00:40:06,640
Speaker 1: because they're they we're not providing an essential service, and

680
00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:10,160
Speaker 1: that they wanted to be paid, and Starbucks was saying

681
00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:12,080
Speaker 1: that they didn't have the money, and we discovered that

682
00:40:12,160 --> 00:40:14,960
Speaker 1: at the same time, there were forty million dollars in

683
00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:17,279
Speaker 1: stock buy backs that were taking place. Stock buy backs

684
00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:19,680
Speaker 1: is when people in the company buy back the stock

685
00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:21,840
Speaker 1: to raise the share price to make it more valuable

686
00:40:21,840 --> 00:40:26,000
Speaker 1: so that they can it's Shenanigan's And so when that

687
00:40:26,239 --> 00:40:30,520
Speaker 1: became public information, it allowed for there to be open

688
00:40:30,600 --> 00:40:33,520
Speaker 1: questions about why Starbucks wasn't meeting the needs of their employees,

689
00:40:33,520 --> 00:40:35,560
Speaker 1: and they actually ended up winning a Starbucks Bresta have

690
00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:37,040
Speaker 1: had four to six weeks where they didn't have to

691
00:40:37,040 --> 00:40:39,359
Speaker 1: go to work in the cafes and they were able

692
00:40:39,400 --> 00:40:42,120
Speaker 1: to be paid. I just think it's really important when

693
00:40:42,160 --> 00:40:45,040
Speaker 1: we're thinking about the policies that we want to implement

694
00:40:45,080 --> 00:40:48,920
Speaker 1: in order to actually enable companies to be good corporate citizens,

695
00:40:49,160 --> 00:40:53,680
Speaker 1: really thinking about the way that this financialized model makes

696
00:40:53,719 --> 00:40:58,400
Speaker 1: it more desirable for people to use companies as speculative

697
00:40:58,440 --> 00:41:02,080
Speaker 1: properties and making better and treating the entire economy like

698
00:41:02,120 --> 00:41:06,160
Speaker 1: a casino than actually providing for goods and services that

699
00:41:06,239 --> 00:41:09,439
Speaker 1: we need in our economy. Shenanigans is just a great

700
00:41:09,480 --> 00:41:12,319
Speaker 1: definition of stock by backs. You like to start getting

701
00:41:12,360 --> 00:41:16,080
Speaker 1: to the technical and like Shenanigans and we all kind

702
00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:17,560
Speaker 1: of we all kind of feel you, We all kind

703
00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:20,120
Speaker 1: of feel you on that is this our destiny to

704
00:41:20,239 --> 00:41:25,399
Speaker 1: have this epic battle of labor versus capital. Could we

705
00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:29,600
Speaker 1: live in a world where companies fight with their workers

706
00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:33,000
Speaker 1: and not just against them and vice versa, where we

707
00:41:33,080 --> 00:41:37,720
Speaker 1: align the incentives in the right way to move everybody forward.

708
00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:40,640
Speaker 1: What would that world look like? How would we create

709
00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:45,280
Speaker 1: that economic model. I'm gonna speak just very practically about

710
00:41:45,400 --> 00:41:48,640
Speaker 1: what we can do right now to push for that world,

711
00:41:48,920 --> 00:41:52,560
Speaker 1: because we cannot go back to the way things were.

712
00:41:52,680 --> 00:41:55,160
Speaker 1: The way things were did not work for the majority

713
00:41:55,160 --> 00:41:58,080
Speaker 1: of people in the world, not just in America. And

714
00:41:58,120 --> 00:42:01,080
Speaker 1: if we learned anything from the pandemic, it's that we're interdependent.

715
00:42:01,160 --> 00:42:05,200
Speaker 1: What happens to a waitress, you know, in a restaurant,

716
00:42:05,360 --> 00:42:09,759
Speaker 1: affects you and me. Because last week, the CDC reported

717
00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:12,520
Speaker 1: that you're twice as likely to get the pandemic if

718
00:42:12,520 --> 00:42:14,960
Speaker 1: you eat in a restaurant. That restaurants are one of

719
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:18,839
Speaker 1: the top super spreader events in the United States. So

720
00:42:19,440 --> 00:42:22,400
Speaker 1: what happens to her affects people in that restaurant, then

721
00:42:22,440 --> 00:42:25,719
Speaker 1: it's gonna affect everybody you interact with. We are inter dependent.

722
00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:29,920
Speaker 1: So if we're interdependent, let's reimagine our world and put

723
00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:32,640
Speaker 1: a stake in the ground to fight for that reimagined world.

724
00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:36,040
Speaker 1: But and in interdependent world, with the pandemic, we created

725
00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:39,799
Speaker 1: an emergency fund for workers and a relief program for employers.

726
00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:43,800
Speaker 1: We raised like twenty million dollars and two thousand workers

727
00:42:43,800 --> 00:42:46,839
Speaker 1: applied for relief, and rather than just handing out five

728
00:42:46,920 --> 00:42:51,240
Speaker 1: hundred dollar in cash payments, we actually have engaged two

729
00:42:50,640 --> 00:42:55,120
Speaker 1: d two workers in fighting for one fair wage, in striking,

730
00:42:55,480 --> 00:42:58,399
Speaker 1: and in voting and getting everybody else they know to vote.

731
00:42:58,400 --> 00:43:00,880
Speaker 1: We started a voter program out of that relief fund.

732
00:43:01,200 --> 00:43:04,200
Speaker 1: This is a population of people two or twenty workers.

733
00:43:04,239 --> 00:43:06,000
Speaker 1: We check their voter record. They have a less than

734
00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:09,520
Speaker 1: twenty less than twenty of them ever voted in their lives,

735
00:43:10,480 --> 00:43:13,480
Speaker 1: and the vast majority are citizens that can vote on

736
00:43:13,560 --> 00:43:16,200
Speaker 1: the employer's side. We worked with Governor Newsoman California, and

737
00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:18,280
Speaker 1: then Marida Blasio in New York and now Mayor Douggan

738
00:43:18,320 --> 00:43:21,520
Speaker 1: in Detroit to create a program called Highroad Kitchens that's

739
00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:26,120
Speaker 1: providing relief cash grants to restaurants that commit to transitioning

740
00:43:26,160 --> 00:43:29,120
Speaker 1: to a full livable wage with tips on top. And

741
00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:31,600
Speaker 1: it's very different. Lots of cities are now and the

742
00:43:31,680 --> 00:43:34,719
Speaker 1: government is looking at just blanket relief for restaurants and

743
00:43:34,800 --> 00:43:38,319
Speaker 1: blanket relief for different sectors with no conditions and no

744
00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:41,440
Speaker 1: requirements for change. And what we're doing is the opposite,

745
00:43:41,880 --> 00:43:44,600
Speaker 1: which is saying, we've got to save independent restaurants, but

746
00:43:44,640 --> 00:43:47,680
Speaker 1: we've got to only save independent restaurants if they're committed

747
00:43:47,719 --> 00:43:52,520
Speaker 1: to change. Thank you, Michelle, saying to you, what does

748
00:43:52,560 --> 00:43:54,640
Speaker 1: the world look like or how do we get to it?

749
00:43:54,719 --> 00:43:57,800
Speaker 1: That aligns these incentives of what feels like an epic,

750
00:43:58,320 --> 00:44:02,359
Speaker 1: everlasting pitch battle so that workers and companies they work

751
00:44:02,600 --> 00:44:06,200
Speaker 1: within for are working together more. So I'm gonna start

752
00:44:06,239 --> 00:44:08,839
Speaker 1: with one thing we can do and then how that

753
00:44:09,080 --> 00:44:13,319
Speaker 1: enables a really radically different vision. About a quarter of

754
00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:17,040
Speaker 1: the country is experiencing unemployment right now. We have rates

755
00:44:17,040 --> 00:44:19,480
Speaker 1: of unemployment that we haven't seen since the Great Depression.

756
00:44:19,600 --> 00:44:23,680
Speaker 1: And what people are experiencing in that is the absolute

757
00:44:23,800 --> 00:44:27,719
Speaker 1: structural failure of our unemployment system as it is currently designed,

758
00:44:27,800 --> 00:44:31,040
Speaker 1: the fact that the system is designed not to be navigable.

759
00:44:31,360 --> 00:44:34,279
Speaker 1: It's designed to push you into employment based on this

760
00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:36,640
Speaker 1: presumption that you always have to be working, and if

761
00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:39,560
Speaker 1: you're not working, there's something wrong with you, that you're

762
00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:43,880
Speaker 1: you're taking from our society, and that because the duty

763
00:44:43,920 --> 00:44:47,440
Speaker 1: to care has been essentially abandoned in the public sector

764
00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:50,200
Speaker 1: and has been kind of left to corporations. If you

765
00:44:50,239 --> 00:44:53,160
Speaker 1: don't have a job, like there's no way for you

766
00:44:53,200 --> 00:44:55,160
Speaker 1: to access the things that you need, And that the

767
00:44:55,360 --> 00:44:58,480
Speaker 1: unemployment crisis is lining up with the eviction crisis, like

768
00:44:58,520 --> 00:45:02,360
Speaker 1: the eviction crisis is actually an unemployment crisis, and vice versa,

769
00:45:02,480 --> 00:45:04,440
Speaker 1: and also lining up with the debt crisis. That we

770
00:45:04,560 --> 00:45:09,240
Speaker 1: have people that are in many ways experiencing all three

771
00:45:09,280 --> 00:45:13,480
Speaker 1: of these structural failures all at once. But the opportunity

772
00:45:13,640 --> 00:45:16,160
Speaker 1: that lies in that is that we can look at

773
00:45:16,200 --> 00:45:18,600
Speaker 1: all of these systems and really start to talk about

774
00:45:18,840 --> 00:45:23,279
Speaker 1: how they don't function to make people's lives actually better

775
00:45:23,280 --> 00:45:26,120
Speaker 1: and more livable, and start interrogating questions about like why

776
00:45:26,120 --> 00:45:28,640
Speaker 1: do we expect people to have to be working all

777
00:45:28,680 --> 00:45:31,720
Speaker 1: of the time, Why is it not reasonable to expect

778
00:45:31,760 --> 00:45:34,600
Speaker 1: that after you lose a job, you might take a

779
00:45:34,640 --> 00:45:37,239
Speaker 1: few months to like recover and think about what you'd

780
00:45:37,239 --> 00:45:39,880
Speaker 1: like to do next. Why is there an entire class

781
00:45:39,880 --> 00:45:42,359
Speaker 1: of people in this country that we think shouldn't even

782
00:45:42,360 --> 00:45:45,760
Speaker 1: have agency about what job they choose next, Because often,

783
00:45:46,080 --> 00:45:50,080
Speaker 1: and specifically people in low income jobs, and mostly people

784
00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:52,960
Speaker 1: of color who are working in service sector jobs are

785
00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:55,799
Speaker 1: basically treated like they should just take whatever the next

786
00:45:55,920 --> 00:45:58,279
Speaker 1: job that comes along to them is, regardless of their

787
00:45:58,320 --> 00:46:01,319
Speaker 1: own agency and choice about what they like to be doing. So,

788
00:46:01,400 --> 00:46:04,759
Speaker 1: what if we thought about our experience of work and

789
00:46:04,840 --> 00:46:09,000
Speaker 1: not working as like equal parts of the ways in

790
00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:12,279
Speaker 1: which we're engaged in the economy and ways of identifying

791
00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:15,799
Speaker 1: what we would like to contribute ourselves. And and that

792
00:46:16,080 --> 00:46:19,680
Speaker 1: actually is enabled by like, initially in a very practical way,

793
00:46:19,800 --> 00:46:23,200
Speaker 1: radically reimagining how the unemployment system works. Like there was

794
00:46:23,239 --> 00:46:27,000
Speaker 1: a time when you paid into the system, you got

795
00:46:27,040 --> 00:46:30,800
Speaker 1: ten months of unemployment, you weren't shoved into whatever job

796
00:46:30,920 --> 00:46:34,239
Speaker 1: was next, and you were able to actually like make

797
00:46:34,280 --> 00:46:36,839
Speaker 1: active decisions about what you want to do with your life.

798
00:46:36,840 --> 00:46:38,680
Speaker 1: It was not perfect, but it was better than what

799
00:46:38,719 --> 00:46:40,600
Speaker 1: it is now. A lot of what we're doing right

800
00:46:40,640 --> 00:46:44,799
Speaker 1: now is working with unemployed workers to have them articulate

801
00:46:44,920 --> 00:46:47,600
Speaker 1: the system failures and then the things that they would

802
00:46:47,600 --> 00:46:50,799
Speaker 1: like to see be different in the next phase of

803
00:46:51,640 --> 00:46:54,520
Speaker 1: understanding unemployment. And the reason that again I think that

804
00:46:54,680 --> 00:46:56,919
Speaker 1: is really connected to this question of like where could

805
00:46:57,000 --> 00:46:59,800
Speaker 1: we get is that I would like it if the

806
00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:02,719
Speaker 1: a that we thought about the economy was something that

807
00:47:03,080 --> 00:47:05,440
Speaker 1: we all hold a piece of in our hands, and

808
00:47:05,480 --> 00:47:08,040
Speaker 1: we hold that piece as we go to work, or

809
00:47:08,080 --> 00:47:10,840
Speaker 1: as we pay our rent, or as we are consumers,

810
00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:14,040
Speaker 1: but that we aren't sort of objects of the economy,

811
00:47:14,080 --> 00:47:16,319
Speaker 1: where agents of the economy, and that we can make

812
00:47:16,400 --> 00:47:19,880
Speaker 1: decisions together at the local level, the municipal level, the

813
00:47:19,960 --> 00:47:23,000
Speaker 1: state level, about what do we want the economy to

814
00:47:23,080 --> 00:47:25,759
Speaker 1: do right now? Like what is this for? If we

815
00:47:25,840 --> 00:47:28,640
Speaker 1: are in a place where, um, a lot of growth

816
00:47:28,680 --> 00:47:30,839
Speaker 1: has been tearing apart our parks and trees, and we

817
00:47:30,920 --> 00:47:33,000
Speaker 1: know that climate change is coming and we need to

818
00:47:33,040 --> 00:47:35,400
Speaker 1: do something about the land, we can make a decision that,

819
00:47:35,760 --> 00:47:38,680
Speaker 1: like a growth mindset for the companies around us is

820
00:47:38,680 --> 00:47:41,320
Speaker 1: probably not going to be good for our long term survival.

821
00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:44,879
Speaker 1: We can make those decisions right now. There's so few

822
00:47:44,880 --> 00:47:47,640
Speaker 1: people making those decisions who only have one interest, which

823
00:47:47,680 --> 00:47:50,480
Speaker 1: is in growth and inlining their pockets, that that kind

824
00:47:50,560 --> 00:47:54,000
Speaker 1: of actual negotiation around what we value is not possible.

825
00:47:54,080 --> 00:47:58,319
Speaker 1: So I feel like this moment around confronting unemployment and

826
00:47:58,480 --> 00:48:01,080
Speaker 1: eviction and all of these way so much. The economic

827
00:48:01,120 --> 00:48:03,359
Speaker 1: setups haven't been working for people for a long time.

828
00:48:03,680 --> 00:48:06,400
Speaker 1: There at their peak pressure point, gives us a moment

829
00:48:06,440 --> 00:48:08,839
Speaker 1: to say, what do we actually want from what we

830
00:48:08,920 --> 00:48:10,759
Speaker 1: get when we go to work, or we look for

831
00:48:10,800 --> 00:48:13,879
Speaker 1: housing or we live in our cities and towns. I'm

832
00:48:13,880 --> 00:48:17,000
Speaker 1: going to be thinking for a long time about not

833
00:48:17,120 --> 00:48:20,279
Speaker 1: being an object of the economy, but an agent of

834
00:48:20,320 --> 00:48:23,120
Speaker 1: the economy. That was so well said, and when you

835
00:48:23,160 --> 00:48:25,680
Speaker 1: make it plural asians of the economy, it sounds like

836
00:48:25,680 --> 00:48:29,560
Speaker 1: a new Marvel superhero series where we're all the superheroes

837
00:48:29,560 --> 00:48:32,000
Speaker 1: because we're making active choices about how we want to

838
00:48:32,000 --> 00:48:34,680
Speaker 1: contribute and how we want to participate. And it's just

839
00:48:34,760 --> 00:48:38,040
Speaker 1: a more empowered way to see ourselves, which is the

840
00:48:38,080 --> 00:48:40,960
Speaker 1: point of this practice and this exercise we're doing together.

841
00:48:41,040 --> 00:48:52,880
Speaker 1: So thank you for that. It really moved me. We

842
00:48:52,960 --> 00:48:56,920
Speaker 1: have a few questions lined up, so let's go to Tom.

843
00:48:57,160 --> 00:49:01,440
Speaker 1: You are up. You know, we do have collective power

844
00:49:01,480 --> 00:49:06,279
Speaker 1: as consumers, and I'm wondering, as a consumer, how do

845
00:49:06,360 --> 00:49:09,560
Speaker 1: we use that power to further this movement? You know,

846
00:49:09,680 --> 00:49:12,439
Speaker 1: how do we make sure we're supporting the right kind

847
00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:15,640
Speaker 1: of restaurants and companies and how do we know that

848
00:49:15,719 --> 00:49:19,719
Speaker 1: it's going to help the situation. Yeah, so we've been

849
00:49:19,760 --> 00:49:22,800
Speaker 1: actually thinking and working on that very question for a

850
00:49:22,920 --> 00:49:28,839
Speaker 1: really long time because in our industry we observed consumers

851
00:49:29,480 --> 00:49:33,760
Speaker 1: very visibly have a real impact on restaurants with regard

852
00:49:33,800 --> 00:49:37,960
Speaker 1: to local and organic and sustainable food. I remember twenty

853
00:49:38,040 --> 00:49:40,520
Speaker 1: years ago restaurants in New York saying I'll never be

854
00:49:40,560 --> 00:49:44,480
Speaker 1: able to afford locally sourced organic food. And then before

855
00:49:44,480 --> 00:49:47,279
Speaker 1: the pandemic, restaurants were jumping over each other to say

856
00:49:47,360 --> 00:49:50,279
Speaker 1: they provided locally sourced organic food, whether or not they

857
00:49:50,320 --> 00:49:54,880
Speaker 1: actually did. And a lot of that came about because

858
00:49:54,960 --> 00:49:59,200
Speaker 1: consumers read, you know, Omnivor's Dilemma and Fast Food Nation

859
00:49:59,640 --> 00:50:03,919
Speaker 1: and saw movies about the food system, and then went

860
00:50:03,960 --> 00:50:06,840
Speaker 1: to restaurants and said is this local, is this organic?

861
00:50:06,920 --> 00:50:11,080
Speaker 1: Is this vegetarian? And there's that great Portlandia sketch, which

862
00:50:11,080 --> 00:50:13,279
Speaker 1: we always think of as our kind of ideal. I

863
00:50:13,320 --> 00:50:15,840
Speaker 1: don't know if everybody's watches Portlandia. But there's that sketch

864
00:50:15,840 --> 00:50:19,160
Speaker 1: where the couple goes in and asked the waitress, you know,

865
00:50:19,480 --> 00:50:22,920
Speaker 1: is this chicken organic? Did it have friends? What was

866
00:50:22,960 --> 00:50:25,640
Speaker 1: its name? Did one chicken put their arm around the

867
00:50:25,640 --> 00:50:30,480
Speaker 1: other chicken? Um? Calling the chicken that was it? And

868
00:50:30,640 --> 00:50:34,719
Speaker 1: just imagine if consumers did the same thing to ask

869
00:50:34,760 --> 00:50:40,000
Speaker 1: the manager is this server paid? Just imagine if the

870
00:50:40,080 --> 00:50:42,440
Speaker 1: customer did the same thing to say, how come there

871
00:50:42,440 --> 00:50:44,279
Speaker 1: are no people of color in the dining floor. There's

872
00:50:44,280 --> 00:50:46,080
Speaker 1: plenty of people in the color in the kitchen. Um.

873
00:50:46,120 --> 00:50:48,960
Speaker 1: Just imagine if they said, does everybody here have paid

874
00:50:48,960 --> 00:50:52,120
Speaker 1: sickly even hazard pay? The kind of impact that could have.

875
00:50:52,239 --> 00:50:55,640
Speaker 1: So we spent a lot of time looking at the sustainable, local,

876
00:50:55,760 --> 00:50:58,279
Speaker 1: organic food movement and saying, not only how could we

877
00:50:59,040 --> 00:51:03,280
Speaker 1: replicate that consumer activity, but also how could we expand

878
00:51:03,320 --> 00:51:06,880
Speaker 1: the definition of sustainable food to include sustainable wages and

879
00:51:06,920 --> 00:51:10,160
Speaker 1: working conditions for the people in the food system. And

880
00:51:10,360 --> 00:51:13,040
Speaker 1: we created a Diner's Guide, an app that tells you

881
00:51:13,080 --> 00:51:16,080
Speaker 1: which restaurants are doing the right thing. Every year, we're

882
00:51:16,120 --> 00:51:19,080
Speaker 1: giving out awards to restaurants doing the right thing. We

883
00:51:19,200 --> 00:51:21,839
Speaker 1: even created videos to show consumers how to walk into

884
00:51:21,880 --> 00:51:23,920
Speaker 1: a restaurant or eat and at the end of the

885
00:51:24,200 --> 00:51:26,239
Speaker 1: your meal, go up to your manager and say, I

886
00:51:26,320 --> 00:51:28,640
Speaker 1: love the food here, love the service, but I actually

887
00:51:28,880 --> 00:51:31,400
Speaker 1: would love to see you get a gold or silver

888
00:51:31,480 --> 00:51:33,759
Speaker 1: award in this app. I'd love to see you pay

889
00:51:33,840 --> 00:51:36,080
Speaker 1: livable wages. I'd love to see you do X, Y

890
00:51:36,120 --> 00:51:38,239
Speaker 1: and Z. We have the app you can see it

891
00:51:38,280 --> 00:51:40,880
Speaker 1: on in your app stores called RC National Diners Guide.

892
00:51:41,320 --> 00:51:44,960
Speaker 1: But the pandemic happened, and a lot of those restaurants

893
00:51:44,960 --> 00:51:47,200
Speaker 1: that have got a words in that app are now,

894
00:51:48,239 --> 00:51:51,600
Speaker 1: you know, on the on the brink. The biggest impact

895
00:51:51,640 --> 00:51:53,920
Speaker 1: you can have as consumers is to say to your

896
00:51:53,920 --> 00:51:59,080
Speaker 1: elected officials, it's outrageous I refuse to continue to subsidize

897
00:51:59,120 --> 00:52:02,760
Speaker 1: multimillion dollar corporations by paying their workers wages with my tips.

898
00:52:03,080 --> 00:52:06,399
Speaker 1: It's outrageous I refuse to put my own public health

899
00:52:06,440 --> 00:52:09,719
Speaker 1: at risk because the state or the city refuses to

900
00:52:09,760 --> 00:52:13,879
Speaker 1: require paid sickly or paid family leave or hazard pay

901
00:52:13,960 --> 00:52:17,760
Speaker 1: for these workers. So yes, we need you to absolutely

902
00:52:17,920 --> 00:52:22,480
Speaker 1: effectuate change as consumers. But us consumers have power not

903
00:52:22,600 --> 00:52:26,239
Speaker 1: just to effectuate that change with restaurants or businesses, but

904
00:52:26,400 --> 00:52:29,680
Speaker 1: also with the people who represent you and those businesses.

905
00:52:29,719 --> 00:52:34,080
Speaker 1: They value employers voices over everybody else, and the way

906
00:52:34,120 --> 00:52:38,759
Speaker 1: that changes is by them hearing from consumers and workers

907
00:52:39,200 --> 00:52:42,719
Speaker 1: as much as they hear from the Restaurant Association and

908
00:52:42,920 --> 00:52:47,799
Speaker 1: big business and even small business. Sorry, I like that

909
00:52:48,080 --> 00:52:51,560
Speaker 1: inspired a thought, which is if we form some kind

910
00:52:51,600 --> 00:52:57,880
Speaker 1: of national Residents Association maybe the other other nr A

911
00:52:58,040 --> 00:53:02,640
Speaker 1: to counter the other nr A lobbying for the people. Michelle,

912
00:53:02,680 --> 00:53:04,640
Speaker 1: I want to give you a chance to quickly weigh

913
00:53:04,640 --> 00:53:08,160
Speaker 1: in on what consumers and purchasers could do, and I

914
00:53:08,200 --> 00:53:09,719
Speaker 1: want to get to at least one more question. We

915
00:53:09,760 --> 00:53:13,240
Speaker 1: have someone waiting. Yeah, actually I just plus one everything

916
00:53:13,280 --> 00:53:15,400
Speaker 1: sort of said to save time, and also tell you

917
00:53:15,440 --> 00:53:18,239
Speaker 1: that there's a platform called spender rise that kind of

918
00:53:18,280 --> 00:53:20,160
Speaker 1: mirrors what we do, but they do it on the

919
00:53:20,200 --> 00:53:23,120
Speaker 1: consumer side, and where consumers can commit to spend money

920
00:53:23,480 --> 00:53:27,400
Speaker 1: based on an employer making changes at the company that

921
00:53:27,440 --> 00:53:29,719
Speaker 1: they're targeting. So I would suggest you check that out

922
00:53:30,120 --> 00:53:33,920
Speaker 1: and get involved in spend rise. Spend Rise. Yes, all right,

923
00:53:34,040 --> 00:53:36,800
Speaker 1: thank you. Next, and I think finally we're going to

924
00:53:36,920 --> 00:53:41,400
Speaker 1: go to Sarah. Thank you very much for taking my

925
00:53:41,520 --> 00:53:44,200
Speaker 1: question on air. I appreciate it. So in light of

926
00:53:44,239 --> 00:53:47,600
Speaker 1: the things we're just talking about, and also the vision

927
00:53:47,840 --> 00:53:51,200
Speaker 1: that you have. I'm interested in knowing whether there has

928
00:53:51,280 --> 00:53:56,160
Speaker 1: been discussion of organizing a large scale general strike of

929
00:53:56,200 --> 00:53:59,800
Speaker 1: as many workers as possible by your organizations or others

930
00:53:59,800 --> 00:54:02,600
Speaker 1: that may be aware of UH in response to these

931
00:54:02,640 --> 00:54:07,360
Speaker 1: compounded public health crises of systemic poverty, the pandemic itself,

932
00:54:07,520 --> 00:54:11,120
Speaker 1: environmental devastation at large, and kind of how we're seeing

933
00:54:11,120 --> 00:54:13,279
Speaker 1: the hollowing out of many of the system's folks have

934
00:54:13,440 --> 00:54:17,200
Speaker 1: counted on or support when crises hit. If this is

935
00:54:17,200 --> 00:54:20,880
Speaker 1: going to continue to happen, which ecologists, economists and others

936
00:54:21,560 --> 00:54:26,520
Speaker 1: are saying it likely, is the workers collective power maybe

937
00:54:27,040 --> 00:54:30,000
Speaker 1: the only real response. But I'm curious there's been a

938
00:54:30,000 --> 00:54:32,279
Speaker 1: lot of discussion of that. Sarah Nelson from the Flight

939
00:54:32,280 --> 00:54:35,480
Speaker 1: Attendants Union essentially stop the government shut down by threatening

940
00:54:35,480 --> 00:54:39,719
Speaker 1: a strike by airline employees, which sparked this conversation about

941
00:54:39,719 --> 00:54:43,440
Speaker 1: general strike. I think that general strike is very challenging

942
00:54:43,480 --> 00:54:46,040
Speaker 1: to put a pull off, and what people need is

943
00:54:46,080 --> 00:54:50,040
Speaker 1: practice and building the muscles of really creating situations of

944
00:54:50,120 --> 00:54:53,640
Speaker 1: collective care in order to be able to sustain the

945
00:54:53,800 --> 00:54:56,160
Speaker 1: length of time that is required for a general strike.

946
00:54:56,200 --> 00:54:58,799
Speaker 1: And so what I think we see workers doing right

947
00:54:58,800 --> 00:55:02,640
Speaker 1: now is act really preparation for being able to engage

948
00:55:02,640 --> 00:55:04,759
Speaker 1: in some kind of large scale walk out. I will

949
00:55:04,800 --> 00:55:08,640
Speaker 1: also say that today we launched the Coworker Solidarity Fund,

950
00:55:08,800 --> 00:55:11,160
Speaker 1: which we're piloting in the tech industry of the tech workers,

951
00:55:11,520 --> 00:55:16,520
Speaker 1: where workers are raising funds to support people engaging in

952
00:55:16,760 --> 00:55:19,640
Speaker 1: worker actions like walk out, some strikes, and other things,

953
00:55:20,040 --> 00:55:23,040
Speaker 1: so that that's sort of crowdfunded within the company. Workers

954
00:55:23,040 --> 00:55:25,200
Speaker 1: who make a little bit more money or people from

955
00:55:25,200 --> 00:55:27,799
Speaker 1: the general public can contribute to the fund, so that

956
00:55:27,880 --> 00:55:31,200
Speaker 1: when workers on other lower ends of the supply chain

957
00:55:31,640 --> 00:55:35,040
Speaker 1: decided to take these actions, they're not bearing the financial

958
00:55:35,080 --> 00:55:37,440
Speaker 1: burden and brunt of that all by themselves, but that

959
00:55:37,480 --> 00:55:40,200
Speaker 1: there's something to supplement that. So I feel like we're

960
00:55:40,239 --> 00:55:43,000
Speaker 1: all kind of getting the little pieces in place to

961
00:55:43,160 --> 00:55:46,080
Speaker 1: make these kinds of things more possible. I just want

962
00:55:46,120 --> 00:55:47,799
Speaker 1: to add that that is why I wanted to show

963
00:55:47,840 --> 00:55:51,200
Speaker 1: you that twenty four ft Elena the Essential Workers Statute,

964
00:55:51,239 --> 00:55:53,640
Speaker 1: because we're hoping she's the new Rosie the Riveter. We're

965
00:55:53,640 --> 00:55:56,200
Speaker 1: working with an essential Worker coalition to get all the

966
00:55:56,239 --> 00:55:59,600
Speaker 1: groups to use her and then to come together really

967
00:55:59,680 --> 00:56:02,759
Speaker 1: to poton a general strike absolutely, that's absolutely the way

968
00:56:02,760 --> 00:56:06,040
Speaker 1: we're thinking. I think that some of the most inspiring

969
00:56:06,600 --> 00:56:11,040
Speaker 1: organizing work by independent contractors has been done through like

970
00:56:11,280 --> 00:56:13,840
Speaker 1: groups like the Gig Workers Collective and Gig Workers Rising,

971
00:56:13,920 --> 00:56:17,640
Speaker 1: these uber and lift drivers and people who work for

972
00:56:17,680 --> 00:56:20,360
Speaker 1: instat Card and Postmates and all of these app based

973
00:56:20,360 --> 00:56:24,760
Speaker 1: delivery models where the technology makes it really possible to

974
00:56:25,120 --> 00:56:29,240
Speaker 1: enact incredible amounts of control over all of the actions

975
00:56:29,280 --> 00:56:31,960
Speaker 1: that the worker takes. But then they sort of have

976
00:56:32,040 --> 00:56:34,839
Speaker 1: this plausible deniability being like, well, it's flexible, so you're

977
00:56:34,840 --> 00:56:36,920
Speaker 1: not really unemployee, and they've they've been able to really

978
00:56:36,920 --> 00:56:40,040
Speaker 1: get away with not providing people with their basic rights.

979
00:56:40,719 --> 00:56:43,560
Speaker 1: I would just add that there's a super exciting thing

980
00:56:43,640 --> 00:56:48,480
Speaker 1: happening in California. We had about thirty five thousand workers

981
00:56:48,480 --> 00:56:51,920
Speaker 1: apply to our relief fund, both gig workers, independent contractors,

982
00:56:51,920 --> 00:56:55,520
Speaker 1: and restaurant workers, and they are coming together now to

983
00:56:55,680 --> 00:56:59,160
Speaker 1: form a worker own kind of entity that we hope

984
00:56:59,160 --> 00:57:01,400
Speaker 1: would be a compare editor in this space to the

985
00:57:01,480 --> 00:57:04,480
Speaker 1: uber eats and the door dashes and the lifts um. So,

986
00:57:04,520 --> 00:57:07,479
Speaker 1: I think you're right. I think there is an opportunity

987
00:57:07,520 --> 00:57:10,680
Speaker 1: that sometimes the right goes too far and they end

988
00:57:10,760 --> 00:57:16,480
Speaker 1: up creating opportunities for us UM and by basically disavowing

989
00:57:16,520 --> 00:57:19,960
Speaker 1: these workers as their own employees, these workers are therefore

990
00:57:20,040 --> 00:57:23,120
Speaker 1: free to put their skills together and maybe create a

991
00:57:23,200 --> 00:57:25,640
Speaker 1: high road alternative to the uber eats and the door

992
00:57:25,720 --> 00:57:28,160
Speaker 1: dashes through worker ownership. That could be a model, You're

993
00:57:28,240 --> 00:57:31,680
Speaker 1: right to other sectors of more traditional employees. So we

994
00:57:31,720 --> 00:57:34,760
Speaker 1: haven't talked about worker ownership at all today, but there

995
00:57:34,880 --> 00:57:37,760
Speaker 1: is this huge moment of opportunity with the quarter of

996
00:57:37,760 --> 00:57:40,520
Speaker 1: the country that's unemployed. As Michelle said, to think about

997
00:57:40,920 --> 00:57:45,720
Speaker 1: people actually creating their own worker owned spaces at scale.

998
00:57:45,920 --> 00:57:48,160
Speaker 1: And I'll just tell you one last thing. There are

999
00:57:48,280 --> 00:57:51,840
Speaker 1: two worker own restaurant and catering companies in the world

1000
00:57:52,080 --> 00:57:54,400
Speaker 1: that exceed a hundred thousand workers. One is in Italy

1001
00:57:54,520 --> 00:57:57,200
Speaker 1: and one is in India. The one in Italy started

1002
00:57:57,240 --> 00:58:01,080
Speaker 1: in a severe economic depression in northern Italy and has

1003
00:58:01,120 --> 00:58:04,200
Speaker 1: become the third largest catering company in all of Europe.

1004
00:58:04,960 --> 00:58:08,080
Speaker 1: And so it is totally possible for workers to band

1005
00:58:08,080 --> 00:58:12,080
Speaker 1: together in moments like this of severe economic depression and

1006
00:58:12,160 --> 00:58:16,400
Speaker 1: create something entirely new that could revolutionize the way we

1007
00:58:16,480 --> 00:58:21,480
Speaker 1: think about work. Michelle Sarru, thank you so much for

1008
00:58:21,520 --> 00:58:25,640
Speaker 1: helping us reimagine workers and power and the balance thereof

1009
00:58:25,720 --> 00:58:28,440
Speaker 1: in our economy, and helping us see ourselves as not

1010
00:58:28,600 --> 00:58:31,720
Speaker 1: objects but agents of the economy. That's the thing that's

1011
00:58:31,720 --> 00:58:33,880
Speaker 1: gonna stick with me. I'm going to sleep on a

1012
00:58:33,880 --> 00:58:36,760
Speaker 1: lot of this, but you provided some solid examples. You

1013
00:58:36,840 --> 00:58:39,840
Speaker 1: diagnose the problem, and you pointed a really nice way out,

1014
00:58:40,120 --> 00:58:44,240
Speaker 1: many ways out in fact. So we appreciate your generosity

1015
00:58:44,280 --> 00:58:46,680
Speaker 1: and thanks for interacting with us showing us how to citizens.

1016
00:58:46,720 --> 00:58:48,600
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. It's great to be with all

1017
00:58:48,640 --> 00:58:55,080
Speaker 1: of you. Hey you, it's just us again in our

1018
00:58:55,400 --> 00:59:00,280
Speaker 1: private Baritune day listener moment. I want to turn it

1019
00:59:00,320 --> 00:59:02,680
Speaker 1: over to you. Now it's your turn to citizen. We've

1020
00:59:02,680 --> 00:59:05,080
Speaker 1: gotten fired up, we're ready to go. Michelle and Saru

1021
00:59:05,600 --> 00:59:08,160
Speaker 1: dropped a lot of knowledge on us, and now it's

1022
00:59:08,160 --> 00:59:11,840
Speaker 1: time to practice citizen ng and put it to work ourselves.

1023
00:59:12,440 --> 00:59:15,360
Speaker 1: You can find all of these actions at how to

1024
00:59:15,480 --> 00:59:19,080
Speaker 1: citizen dot com in much more detail than I'm going

1025
00:59:19,120 --> 00:59:22,280
Speaker 1: to lay out right now. As always, there are two

1026
00:59:22,440 --> 00:59:25,720
Speaker 1: categories of things you can do, the internal work and

1027
00:59:25,760 --> 00:59:29,880
Speaker 1: the external work. Internally, here's a set of questions I

1028
00:59:29,920 --> 00:59:35,840
Speaker 1: want you to ask yourself thinking of yourself as a worker. First,

1029
00:59:36,560 --> 00:59:40,400
Speaker 1: there is the value I create for people in my community, society,

1030
00:59:40,520 --> 00:59:45,720
Speaker 1: or environment accurately reflected in how I'm compensated as a

1031
00:59:45,720 --> 00:59:48,440
Speaker 1: work or do I feel represented and protected by my

1032
00:59:48,640 --> 00:59:52,800
Speaker 1: HR department? If I experience my employer violating my rights

1033
00:59:52,920 --> 00:59:56,200
Speaker 1: or someone else's, Do I know the rules the process

1034
00:59:56,280 --> 00:59:59,920
Speaker 1: where the law stands on that? And a bit more

1035
01:00:00,080 --> 01:00:04,440
Speaker 1: arter sense, how does the consolidation of power in the

1036
01:00:04,440 --> 01:00:07,000
Speaker 1: hands of a fewer number of corporations? How does that

1037
01:00:07,400 --> 01:00:09,880
Speaker 1: affect me? Can I think of any ways that that

1038
01:00:09,920 --> 01:00:15,360
Speaker 1: shows up in my life? Externally? Here are three things

1039
01:00:15,720 --> 01:00:20,840
Speaker 1: you can actually do when you frequent local restaurant or business.

1040
01:00:21,440 --> 01:00:24,880
Speaker 1: I want you to ask management about how they're treating

1041
01:00:24,880 --> 01:00:27,960
Speaker 1: their workers. Asked, are they on a minimum wage and

1042
01:00:28,000 --> 01:00:30,520
Speaker 1: what is that? Ask if they get paid sick leave?

1043
01:00:31,080 --> 01:00:34,560
Speaker 1: Ask if this business promotes people from within? Are the

1044
01:00:34,640 --> 01:00:38,920
Speaker 1: opportunities for advancement Internally? There's an app I want you

1045
01:00:38,960 --> 01:00:42,640
Speaker 1: to put on your phone. It's called Rock National Diners

1046
01:00:42,640 --> 01:00:46,480
Speaker 1: Guide r o C. It's available for iOS and androids,

1047
01:00:46,480 --> 01:00:50,080
Speaker 1: so we've got pretty much everybody covered, and you can

1048
01:00:50,080 --> 01:00:54,120
Speaker 1: think of it like a YELP for local restaurants with

1049
01:00:54,160 --> 01:00:58,120
Speaker 1: a focus on labor rights. Check out that app. Find

1050
01:00:58,200 --> 01:01:01,600
Speaker 1: restaurants with the good ratings in your area, support them.

1051
01:01:01,640 --> 01:01:04,720
Speaker 1: If a restaurant you love isn't there, add them to

1052
01:01:04,800 --> 01:01:08,560
Speaker 1: the platform, get them registered in this database and ask

1053
01:01:08,640 --> 01:01:11,800
Speaker 1: them about their practices. Again, they'll see your demand and

1054
01:01:11,840 --> 01:01:15,560
Speaker 1: they'll adjust how they serve you and how they treat

1055
01:01:15,600 --> 01:01:20,479
Speaker 1: their workers in response. Finally, there's always efforts under way

1056
01:01:20,680 --> 01:01:22,960
Speaker 1: that you can join and support, and I want to

1057
01:01:23,000 --> 01:01:26,160
Speaker 1: hit you with a couple. There's a fund that's run

1058
01:01:26,160 --> 01:01:29,200
Speaker 1: by one Fair Wage SUS group. It's the one Fair

1059
01:01:29,200 --> 01:01:33,840
Speaker 1: Wage COVID Relief Fund. Find and support that. Coworker dot

1060
01:01:33,920 --> 01:01:36,920
Speaker 1: org also has a solidarity fund that we encourage you

1061
01:01:37,280 --> 01:01:42,400
Speaker 1: to contribute to and share. Finally, we are big in

1062
01:01:42,440 --> 01:01:46,080
Speaker 1: this show in thinking of ourselves not just as individuals,

1063
01:01:46,120 --> 01:01:49,400
Speaker 1: but as more empowered when we think as a collective,

1064
01:01:50,040 --> 01:01:53,720
Speaker 1: and that's really powerful in our role as consumers. So

1065
01:01:53,800 --> 01:01:58,520
Speaker 1: check out spend rise dot com and support an existing

1066
01:01:58,920 --> 01:02:03,240
Speaker 1: consumer campaign aim or start one based on the principles

1067
01:02:03,280 --> 01:02:07,040
Speaker 1: you've heard about in this episode. Again, those links are

1068
01:02:07,080 --> 01:02:10,800
Speaker 1: available at how to citizen dot com with a lot

1069
01:02:10,840 --> 01:02:14,439
Speaker 1: more detail around these actions and if you take any

1070
01:02:14,480 --> 01:02:16,800
Speaker 1: one of them, we want to hear about it, so

1071
01:02:16,880 --> 01:02:19,720
Speaker 1: send an email to action at how to citizen dot com.

1072
01:02:19,720 --> 01:02:22,160
Speaker 1: Help us out by putting the word work in the

1073
01:02:22,200 --> 01:02:24,720
Speaker 1: subject line. And if you want to tell the world too,

1074
01:02:25,360 --> 01:02:28,120
Speaker 1: we encourage that as well, so just use the hashtag

1075
01:02:28,160 --> 01:02:31,160
Speaker 1: how to citizen. That will help us find it and

1076
01:02:31,200 --> 01:02:34,600
Speaker 1: lift up your efforts in the process. You can follow

1077
01:02:34,720 --> 01:02:38,400
Speaker 1: Saru jayar Rolan on Twitter at s A R you

1078
01:02:39,160 --> 01:02:42,600
Speaker 1: j A y A R A M A M and

1079
01:02:42,840 --> 01:02:46,680
Speaker 1: Michelle I. Miller on Twitter as well. That's Michelle M

1080
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Speaker 1: I c h E L L E the letter I

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Speaker 1: and then Miller M I double L E R one,

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Speaker 1: fair wage dot com and co worker dot org. As always,

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Speaker 1: if you are digging this show, let the platforms know

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01:03:03,120 --> 01:03:06,280
Speaker 1: with a positive rating and a review. And if you

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Speaker 1: want to stay in touch and get updates directly from me,

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Speaker 1: I've got something special for you. Text me two oh

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Speaker 1: to eight nine four eight eight four or four, put

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Speaker 1: the words citizen in the text, and you'll get alerted

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Speaker 1: to future tapings. You'll get to chat back and forth

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Speaker 1: with me, and you have a chance to find out

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Speaker 1: more about the how to Citizen universe and about my

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Speaker 1: own world. How to Citizen with Barrettuon Day is a

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Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio Podcasts. Executive produced by Miles Gray,

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Speaker 1: Nick Stump, Elizabeth Stewart, and barretton Day Thursty, Produced by

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Speaker 1: Joe L. Smith, Edited by Justin Smith. Powered by You