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Dear John,
You might have seen our video [[link removed]] from earlier this month that exposes Uber’s greedy and duplicitous tactics. It unpacks our latest research [[link removed]] revealing how Uber has been jacking up the cost of rides, taking a bigger cut of driver wages, and funneling billions to investors on Wall Street and shareholders. We should be paying close attention to Uber’s tactics, because they come straight from a playbook that corporations are using more and more frequently to get what they want. Exposing their tactics is an important element of building the multiracial, cross-class, intergenerational, and multigendered community we need to shift power and protect our democracy.
For corporations like Uber, the pursuit of profit alone is not enough. They want power. This means interfering in and undermining our democracy when it suits them, rewriting the rules for our communities and our country writ large. We’ve seen corporations pour money into legislative campaigns, bully our elected officials, and spread misinformation and harmful narratives to get their way. They’ve been buying, bullying, and bamboozling to maintain power for years.
We can feel the impact of their tactics in every aspect of our lives: from the skyrocketing cost of food and housing to unsustainably low wages to shrinking protections on the job and at home. Corporations have extracted for so long and so relentlessly that people have been pushed to the breaking point. But exposing how they buy and bully their way into our democracy and try to mislead our communities can help bring us together across the very lines on which they try to divide us. When we know that corporations are trying to bamboozle us and drive their own agenda, we can resist their attempts to pit us against each other. We can call them out, organize and build power as a united force, and then demand better together. This is happening across the country. Workers, renters, and everyday people have been rising up against the small group of greedy corporations that hold outsized power over our lives.
The more we expose and fight back against corporations’ predictable attempts to hold on to power, the closer we will get to building an economy and a democracy that truly work for all of us.
Lauren Jacobs [[link removed]] In solidarity,
Lauren Jacobs
Executive Director
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Missouri workers and renters know when corporations are trying to pull a fast one and exploit them
For over a year, low-wage workers with Missouri Workers Center [[link removed]] (MWC) and community allies fought for a strong community benefits agreement with the Kansas City Royals that would guarantee living-wage union jobs and truly affordable housing for the thousands of service and hospitality workers at their new ballpark and entertainment district. The Royals are seeking taxpayer subsidies for the construction of their multi-billion dollar development, and the Good Jobs CBA effort, championed by low-wage workers and tenants, would have ensured public dollars translated to public benefit. Yet, when the time came to negotiate, the Royals failed to meet low-wage workers' deadline, instead offering workers and renters pennies [[link removed]] while trying to cloak their version in the language of a “ historic, top tier [[link removed]] ” agreement. But Kansas Citians know better, and groups like MWC are urging voters to reject the corporation’s proposal at the ballot box [[link removed]] .
Fast food employers say paid time off and rights trainings are harmful, but San Jose workers know better
Fast food workers in San Jose are fighting for the Fast Food Fair Work Ordinance [[link removed]] , which would enable them to accrue paid time off and receive training about their rights and benefits on the job. At the same time, fast food corporations are using familiar corporate tactics in their efforts to squash the policy. They’ve hired well-known lobbyists and, through a coalition called Save Local Restaurants, have tried to spin the narrative around the policy and frame it as harmful to small business owners and employees alike. But workers aren’t deterred [[link removed]] — earlier this month, more than 50 fast food workers together with Working Partnerships USA [[link removed]] , SEIU Local 102, and labor allies attended a City Council meeting where they shared their stories [[link removed]] and urged their elected leaders to include the law in the upcoming budget.
The Kroger & Albertson Merger is not good for workers or consumers
After two of the largest US-based grocery stores agreed to merge back in October 2022, a coalition of labor groups, workers, consumers, and allies joined together to oppose them. While Kroger & Albertsons claimed that their $24.6 billion merger would lower prices for consumers, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy [[link removed]] (LAANE) joined the chorus of groups [[link removed]] that pushed back against this false narrative. In fact, these kinds of corporate consolidations often result in an erosion of worker rights and inflated costs for consumers. Just last month, in a major win for workers and communities, the Federal Trade Commission sued to block the mega-merger [[link removed]] .
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California employers say it’s “too expensive” to provide workers with basic protections in extreme heat
With warm weather around the corner, workers in Southern California are continuing a years-long fight for indoor heat protections [[link removed]] that has been stymied time and again by corporate interests. When the rule was initially introduced in 2016, employers immediately pushed back, claiming that such protections would be difficult to enforce, costly, and unnecessary for workers who only spend a short time inside spaces hotter than 87 degrees. However, with the last decade being the hottest on record and with 20 heat-related deaths between 2010 and 2017, these claims just don’t hold up when talking about providing workers with basic health and safety protections. Warehouse Worker Resource Center [[link removed]] (WWRC) has been supporting workers who are facing these extreme heat-related risks, particularly during the summer when temperatures reach dangerous and record-setting highs. Just last week, workers and allies with WWRC packed an Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board meeting, where the board unanimously voted to approve an indoor heat rule [[link removed]] .
When corporate landlords try to displace and profit off tenants, strong eviction protections can halt them in their tracks
At the end of last year, CGI+ Real Estate Investments issued eviction notices to 26 families living in an apartment complex in Oxnard, California. The firm attempted to evict tenants under the guise of remodeling their units, despite the fact that they had no building permits or plans filed with the city. The firm offered some tenants cash deals to move into new units, only to raise rents by nearly double the original amount. Shortly after, the tenants reached out to CAUSE [[link removed]] for support, and together they engaged in weekly meetings with the City Council, gave public comments, and filed complaints about the real estate firm’s greedy and harmful practices. They were protected by an eviction protection ordinance won in 2022, and worked with city officials to strengthen the language of the existing policy [[link removed]] . Tenants and CAUSE staff successfully pushed back against the eviction notices, with 20 out of the 26 families deciding to stay in their homes.
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Corporations try to downplay warehouse worker injuries, but the numbers don’t lie
In warehouses across the country, workers have shared stories of productivity quotas and unsafe working conditions that are adding up to a serious injury crisis. Corporations like Amazon have repeatedly minimized and dismissed the stories and data shared by workers and labor groups, but the scale and scope of worker injuries is impossible to ignore. In New York, the leader in warehouse injury rates nationwide, 1 in every 11 warehouse workers experiences an injury on the job [[link removed]] . Despite what corporations might say, these are not unfortunate accidents. This is how warehouses are designed to work, but they don’t have to be this way. The Alliance for a Greater New York [[link removed]] (ALIGN), workers, and community allies are calling for the passage of the Warehouse Worker Injury Reduction Act [[link removed]] , which would improve warehouse safety, training, and on-site medical care.
Following a corruption investigation into Anaheim City Hall, residents demand transparency and accountability
Nearly two years ago, a series of FBI affidavits and an independent corruption report [[link removed]] revealed improper spending within Anaheim City Hall and the power that corporate interests, such as Disneyland Resort and Angel Stadium, possess over local policymaking. Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development [[link removed]] (OCCORD) has been leading the push for campaign finance reform [[link removed]] , which aims to limit the influence of corporate interests in local elections and decision making. They’ve been informing and mobilizing residents to attend council meetings, speak up, and demand transparency and accountability from their elected officials. As Disneyland Forward, the corporation’s latest plan to develop and expand in the city, moves ahead, OCCORD is disseminating information [[link removed]] about the project to the public and pushing for community benefits that will actually reach Anaheim residents.
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The Oakland A’s want to move to a new city, so why are the owners holding on to the Coliseum?
For more than 50 years, the Oakland Coliseum has been the home of the Oakland Athletics baseball team and a mainstay in the lives of local residents. Over the past decade, EBASE [[link removed]] and the Oakland United coalition have been leading efforts to ensure that any redevelopment of the stadium is bound by a strong community benefits agreement that provides affordable housing and living wage jobs. After years of the coalition, community members, and the city trying to negotiate with the team, the A’s ownership announced last year that they would build a new stadium elsewhere and uproot the team to a new city. Despite the fact that they plan to leave Oakland, the owners bought half of the Oakland Coliseum site and are actively blocking development and the flow of much-needed resources to the local community. As the season kicks off tonight, the Oakland United coalition is calling on elected leaders to put an end to the Oakland A’s ownership blocking resources and progress from reaching East Oakland.
If it walks like a corporation and talks like a corporation, it probably is a corporation — and needs to pay its fair share
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), a healthcare giant that uses its nonprofit tax exempt status to avoid paying its fair share in taxes, has created what experts deem to be a regional monopoly on healthcare services. While UPMC pushes a narrative that they are a nonprofit dedicated to community care, top executives collectively took home $225 million [[link removed].] in 2021, more than double what UPMC spent on charity care that year. As the hospital system expands, more and more patients have been saddled with staggering medical debt while workers are understaffed and underpaid. Thanks to a campaign led by Pittsburgh United [[link removed]] , Mayor Ed Gainey launched an investigation into land owned across the city by various nonprofits — including UPMC — to assess their charitable tax status. Pittsburgh United also worked with the Black Workers Center to help hospital workers file a federal class action lawsuit [[link removed]] against the corporation. As a result, UPMC is now being investigated [[link removed]] by the Department of Justice for abuse of monopoly power and the FTC has intervened [[link removed]] in their proposed merger with Washington Health Services.
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Uber Takes Us for a Ride [[link removed]]
Earlier this month, we released new data that exposes how Uber is charging passengers more and paying drivers less [[link removed]] , while funneling our money to banks and billionaires.
[link removed] [[link removed]] As our Executive Director, Lauren Jacobs, writes in The Hill [[link removed]] : "Ultimately, Uber and Lyft’s predatory pricing and deceptive tactics harm all of us. Falsely claiming that wage protections will drive up fares seems to be a tactic to pit drivers against passengers and obscure a massive transfer of wealth to Wall Street."
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