Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley’s Labor Center describe a broader move across the industry in which chains treat their locations as dispersed mini-warehouses, shifting labor away from the sales floor and toward back-room picking, packing, and processing returns.
When workers are free to display their allegiances, union insignia can help shepherd collective bargaining efforts to victory.
Labor advocates say it’s possible to both have flexibility and be an employee. Ken Jacobs, chair of the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, sees Uber’s hybrid model as an “old model wrapped in new technology,” with the companies shifting the costs and risks to workers.
As president, Biden would have a number of means at his disposal to enforce better labor standards in the industry, said Carol Zabin, a labor economist who directs the Green Economy Program at the University of California, Berkeley. His administration could make sure individual workers aren’t expected to cover the costs of environmental initiatives.
