
Whole Foods is tracking and scoring stores it deems at risk of unionizing - notRobot
https://www.businessinsider.com/whole-foods-tracks-unionization-risk-with-heat-map-2020-1
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merricksb
Large discussion earlier:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22925359](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22925359)
(210 points/129 comments)

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mothsonasloth
When will people realise that "progressive" companies like Whole Foods aren't
really progressive?

They're just good at exploiting whilst distracting customers with flashy
themes like organic, sustainable, environmental, community-minded.

In any business, there is someone or something that is getting squeezed;
whether its the environment, producers, manufacturers, suppliers, distributors
workers or the customers.

This isn't an argument against capitalism, it's just the reality.

~~~
forgingahead
_In any business, there is someone or something that is getting squeezed;
whether its the environment, producers, manufacturers, suppliers, distributors
workers or the customers._

This is not a serious claim with strong evidence -- "someone must get shafted"
('squeezed' as you put it) sounds more like an ideological statement than a
factual one.

I'm the first to agree with you that there can be big problems with how
certain companies are run. But you can make the same claim about any
organisation of people, whether it is governmental, for-profit, non-profit, or
even your weekly men's drinking group.

~~~
javajosh
"Squeeze" is too vague a word to criticize so carefully. If squeeze just
implies "businesses act to reduce cost," then it is trivially true for all
business. However the GP might mean "squeeze" to be limited to a _coercive
act_ to reduce cost. Which is illegal in theory, but probably happens quite
often in practice.

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paulus_magnus2
Is there a good reason why we allow capital to organise itself and not labour?
Adam smith was already commenting on this asymmetry [can't find the quote].

In the end, labour can "capitalise itself" by having all employees resign,
form a body-shop company and apply to service the original employer. In an
efficient market these two arrangements should produce the same outcome.

~~~
Hokusai
> Is there a good reason why we allow capital to organise itself and not
> labour?

It is a matter of for whom is easier to organize. Capital can organize pretty
easily, you may need only half a dozen companies to change a full labor
market. But, you will need thousands or tens of thousands of individuals to
achieve the same on the labor side.

So, you need laws to protect labor if they have to have any chance to organize
themselves, or even to promote and finance such activities. Weak or non-
existent labor laws creates a power imbalance in favor of capital. So, you
only hear their side of the discussion.

e.g.: [https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-tech-
jo...](https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-tech-jobs-
settlement-20150903-story.html)

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adrianN
You know what would help against such tactics? A union!

~~~
dimitar
Imagine union organizers having an app where workers can register anonymously
(just wage and location) and help build heat-maps of places where workers are
interested in unionizing. This can have increasing returns - see some plant
having some interested workers? Send some picketers with download instructions
to find the rest.

The app can also provide useful services like to reporting wage theft or other
rights violations.

BTW, I'm not even sure trade unions are the right way to solve labor issues,
but it is fun to ponder union organizing in the 21st century.

~~~
dariusj18
Just don't host it on AWS. Or any other cloud platform for that matter.

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Hitton
_Store-risk metrics include average store compensation, average total store
sales, and a "diversity index" that represents the racial and ethnic diversity
of every store. Stores at higher risk of unionizing have lower diversity and
lower employee compensation, as well as higher total store sales and higher
rates of workers' compensation claims, according to the documents._

Interesting. I would like to know what factors are behind this. This would be
probably good area to do sociological research in.

~~~
sjwright
So if you want to unionise Whole Foods, start in the areas of highest
diversity and compensation.

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Poems
Pretty sure this was lifted from an episode of “Superstore”.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstore_(TV_series)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstore_\(TV_series\))

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dwighttk
Heh, I initially conflated this with the Amazon warehouse drone heat sensor
story from a few days ago and was wondering why union organizers had a
different temperature than non-union folk.

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hckr_news
“Dupe” flag makes me think of the article being a dupe or falsified rather
than a duplicate. Maybe the moderators here should use a different word.

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listentojohan
Broken link?

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notRobot
Link works for me, but apparently others are getting an error. You can try
this: [https://www.businessinsider.com/whole-foods-tracks-
unionizat...](https://www.businessinsider.com/whole-foods-tracks-unionization-
risk-with-heat-map-2020-1)

~~~
listentojohan
Thanks. That worked. :)

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behindsight
Fixed link:

[https://www.businessinsider.com/whole-foods-tracks-
unionizat...](https://www.businessinsider.com/whole-foods-tracks-unionization-
risk-with-heat-map-2020-1)

~~~
notRobot
Huh, the link I posted is working for me but apparently not for others. Thanks
for this.

