Sunday, December 05, 2021

UK
A decade of marketisation has left lecturers with no choice but to strike

The shake-up of universities has led to lower pensions, job insecurity and cuts to courses
‘Higher education is one of the most heavily casualised industries in the UK.’ A picket at University College London. 
Photograph: Guy Smallman/Getty Images

Sat 4 Dec 2021

Along with tens of thousands of university workers at 58 institutions across the UK, I have been on strike for three days this week over pensions, pay and conditions. For workers at Goldsmiths this national strike has fallen in the middle of an epic, local three-week strike of our own – over management proposals to sack 52 staff, as part of a cost-cutting plan financed by big banks.

The national action and our local strike are connected: the factors that led to a vote for strike action by more than 70% of University and College Union (UCU) members nationally are the same ones that have produced a dramatic confrontation at Goldsmiths. Indeed, the situation at Goldsmiths, a small University of London college specialising in arts, humanities and social sciences, could be a window on to the future of higher education nationally: a future of casualisation, swingeing cuts and the possibility of troubling interventions from financial institutions.

The national dispute encompasses a wide range of elements, the most high-profile of which is pensions: like public sector workers before them, university staff face an attack on our defined-benefit retirement schemes. The employer, Universities UK, is attempting to cut our pensions by more than 30%, using a reportedly flawed valuation taken at a low point in the economic and social crisis caused by the pandemic. The dispute amounts to a cluster of grievances over working conditions known as the “four fights”: pay, equalities, workload and casualisation. Higher education is one of the most heavily casualised sectors in the UK, with two-thirds of researchers and half of teaching staff employed on fixed-term (ie temporary) contracts.

For many younger academics it is casualisation that has spurred us to take action in the national dispute. I spent seven years on seven different casual contracts across three institutions before I got my first permanent position at Goldsmiths this summer. Many of these contacts are desperately low paid; at times I was taking home just £2,000 a year from teaching, and having to work three jobs to survive. But it is also the insecurity that is crippling: it is impossible to plan your career trajectory and life in general without knowing if you’ll be in work next year. Casualised staff are also the first to be laid off in a crisis: Goldsmiths attempted to release nearly 500 of us at the start of the pandemic last spring, though we fought back.


On the picket line at Leeds University: ‘I will strike for as long as it takes’

Read more

The national dispute is the result of what has been called “a decade of marketisation” in higher education. And it is marketisation – the move to turn education from a public service into a commodity – that laid the conditions for our local dispute at Goldsmiths. The overhaul of higher education funding in 2010 by the coalition government, particularly the removal of most direct government funding for courses, meant universities became heavily reliant on the volatile and unpredictable stream of income from student tuition fees. Humanities departments outside of the elite universities have been under pressure ever since, with several (such as politics and history at Kingston) being shut down altogether. Universities have sought to cut staff costs through redundancies and increased use of casualised contracts.

The 2010 reforms also empowered a new generation of university senior managers who see their role as combining “streamlining” and cost-cutting measures with management speak about social justice and inclusion. Goldsmiths’ senior management is archetypal in this respect, with the warden, Frances Corner, dressing up a 2019 plan to axe staff as part of a mission to “secur[e] our legacy as a beacon of progressive, critical thought and in the vanguard of social justice”.

Goldsmiths’ latest move in this direction involves a plan to cut 52 jobs across professional services, English and creative writing, and history courses, centralising administration and likely cutting courses in the process. An alarming aspect of the plan is the mooted role of the banks: Lloyds and NatWest are thought to have insisted on reductions in staff costs as a condition of loans given to the university. If this is the case, it raises the worrying prospect of private banks dictating terms to a public university: an eerie echo of Gary Shteyngart’s 2010 novel Super Sad True Love Story, which imagined a character “studying art & finance at HSBC-Goldsmiths”.

The possibility of an alliance of cost-cutting senior management and finance capital has provoked a heartening response from a militant union branch and a politicised student body: 86% of Goldsmiths’ UCU members, on a 70% turnout, voted to strike. The three-week period of industrial action has featured a varied programme of teach-outs run jointly by students and staff, a march on local branches of Lloyds and NatWest, and a huge solidarity rally addressed by former shadow chancellor John McDonnell.

Unless marketisation can be resisted at a national level, the situation at Goldsmiths – in which funding volatility linked to the 2010 reforms has allowed banks to exert influence – will become much more common. These are two struggles we have to win.


Jacob Mukherjee is a lecturer in media, communications and cultural studies, and co-secretary of Goldsmiths UCU
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Opinion: Alberta's cuts to post-secondary education based on bad data

Author of the article:Trevor W. Harrison, Richard E. Mueller
Publishing date:Dec 04, 2021 • 
Members of multiple post-secondary unions for staff and students were protesting across Alberta including the Minister of Advanced Education's, Demetrios Nicolaides Constituency office in Calgary on Saturday, January 30, 2021. 
PHOTO BY DARREN MAKOWICHUK /Postmedia

On April 29, 2021, the Alberta government released Alberta 2030: Building Skills for Jobs, a document outlining a 10-year strategy for transforming the province’s post-secondary education system. Alberta 2030 purports to arise out of a report, commissioned by the government, from McKinsey and Company at a cost to taxpayers of $3.7 million. This report — financed by taxpayers — has still not been made public and the devil is often in the details.

In the tradition of “what is old is new again,” much of Alberta 2030 replicates part of the Klein government’s 1994 White Paper, New Directions for Adult Learning in Alberta. That paper also set out a 10-year plan for the province’s post-secondary system. Overshadowed by fiscal concerns, New Directions detailed plans for increased tuitions, more applied learning, and performance indicators, while also threatening collective bargaining and hinting at doing away with tenure.

These also form key elements of Alberta 2030, but like much of the UCP’s plans for spending (or rather lack thereof) it is sold to the public as necessary to deal with Alberta’s deficits and debt, and is supposedly indicative of the government’s taxpayer-friendly and fiscally responsible approach. In order to sell this broad package to the public, the UCP seems bent on convincing Albertans that their public services, post-secondary education in this case, are more costly than those in the three largest provinces — comparisons first made in the 2019 MacKinnon report.

Because that report is still cited in government documents as justification for the draconian public funding cutbacks to Alberta’s post-secondary institutions, it is important to know if its data is correct. If that data were misleading, would the public still stand for this attack on the province’s universities, polytechnics and colleges?

Our recent report shows the disparities between Alberta and her comparator provinces, as reported in MacKinnon (and repeated in other government documents that followed) are largely overstated. MacKinnon says Alberta spent between $5,000 to $15,000 more per student than the provinces of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. Using 2018-19 Statistics Canada data, the most recent at hand, we were able to provide a better and more nuanced comparison of expenditures between Alberta’s publicly funded post-secondary institutions and their counterparts in these other jurisdictions.

Our analysis showed that per-student expenditures for university students in Alberta were not quite $4,000 more than in Ontario and Quebec but actually $2,700 less than British Columbia, figures much at odds with those cited in the MacKinnon report. Why this difference? Because MacKinnon lumps all institutions together and averages the expenditures system-wide. This is misleading. The big difference is found regarding expenditures per student at Alberta’s colleges and polytechnics which, relative to the three comparators, are a whopping $9,000 to $15,000 higher than in the other three provinces.

These differences are likely smaller today, given the Kenney government’s draconian cuts since 2019. The key point is that our data is more recent — and likely more accurate — than those in the MacKinnon report which continue to be used to justify government policy.

Alberta’s colleges are some of the province’s most expensive institutions per student. We expect research-intensive universities — those with expensive and specialized programs such as engineering and veterinary medicine — to be expensive, but small colleges with enrolments of less than 2,000 students and with multiple campuses often rival the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary in expenditures per student.

Is this a problem? Not necessarily. Many of these institutions were either established or expanded since the 1960s with the purpose of servicing remote locations and with other economic and social development goals in mind. This is far from a bad policy, but one that is costly and needs to be considered when making budget decisions about the post-secondary system.

Our report makes several criticisms of Alberta 2030. One major one, however, is that the government misuses data — perhaps intentionally — in its attack on Alberta’s post-secondary education system. Good data makes for good policy. The government is using outdated and misleading data for an assault on post-secondary education disguised as fiscal prudence. Why? We will have more to say about this in future op-eds.

Trevor W. Harrison is professor of sociology and Richard E. Mueller is professor of economics, both at the University of Lethbridge.
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Use of NDAs has created 'culture of silence and fear' on UPEI campus, former prof says

Multiple sources say non-disclosure agreements used to

 silence harassment allegations


Kerry Campbell · CBC News · 
A university campus is no place for non-disclosure agreements that prevent victims of harassment from speaking out and warning others, women's advocates say. (Wayne Thibodeau/CBC)

The University of Prince Edward Island has used non-disclosure agreements to create "a culture of silence and fear" on campus, resulting in a toxic workplace where staff would sooner leave the province than speak out, says a former professor.

Kate Tilleczek, who served as the Canada Research Chair in Child/Youth Cultures and Transitions at UPEI before leaving the institution in 2018, said she supported three women who ended up signing non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs, after they came forward with complaints of sexual harassment on campus. 

For that, Tilleczek said she herself experienced retaliation from university administration.

"I don't think a post-secondary institution is any place for an NDA," said Tilleczek, who's now an instructor at York University in Toronto.

"We're there for intellectual openness and freedom and discovery and innovation… and I don't see how NDAs have any place whatever."

In 2013, the university acknowledged it had reached settlement agreements with two employees who had filed complaints of sexual harassment with the P.E.I. Human Rights Commission. Those complaints centred around the conduct of university president Alaa Abd-el-Aziz, who has held his post since 2010.

Two settlements were reached in 2013 involving allegations against University of Prince Edward Island president Alaa Abd-El-Aziz, shown in this photo as the university was planning 50th-anniversary celebrations in 2019, (Brittany Spencer/CBC)

Neither the commission nor the university would provide specifics around the complaints — but at the time the chair of the UPEI Board of Governors, Tom Cullen, told the Charlottetown Guardian they involved inappropriate comments. As part of the settlement, the university said it couldn't comment on what costs or conditions were involved.

Tilleczek said a third settlement was reached with a former university student regarding the conduct of a professor — not the president — and she said all three settlements included NDAs.

No response from UPEI

CBC News asked the university multiple times about its use of NDAs — whether they had been used and in what circumstances, whether there is a policy to direct their use, and how much money has been included in related settlement agreements

The university did not provide a response.

CBC reached out to the three people believed to have signed the agreements, which in such cases require both parties to agree not to speak to others about what happened, and could involve compensation for what a victim has been through. Two responded to say they could not provide comment. The third person did not respond.

After the issue of non-disclosure agreements was raised in the P.E.I. legislature earlier this year, another person reached out to CBC to provide information similar to that provided by Tilleczek. She described being harassed herself at UPEI. Fearing retaliation, she did not make a formal complaint. (CBC has agreed to protect her identity.)

People are afraid to speak out and the university is using public and student money to do this.- Woman who says she was harassed at UPEI

NDAs "are being used to silence victims of harassment and to protect the most senior [staff]," the woman told CBC.

She said some staff "have been workplace bullied and left and took the NDA because they needed the money. People are afraid to speak out and the university is using public and student money to do this."

While working on this story, CBC contacted more than two dozen current and former students, faculty and staff.

Some said they had no knowledge of the university signing NDAs in cases of harassment. Others said they could neither confirm nor deny the practice. Some said they had a general understanding that NDAs had been included in one or more of the settlement agreements, while some said they had specific knowledge of one or more of the NDAs referenced in this story.

One staff person did say they had signed two NDAs, pledging to not disclose financial details and human resources information to which they were privy, as is common in large organizations.

Another pointed to confidentiality requirements written into the university's fair treatment policy. That policy requires complainants in cases of harassment and sexual harassment to maintain "the degree of confidentiality necessary to ensure… congenial and collegial relations among members of the University community."

Limits placed on future deals

A new law which passed unanimously in the P.E.I. legislature in November is set to make the province the first jurisdiction in the country to limit the use of NDAs in cases of discrimination and harassment when it comes into effect in May.

Most of the restrictions will affect only future NDAs, but the bill includes measures ensuring those who have signed NDAs in past cases of alleged harassment or discrimination are always free to speak about their experiences with health care professionals, law enforcement personnel and prospective employers.

Julie Macfarlane, a retired law professor with the University of Windsor and co-founder of a global campaign to end the use of non-disclosure agreements to silence victims, said their use has become "standard practice" in Canadian universities, "much as it has been standard practice for many years in the church" when it comes to allegations of sexual misconduct.

Julie Macfarlane has been campaigning for universities to stop condoning the use of non-disclosure agreements in harassment cases, calling it 'a discredited, immoral practice.' (Submitted by Julie Macfarlane)

NDAs allow offenders to be shuffled between institutions while preventing any warning from being issued to potential victims on the receiving end, Macfarlane says.

"I mean this is something that is absolutely common sense to women who've experienced sexual harassment," she said. "You do want to be able to say to another woman who is working with the same person… 'You need to be careful around this person. You need to be careful about being alone with this person.'

"That's what NDAs are stopping us doing."

Silence interferes with healing: council

The P.E.I. Advisory Council on the Status of Women says NDAs further harm victims of harassment by silencing them.

"Any resolution that does not allow someone to continue to speak about their experience and access the help that they need continues the harm," said Jane Ledwell, the council's executive director.

'Any resolution that does not allow someone to continue to speak about their experience and access the help that they need continues the harm,' says Jane Ledwell, the executive director of the P.E.I. Advisory Council of the Status of Women, of non-disclosure agreements. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)

Ledwell said survivors should be able to decide for themselves whether to talk about their stories.

"The survivor who is cut off from their own story and unable to share it loses the opportunity for healing and restoration within the community," she said.

Ledwell said there's an imbalance of power when an institution enters into a legal agreement with an individual who may have been a victim of abuse, and it's up to institutions to ensure that imbalance of power "not be used as power over someone to silence them into the future."

Allegations of retribution

Tilleczek said she believes she faced retribution for supporting the women who filed complaints about sexual harassment on the UPEI campus.

Kate Tilleczek, shown in a 2016 file photo, provided support for three women who signed non-disclosure agreements during her time at UPEI. (CBC)

As an example, she said university administrators on two separate occasions tried to move her research lab from Dalton Hall into a basement location. The second time, she said, the decision was made without telling her, and was overturned only when the university's vice president of research intervened. 

Tillleczek said the victims themselves also became targets of retaliation from university administration; one had a sabbatical denied. 

Tilleczek said all three victims left the campus, and that retaliation was a factor in her own decision to leave in 2018.

"Why would one stay in a position in a place that allows such harassment and toxicity to go unchecked?" said Tilleczek. 

"It does affect you. It affects your kind of pride in place, particularly in the institution. And you're kind of concerned that could happen to other people, to other women when there are NDAs, and this then buys silence [to protect] the persons who are harassing.

"It switches the culture in a way that for women doesn't really feel safe or welcoming at all."

'Clearing of the air' needed

Through the campaign "Can't Buy My Silence," Macfarlane is calling on UPEI and all universities "to release everybody whom they have currently given a non-disclosure agreement to."

She's also asking for universities to declare they will no longer use NDAs "when we're dealing with cases that affect the safety of our employees and students, and those in other universities where they might subsequently work."

Macfarlane says she believes that once one university "is brave enough to stand up and say: 'This is a discredited, immoral practice and we won't do it any longer,' that that will put pressure on other universities — I hope — to follow suit."

The silence and the complicity that went on, and perhaps still goes on at the University of Prince Edward Island... should be spoken about.- Kate Tilleczek

Tilleczek said UPEI should reach out to the victims who signed NDAs and make it clear it will not pursue legal action if they choose to tell their stories.

"I think there should now be a clearing of the air," she said. "This new bill provides a way forward to open up some of those discussions."

Tilleczek suggested an external third party could facilitate such a process.

"The silence and the complicity that went on, and perhaps still goes on at the University of Prince Edward Island… should be spoken about."

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CEO Feels Terrible About Laying Off 900 Employees Over Video Chat, Does It Anyway

"If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off," mortgage lender Better.com CEO Vishal Garg said.

By Jason Koebler
3.12.21
On the Clock
On the Clock is Motherboard's reporting on the organized labor movement, gig work, automation, and the future of work.

“This is the second time in my career I’m doing this and I do not want to do this. The last time I did it, I cried; this time I hope to be stronger,” Garg says early in the video, before noting that he is laying off "about" 15 percent of the company’s workforce just before the holidays. More than a minute into the call, Garg says, “If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off. Your employment here is terminated effective immediately.”

Garg says in the video that he wishes that the company “was thriving as enthusiastically as we were at the beginning of this year, but that that’s not the case.” He then adds that he is sure that laid-off employees “will leave us and be more successful, more fortunate, and luckier in your next endeavor. I wish you all the best of luck.”

There is, of course, no good way to lay people off, but what makes this video particularly brutal is Garg's focus on his own feelings, rather than those of his employees; his repeated invoking of laid-off employees’ bad "luck"; and, most strikingly, that it has the look and feel of an “if you’re watching this, I’m already dead” video. The twist, of course, is that Garg is fine and his employees are not.


‘F—k you, dude’: Startup valued at $7B gets flack as CEO lays off hundreds over Zoom


Joshua Bote, SFGATE
Dec. 3, 2021


Just days after receiving a $750 million cash infusion, a tech startup that Forbes branded in October as a “unicorn,” valued at $7 billion, laid off hundreds of employees in a manner that some online deemed “brutal.”

Better.com, a digital mortgage lender with offices in Oakland, laid off 900 employees weeks before Christmas on a mass Zoom call. Only those being laid off were invited. It is a stark tidal shift for the company, which announced it was going public earlier this year.

“I come to you with not great news,” CEO Vishal Garg said in the video, which has since circulated on TikTok and YouTube. “The market has changed, as you know, and we have to move with it in order to survive.”

“This isn’t news you’re gonna wanna hear, but ultimately it was my decision and I wanted you to hear it from me,” Garg added. “The last time I did this, I cried. This time, I hope to be stronger.”

But he gets back to business seconds later, telling those in the Zoom call that they were the ones to be laid off. (A spokesperson for the company later clarified to SFGATE that only 9% of employees were laid off. The discrepancy between Garg's and the official company percentage remains unclear.)

“If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off,” Garg said, citing “market efficiency, performances, productivity” among the reasons for the layoffs.

The person recording the video is seemingly furious. “F—k you, dude,” he says as Garg announces this news.


Garg also offered his hopes that those who got laid off would be “more successful, more fortunate, and luckier in your next endeavor.”

But Better.com recently received a substantial cash infusion from its backers. Chief Financial Officer Kevin Ryan said in an internal email, which TechCrunch obtained, that the firm would have “$1 billion of cash on the company’s balance sheet,” thanks to SoftBank and Aurora Acquisition. The company also hired 7,000 people during the pandemic, reported Business Insider.

Meanwhile, Ryan said in a statement sent to SFGATE, “Having to conduct layoffs is gut wrenching, especially this time of year, however a fortress balance sheet and a reduced and focused workforce together set us up to play offense going into a radically evolving homeownership market."

Better.com CEO Fires Employees In A Cold One-Way Video Announcement

Jack Kelly
Senior Contributor
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I write actionable interview, career and salary advise



Shot of a stressed businesswoman with headache in the office after hearing the bad news 

Running a business isn’t easy. Sometimes market forces work against you, and the company doesn’t do well. In trying times, you see who is a real leader. They should stand strong and show empathy towards the employees who are impacted by the unfortunate turn of events.

Vishal Garg, CEO of ‘unicorn’ mortgage lender startup Better.com—after receiving a $750 million cash infusion with a valuation of around $7 billion—bluntly informed his 900 employees that a large number of people will be fired in a cold, awkward one-way video announcement, Thursday.

Looking visibly uncomfortable, Garg said that 15% of the workforce would be laid off. In a monotone voice he said, “This is the second time in my career I’m doing this and I do not want to do this. The last time I did it, I cried; this time I hope to be stronger.”

During the holiday season, it's standard company practices to hold off on bad news such as mass terminations. Instead of waiting some weeks for the staff to enjoy family and friends during the holiday season, Garg dropped the bombshell announcement, “If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off. Your employment here is terminated effective immediately.”

In a video version of the termination call, a presumed disgruntled employee cursed out the CEO saying “F*ck you, dude,” over the announcement. Garg did say, “I wish you all the best of luck,” in their new endeavors.

Kevin Ryan, Better.com's CFO, said in a statement that the company only laid off 9 percent of its employees, and “Having to conduct layoffs is gut-wrenching, especially this time of year, however a fortress balance sheet and a reduced and focused workforce together set us up to play offense going into 

This is not the first time people were let go via a one-sided or cold video announcement. Back in May, 2020, at the early stages of the Covid-19 outbreak, ridesharing app company Uber announced the layoff of 3,500 employees, representing 14% of its workforce. In a sign of the times, with employees working from home, Uber informed the job-loss casualties via an online Zoom call.

The head of Uber’s customer service office, Ruffin Chevaleau, told workers that today was their last day at the company. Chevaleau soberly shared that Uber’s business was hit hard. The company’s business dropped by over 50%. She said, "With trip volume down, the difficult and unfortunate reality is there is not enough work for many front-line customer support employees."

Chaveleau added, "As a result, we are eliminating 3,500 front-line customer support roles. Your role is impacted and today will be your last working day with Uber." Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said of the downsizing, "We're focused on navigating through this crisis that absolutely leaves us in a stronger position, as the world starts to recover." Khosrowshahi announced that he will be forsaking his base salary.

Scooter-sharing startup Bird fired 406 employees in April, 2020 via a “Black Mirror” style video. The unsuspecting workers were asked to log into a one-way Zoom call, after being informed that all other appointments were cancelled. A disembodied voice read a script informing the person that they’ve been laid off. Their Slack and other accounts were shut off and given end dates.

24 Hour Fitness, a privately held national chain of about 430 gyms with 22,000 workers, fired employees via a phone call. The gym’s Chief human resources officer, Tami Majer, sent an email to workers asking them to participate in a phone call to discuss “important company updates,” indicating that they’ll be paid for their time. On the call, the employees were told that they’ve been let go. There wasn’t any in-depth discussion around severance packages, benefits or any other color provided as to what's going on.

Airbnb took a different, more enlightened approach to layoffs during the height of the virus outbreak. The company announced that it would downsize 25% of its workforce. Roughly 1,900 people out of the company’s 7,500 total workforce would lose their jobs. At the time, this was one of the largest layoffs that we’ve seen out of Silicon Valley due to the effect of the coronavirus outbreak. What’s different about Airbnb is the manner in which the company informed employees of its plans.

In a message to staff, Airbnb cofounder and CEO Brian Chesky said, “Some very sad news. Today, I must confirm that we are reducing the size of the Airbnb workforce.” Chesky then advised his employees that he will be transparent and offer details, so that everyone is fully aware of what’s happening.

He was forthright and didn't try to spin the narrative, as he stated, “We are collectively living through the most harrowing crisis of our lifetime, and as it began to unfold, global travel came to a standstill. Airbnb’s business has been hit hard, with revenue this year forecasted to be less than half of what we earned in 2019. In response, we raised $2 billion in capital and dramatically cut costs that touched nearly every corner of Airbnb.”

He also assured the staff that the “decisions are not a reflection of the work from people on these teams.” Chesky thanked his employees by saying, “We have great people leaving Airbnb, and other companies will be lucky to have them.” The chief executive promised that the company will take care of those that are leaving. “We have looked across severance, equity, healthcare and job support and done our best to treat everyone in a compassionate and thoughtful way,” Chesky added.

His message also said, “Employees in the U.S. will receive 14 weeks of base pay, plus one additional week for every year at Airbnb. Tenure will be rounded to the nearest year. For example, if someone has been at Airbnb for three years and seven months, they will get an additional four weeks of salary, or 18 weeks of total pay.” Twelve months of health insurance will be covered through COBRA.

It's important to demonstrate compassion and understanding, as being let go is a traumatic experience. The impacted employees are worried about their financial situation, scared about trying to quickly find a new job, concerned that companies may perceive the firing as if they did something wrong, the loss of identity that’s tied up with your job, and missing the camaraderie of close workmates.

Real leadership is needed in a time of crisis. It's important to show empathy in sharing the bad news. Have everything ready for the impacted workers such as insurance coverage, date of departure, severance packages, recommendation letters, introductions to recruiters who could help with finding new jobs. Actively listen to the staff who are part of the downsizing, and take actions to help them through this difficult transitionary period.

Better.com CEO attacks laid off employees, accusing them of ‘stealing’ by working only two hours daily

Post author By admin

Post date December 4, 2021

1.Better.com CEO attacks laid off employees, accusing them of ‘stealing’ by working only two hours daily

2 days ago · Better.com, the SoftBank-backed mortgage startup with a wildly temperamental founder, laid off roughly 10 percent of its workforce today, or about 900 people in the United States and India ...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/softbank-backed-startup-bettercom-fires-900-in-brutal-cleansing


2.Better.com CEO attacks laid off employees, accusing them of ‘stealing’ by working only two hours daily

Dec 01, 2021 · Meredith Corp. is being accused of exploiting laid off workers and stiffing them on pay for working on Ayesha Curry's quarterly Sweet July magazine.

https://nypost.com/2021/12/01/meredith-accused-of-stiffing-staffers-on-ayesha-currys-mag/
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3.Better.com CEO attacks laid off employees, accusing them of ‘stealing’ by working only two hours daily

Nov 20, 2021 · Time’s Up CEO Exits as Most of Staff Laid Off: ‘This Is a Needed Reset, Not a Retreat’ Interim president Monifa Bandele has left the scandal-marred organization just two months after CEO ...

https://www.indiewire.com/2021/11/times-up-ceo-exits-staff-laid-off-1234680676/


4.Better.com CEO attacks laid off employees, accusing them of ‘stealing’ by working only two hours daily

May 15, 2021 · The CEO of Kroger, America’s largest grocery store chain, has been criticised for receiving a record $22.4million in compensation after …

https://www.yahoo.com/news/kroger-ceo-blasted-22-4m-180415832.html


5.Better.com CEO attacks laid off employees, accusing them of ‘stealing’ by working only two hours daily

Oct 17, 2021 · In 2020, Smith laid off some 1,500 of the 9,000 employees that worked across the company's roughly 100 dealerships. Now, salespeople are moving around 18 cars per month, double the 8-10 they were ...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/car-dealership-ceo-says-cut-164008693.html



1.Amazon (company)

Kingdom. In 2001, 850 employees in Seattle were laid off by Amazon.com after a unionization drive. The Washington Alliance of Technological Workers (WashTech)

https://en.wikipedia.org/Amazon (company)
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2.GameStop

pandemic in North America, with employees and social media users accusing the company of placing its business ahead of the safety of its staff and customers,

https://en.wikipedia.org/GameStop


3.JPMorgan Chase

how their CEOs are compensated in comparison with their employees. In public filings, companies have to disclose their "Pay Ratios," or the CEO's compensation

https://en.wikipedia.org/JPMorgan Chase

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IWGB union says Lockwood Publishing layoffs are illegal

Worker's group says management did not provide adequate consultation for cuts to 33 positions

Jeffrey Rousseau
Staff Writer
Friday 3rd December 2021
COMPANIES IN THIS ARTICLE
Lockwood Publishing

Today the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain called recent layoffs at Lockwood Publishing unlawful.

The IWGB said workers have negotiated with management for weeks about layoffs of about 17% of the company (33 of 200 positions placed at risk) and are going public as "management refuses to engage with the workers seriously."

The IWGB says that with layoffs of this scope employers are required to have collective consultations before proceeding, and it alleges that Lockwood has not done that.

In a press release the employee group said, "Mobile games developer Lockwood Publishing has been conducting an unlawful redundancy process, repeatedly flouting employment law."

It added, "When placing this number of employees at risk of redundancy, a corporation is obligated by law to conduct collective consultations as laid out in the legislation, which Lockwood has failed to do, disregarding the basic rights of its employees."

The IWGB has demanded Lockwood Publishing "abide by employment law, recognize their union and initiate a fair process."

The press release also calls attention to the company's finances, specifically $25 million in funding it secured from Tencent just last year.

GamesIndustry.biz has reached out to Lockwood for comment.

Mobile Game Publisher Lockwood Accused Of "Flouting Employment Law"











BY RHIANNON BEVAN
PUBLISHED 2 DAYS AGO

The studio behind mobile game Avakin is said to be secretly laying off its staff, and not even letting them say goodbye to coworkers.

Lockwood Publishing, best known for the popular mobile game Avakin Life, is facing accusations of breaching employment law. This comes from the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB), a trade union that represents game workers. This comes despite a big Tencent partnership, and the CEO making over $300,000 a year.

According to the allegations, Lockwood is trying to lay off 33 out of a workforce of 200. Employees are said to have their workplace IT accounts suddenly disabled without warning, before being told they are at risk of redundancy. IWGB says the workforce has not been consulted about this high number of layoffs, which would be a breach of employment law.

RELATED:"Change Will Not Come From The Goodness Of CEO's Hearts", Unions Blast Abusive Conditions In The Gaming Industry

"One day without any previous notice, HR called us into an agendaless meeting", said one anonymous employee. "We were told we were at risk of redundancy but not given any real explanation as to why. Some people had their work accounts deactivated within minutes and were told they couldn’t say goodbye to their co-workers".

This all comes despite a $25 million cash injection last year, courtesy of Tencent. The redundancies are also bizarre given the popularity of metaverse games like Avakin Life over lockdown, which has seen the game reach seven million monthly users, across 250 million accounts.

It was also found that the company's CEO makes £360k, leading many to question if these redundancies are truly necessary.



In response to the lack of transparency regarding such a high amount of employees facing job loss over the holidays, Lockwood workers formed their own union and affiliated with IWGB.

"We are asking management at Lockwood Publishing to halt this unlawful and illegitimate process of redundancies and avoid costly legal and reputational damage in the process", said a representative of The Lockwood Union. "No one should be sacked at Christmas, especially when there are clear alternatives available. Ultimately, we all want the same thing: we want a flourishing organisation that we are proud to work for. To do that, senior management at Lockwood have to start listening to their workers". The union goes on to compare the case to that of Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft, who face their own workplace abuse allegations.

Lockwood Publishing is yet to respond to the allegations.

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TECHNO-MYTH
JIMCO Technology Fund joins a $1.8bn funding round for fusion energy

Updated 02 December 2021
ARAB NEWS
https://arab.news/bg6py

The Saudi-based Jameel Investment Management Co. has participated in a $1.8billion funding round for a US fusion energy company, it has been announced.

JIMCO has invested an undeclared amount in Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a company founded in 2018 that is building the world’s first net-energy-giant fusion system.


“The world is ready to make big investments in commercial fusion as a key part of the global energy transition,” the chief executive officer of CFS, Bob Mumgaard, said.

The High-Temperature Superconducting magnet technology will be used in SPARC, a fusion device that is currently being constructed in Massachusetts and expected to demonstrate net energy from fusion by 2025.

This comes amid the parties’ steps towards a more sustainable future to mitigate climate change.

Bill Gates-Backed Commonwealth Fusion Systems IPO—Anticipation Grows


SOURCE: COMMONWEALTH FUSION SYSTEMS TWITTER

BY RUCHI GUPTA
DEC. 2 2021

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) recently raised $1.8 billion from a group of prominent investors including Bill Gates and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. Many prospective investors want to know whether CFS stock is publicly traded and how to buy it before the Commonwealth Fusion Systems IPO.

The efforts to combat climate change have created many opportunities for investors. Some investors are picking up EV stocks like Tesla while others are investing in companies that build systems that produce renewable energy from wind, solar, or other clean sources. CFS belongs to the renewable energy producer category.

What does Commonwealth Fusion Systems do?

CFS is developing high-tech machines that can produce clean and renewable electricity through a nuclear fusion process. Its approach contrasts with the fission process used in current nuclear power plants.

Fusion power plants promise many benefits over existing fission nuclear reactors. For example, fusion plants will be more efficient in converting fuel to electricity and won't produce radioactive wastes


SOURCE: COMMONWEALTH FUSION SYSTEMS

What other companies are building fusion power reactors?

A growing number of startups are joining the fusion electricity efforts and many deep-pocketed investors are coming out to back them. In addition to Commonwealth Fusion Systems, the other fusion startups are Helion Energy, Zap Energy, and Canada-based General Fusion.

Helion raised $500 million in November 2021 and might access an additional $1.7 billion if it meets certain targets. General Fusion recently raised $130 million from investors including Jeff Bezos. General Fusion is preparing for another fundraising in 2022 that could bring it even more money.

CFS has raised more than $2 billion since its founding in 2018. It plans to use the $1.8 billion fund raised recently to develop and operate a pilot fusion plant and start the work on a commercial plant.

Who owns Commonwealth Fusion Systems?

CFS started as a project of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before it branched out. But it continues to collaborate with MIT on the fusion electricity program. After separating from MIT, the startup received $50 million in initial funding from Italian energy company Eni. The Italian multinational is excited about fusion energy prospects and it’s willing to put more money on promising projects.

In 2019, CFS raised $115 million in an investment round that also included Eni and investors like Bill Gates and Vinod Khosla. The startup is also backed by George Soros and John Doerr. The other investors are Singapore's Temasek, Google, Norway's Equinor, and JIMCO Technology.

Is Commonwealth Fusion Systems a publicly traded company?

Massachusetts-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems is a private company. The business is led by CEO Bob Mumgaard. The executive has said that the world is ready to invest in fusion electricity, which has a huge potential in accelerating the global energy shift.


SOURCE: COMMONWEALTH FUSION SYSTEMS FACEBOOK


Does Commonwealth Fusion Systems have an IPO plan?

CFS joins Elon Musk-led SpaceX as another highly anticipated IPO. Many investors think that they could be lucrative investments. Until now, neither Mumgaard nor investors like Gates have publicly discussed IPO plans for the startup.

However, sooner or later Commonwealth Fusion Systems might want to go public to raise more money as its cash need grows. The startup might need about $3 billion to set up the first commercial fusion reactor that it aims to get ready to start generating electricity by the early 2030s. CFS also plans to build more power plants in the future and even sell its fusion machines.

Investors can buy Commonwealth Fusion Systems stock before the IPO.

If you can’t wait for the Commonwealth Fusion Systems IPO, you can try to buy the stock in the private capital market. However, that might be a tall order for retail investors with small money. To participate in the private capital market, you might need to have $1 million in net worth or meet accredited investor requirements outlined in the SEC regulations.

A Massachusetts company leads as the race for fusion energy heats up

December 02, 2021
Bruce Gellerman
WBUR
Construction under way at the Commonwealth Fusion Systems campus in Devens. (Courtesy Commonwealth Fusion Systems)

Some of the same billionaires who pioneered the commercialization of space are now using their fortunes to fund companies to create the energy source of the stars on earth. And a new round of funding is sending MIT spin-off Commonwealth Fusion Systems into orbit.

The start-up company just closed on a $1.8 billion funding round making it the largest in Massachusetts history. Among the backers were billionaire Bill Gates, George Soros and venture capitalist John Doerr.

WBUR is a nonprofit news organization and our coverage relies on your financial support. Please give today.

Commonwealth Fusion predicts it will have the world’s first net-energy fusion device by 2025 and is already building a factory in Devens to make the machine.

Work is in high gear as Richard Holcomb, director of construction and facilities, walks the 47 acre site in Devens.

"Careful," he says, stepping over a just poured foundation wall.

Holcomb has worked on a lot of big projects, but he’s never built anything like this. The concrete walls? They’re 8 feet thick.

"All of it screamed at me like … wow, this is going to be amazing," Holcomb says. "So if there was an opportunity I had to be a part of it."

Holcomb works for Cambridge-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems. The campus he's building will be home to a factory producing devices that do what the stars do: convert mass into energy.

The first two buildings at Devens will house the company's headquarters and magnet manufacturing operation.

The second building will be home to its SPARC device, designed to be the world’s first net-positive fusion machine. It's a half-size prototype of a commercial device the company predicts will generate low cost, carbon-free electricity to the grid.

SPARC uses hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe. With one proton, one electron and no neutrons, it's the simplest element found in the universe.

But fusing atoms isn't easy and harnessing the power released from the process has eluded scientists for 70 years. But now, using a variety of technologies, they are closer than ever to making a fusion device that can produce more energy than it took to start the reaction.
An MIT breakthrough and spinoff

The technology behind SPARC was created and tested in a cavernous lab on the campus of MIT in a building that was once a Nabisco cookie warehouse.

"We needed to be a fairly large room because we built the world’s largest fusion magnet in this room," says Bob Mumgaard, CEO and founder of Commonwealth Fusion Systems. Mumgaard got his Ph.D at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center.Commonwealth Fusion Systems' magnet test container and support systems, at MIT. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

The research center and Mumgaard’s company are collaborating to build a device that replicates on earth what intense gravity does in the center of stars. In stars, gravity compresses and heats hydrogen atoms into a plasma. The super hot conditions rip the atoms apart, releasing their protons and electrons, which under the intense stellar gravity, fuse together creating a tiny amount of helium and a huge amount of energy. Think the stuff that is used in balloons and Einstein's famous equation: E=MC2. Energy equals Mass times the speed of light (186,000 miles a second) squared. That's a lot of energy from a small amount of mass.

Theoretically, a fusion reactor fueled with a quart of hydrogen derived from seawater could heat 10,000 homes for a year. It's estimated that just 70 tons of hydrogren in a fusion plant could replace the energy produced by all of India's coal power plants.

The key to making fusion working on earth is controlling the super-hot hydrogen plasma in a device known as a tokamak, a bagel-shaped machine that uses super-powerful magnets to compress the plasma.

An effort by 35 nations has spent more than $20 billion building an experimental tokamak in the south of France. Known as ITER, it will weigh four times as much as the Eiffel Tower, but is not designed to produce net energy. It's a research device.

Building a better bagel magnet

Commonwealth Fusion Systems took different approach.

"You basically have to put a sun in a bottle," says Mumgaard, "It turns out, if you build a magnetic bottle that can actually hold the fuel at the same conditions stars get to, you can create and sustain fusion."

The philosophy at Commonwealth Fusion Systems is that, by building a smaller device, they can make commercially fusion plants sooner and cheaper. SPARC will be just 1/40th the size ITER
.
Bob Mumgaard, CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems, at MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

The critical component MIT and Commonwealth Fusion built was the world’s most powerful superconducting magnet. It's encased in a stainless steel vacuum chamber, surrounded by tanks of liquid nitrogen.

"Buried inside there," says Mumgaard, "is a magnet that’s 10 tons, about 10 feet tall and it has the distinction of being made out of a material that allows it to go to a very high magnetic field."

The material is called high temperature superconducting wire. Actually, it's flat like a ribbon and the company is the largest buyer of the material in the world.

In a recent test, the new magnet was 400,000 times stronger than the earth’s magnetic field. Seven peer-reviewed research papers found if you could build magnets this powerful, it should be possible to build a working tokamak that produces net energy.
When you're hot you're hot. When you're not you're not.

"So the magnets will operate at 20 kelvin, roughly minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit," says Joy Dunn, head of operations for the company. That's relatively warm by superconducting standards. At this temperature the superconducting wires lose all resistance to the flow of electrons. This enables the magnets to compress the plasma to superhot temperatures and pressure, creating the conditions to make fusion energy inside the tokama.

"On the other side of the wall of the vacuum vessel, we’re operating the plasma at about 100 million degrees celsius, so it’s going to be largest thermal gradient in the world in just a matter of inches," Dunn says.


"If you look at what needs to be done for climate, to keep the planet in a livable range, we will not be able to build these things fast enough."BOB MUMGAARD

Inside the tokamak, the plasma fuel will be five times hotter than the center of the sun. But it's delicate, so there's nothing to be afraid of, says Mumgaard.

"Some people think of fusion as like lava … you know, hot like lava ... but that’s actually not what it is," he says. "It’s actually closer like a candle in the wind."

The conditions to make fusion in a tokamak are so difficult to create and sustain, which makes the devices inherently safe, says Mumgaard. They can't melt down.

"If you think about it, stars are out in space, they don’t touch anything," he says. "And that’s what you have to basically build in a fusion machine. And the minute it touches something, it doesn’t melt through like lava. It extinguishes like a flame."

Five years ago a tokamak at MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center produced, for a few milliseconds, the intense pressure and temperature needed to make fusion. The Center's director, Dennis Whyte, says the magnets used in that device, were made with ordinary copper wire.

"And when that turned on to produce that confining magnetic field, it consumed over 200 million watts of electrical power," he says. "So you say, 'Well, what a great scientific achievement; hotter than the center of the sun' ... but it's hard to imagine it as a practical power source because you're using so much electricity to generate the magnetic field."

Dennis Whyte, Director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at MIT. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

But the new high temperature superconducting magnet, like those that will be used in Commonwealth Fusion’s SPARC device, will consume just 20 watts,1/10,000,000th the amount of energy as the copper wire magnets. It means far lower costs to operate the company's device, making commercial fusion financially feasible.

"The idea is you get one major disruptive technological breakthrough and it speeds everything else up," Whyte says. "But the technology didn’t exist until it did a few weeks ago ... here."

MIT and Commonwealth Fusion Systems have formed a unique corporate-academic collaboration. They share a common agenda — making fusion energy viable — but have separate agendas. The company wants to make money; the University wants discoveries about the fundamental energy that powers the universe.

"Fusion is the greatest technological challenge that I think humanity has ever undertaken," says British plasma physicist Arthur Turrell. In his new book, “The Star Builders and The Race to Power the Planet,” he says we are closer than ever in achieving net energy from fusion devices and credits the emergence of private sector funding. "It’s not really about time," he said in a recent interview. "It’s about the investment that we’re putting into it as a society and the kind of priority that we give it and the number of people who are working on it."

The race to make commercial fusion heats up

There are about two dozen companies competing to produce fusion energy devices, promising unlimited safe power, free of carbon emissions.

Helion in Everett, Washington is backed by tech billionaire Peter Theil. Jeff Bezos is behind General Fusion in British Columbia, Canada, and Bill Gates has invested in Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which will have 300 workers when the Devens is

Mumgaard predicts that, by 2025, SPARC will produce ten times more energy than it consumes, and the company will have a commercial fusion device, capable of powering a town, in the early 2030s. He says the company will be selling them around the world.

"If you look at what needs to be done for climate, to keep the planet in a livable range, we will not be able to build these things fast enough," he says.

It’s a hopeful story, says Mumgaard. One that is unfolding in Devens, 35 miles west of MIT and 93 million miles from the sun.

This segment aired on December 2, 2021.


Bruce Gellerman Senior Reporter
Bruce Gellerman is an award-winning journalist and senior correspondent, frequently covering science, business, technology and the environment.
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