Bosses in the US Have Far Too Much Power to Lay Off Workers Whenever They Feel Like It
Nearly one in five workers in the United States is currently unemployed. The immediate catalyst for these gargantuan figures is the pandemic, but workers’ rights to “just cause” dismissals had long been eroded by a neoliberal war on labor.
Workers at the General Electric Company make flood lights in 1935. (William Vanderson / Getty Images)
On the last Friday in March, 406 employees at Bird, the electronic scooter company, received an invitation to a Zoom meeting. The flagship “micro-mobility” start-up was performing badly amid the pandemic, and employees were nervous.
When they clicked in, the meeting was in webinar mode: attendees were hidden, and no participation, audio or visual, was permitted. A robotic-sounding voice began to speak over a gray slide that read “COVID-19.” With a quick acknowledgment of the “suboptimal” method of delivery, the voice nonetheless announced that the board of directors had decided to “eliminate a number of roles at the company.” Those on the call had all been chosen for dismissal, with April 3 — just a week away — to be their last day at Bird.
A second slide flashed an email address that the now-former employees could contact if they had any questions. The whole thing took two minutes.
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