Chickenization What is Chickenization? Cory Doctorow has a great breakdown of this new labor term. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chickenization ============== 10 min read /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | If you only learn one technical term from labor economics, make it | | "chickenization" - @CLeonardNews [L1] 's term for the way that the Big Three | | poultry processors have structured the chicken-farming industry (I learned | | it from @ZephyrTeachout [L2]). pluralistic.net/2020/07/29/break-em-up/#break | | -em-up [L3] 1/ | | [I1: Photo included with tweet] | | | | [L4] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Here's chickenization: you're a chicken farmer. There is only one company | | that can buy your birds, thanks to market concentration. They tell you how | | to design and maintain your coop. They sell you the chicks. They tell you | | which feed to use, how much and when. 2/ | | [L5] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | They tell you when the lights go on and when they go off. They tell you how | | which vet to use, and which medicines they can use. They bind you to secrecy | | through nondisclosure and strip you of the right to sue through arbitration. | | 3/ | | [L6] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | They experiment on you. Your barn is filled with sensors that they monitor, | | and they tell you to vary feed, lighting, medicine and other variables to | | see if your birds get bigger. They are the only buyer in your region, so | | they know how each farmer's birds are thriving. 4/ | | [L7] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | But if the "independent" farmers ever tried to compare notes, they'd be | | violating their nondisclosure agreements and could be sued. Farmers who | | complain to regulators are barred from the market. 5/ | | [L8] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Once your birds are grown, you bring them to the processor, who exploits | | their information asymmetry to figure out how to pay you JUST ENOUGH to go | | back to things, but not enough to get ahead. Since chickenization, poultry | | farmers have faced a wave of suicides. 6/ | | [L9] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Once you know about chickenization, you see it everywhere: crop farmers are | | chickenized by seed companies, and Uber drivers are chickenized by their | | apps. 7/ | | [L10] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | The contours of chickenization are impossible to miss: it's a shifting of | | all the risk from the employer's side of the balance sheet to the workers', | | using the fiction of independent contractorship, the data-gathering | | capabilities of digital work, and monopolies. 8/ | | [L11] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Today, I learned about the worst chickenization scheme I've ever encountered | | : a giant, global company that has chickenized a vast workforce, but | | maintains total secrecy, even as it services massive blue-chip companies | | from @airbnb [L12] to @disney [L13]. 9/ | | [L14] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | That company is Arise, and @propublica [L15] and @planetmoney [L16] just | | blew the roof off its ghastly charnel house of a chicken farm by, as | | @bykenarmstrong [L17], @JustinElliott [L18] and @Ariana_Tobin [L19] reported | | out leaks, arbitration reports, and whistleblowing. www.propublica.org/ | | article/meet-the-customer-service-reps-for-disney-and-airbnb-who-have-to-pay | | -to-talk-to-you#1001065 [L20] 10/ | | [L21] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Here's chickenization, Arise style: the company is a outsource phone support | | system. Workers have to pay to work for Arise (they're "independent | | contractors"): buy a dedicated PC, internet connection and other equipment. | | 11/ | | [L22] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | They have to do weeks of unpaid "training" just to get started, and then | | they have to pay more to get specific training for every one of Arise's | | giant corporate clients, from @ATT [L23] to @CarnivalCruise [L24] to | | @Comcast [L25] to @Disney [L26] to @Airbnb [L27] to @Intuit [L28] to @bnbuzz | | [L29] to @ebay [L30]. 12/ | | [L31] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | After passing random, invasive, in-home inspections, after shelling out | | thousands of dollars and doing weeks - if not months - of unpaid training, | | they are finally eligible to sign up for shifts. 13/ | | [L32] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | These shifts come in 30 minute slices, widely spaced, and turning them down | | gets you blacklisted. It's impossible to hold down another job while you're | | an Arise chicken-farmer. 14/ | | [L33] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | But you don't get paid for 30-minute shifts. You just get paid for the time | | that you're talking to customers. The whole time you talk to a customer, an | | algorithm is ready to penalize you: i.e., if it takes too long to deal with | | queries, or if there're too many pauses. 15/ | | [L34] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Meanwhile, the client's outsource managers randomly (or not-randomly) listen | | in on your calls, and they can penalize you too. The main penalty is being | | "deskilled" - barred from working for that client, after paying (in cash and | | time) to get trained to be their phone rep. 16/ | | [L35] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Workers are barred from hanging up on abusive customers. Women report high | | levels of sexual harassment, which they have to patiently endure, because | | they risk getting fired if they hang up on their abusers. 17/ | | [L36] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | And all workers are expected to tolerate unlimited abuse from callers. 64% | | of Arise's workers are people of color. 89% of them are women. Arise's | | recruiting ads target Black women in particular. 18/ | | [L37] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | There IS a way to get ahead in Arise: recruit other workers. Because, in | | addition to everything else, it's a pyramid scheme, and the business is | | riddled with people who've been previously convicted of wire fraud. 19/ | | [L38] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Nearly every person in the Arise structure is chickenized:. The following | | jobs are all performed by "independent contractors": * Client Support | | Professionals * Quality Assurance Performance Facilitators * Chat | | Performance Facilitators * Escalation Performance Facilitators 20/ | | [L39] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Not only do you have to pay to work for Arise - you have to pay (a "contract | | termination fee") to stop working for them. 21/ | | [L40] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Arise binds workers to arbitration, meaning they can't sue. The right of | | workers to join class actions in spite of arbitration waivers went to the | | Supreme Court in '18, where the illegitimate justice Neal Gorsuch wrote the | | majority opinion, ruling against workers. 22/ | | [L41] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Arise honors Juneteenth with a day off for all employees. But all those | | Black women it has chickenized are independent businesses and are still | | expected to show up for work. 23/ | | [L42] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Arise's founder is Richard Cherry, a Canadian "serial entrepreneur" who | | started off writing scammy get-rich-quick and lose-weight-quick books before | | moving to Florida and getting heavily involved with the Home Shopping | | Network. 24/ | | [L43] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Red Team Blues @doctorow@twitter.com | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Today, the company is a division of a giant private equity fund, Warburg | | Pincus. eof/ | | [L44] 10/2/2020 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [L1]: https://twitter.com/CLeonardNews [L2]: https://twitter.com/ZephyrTeachout [L3]: https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/29/break-em-up/#break-em-up [L4]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080925946048512 [L5]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080928177442816 [L6]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080930257858560 [L7]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080931834925056 [L8]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080933609115649 [L9]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080936083759104 [L10]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080937937637376 [L11]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080939535622144 [L12]: https://twitter.com/airbnb [L13]: https://twitter.com/disney [L14]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080941553082368 [L15]: https://twitter.com/propublica [L16]: https://twitter.com/planetmoney [L17]: https://twitter.com/bykenarmstrong [L18]: https://twitter.com/JustinElliott [L19]: https://twitter.com/Ariana_Tobin [L20]: https://www.propublica.org/article/meet-the-customer-service-reps-for- disney-and-airbnb-who-have-to-pay-to-talk-to-you#1001065 [L21]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080943432167424 [L22]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080945369899013 [L23]: https://twitter.com/ATT [L24]: https://twitter.com/CarnivalCruise [L25]: https://twitter.com/Comcast [L26]: https://twitter.com/Disney [L27]: https://twitter.com/Airbnb [L28]: https://twitter.com/Intuit [L29]: https://twitter.com/bnbuzz [L30]: https://twitter.com/ebay [L31]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080946884014080 [L32]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080948435931136 [L33]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080950289854471 [L34]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080952345030657 [L35]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080954232467456 [L36]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080956065366017 [L37]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080958544211968 [L38]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080960788156417 [L39]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080962709143552 [L40]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080964634386434 [L41]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080966131671043 [L42]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080967964618752 [L43]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080969701048320 [L44]: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1312080971169058816 [I1]: https://c.cdyn.dev/rpxZC2MN