PEOPLES MOVEMENT
It is my hope that someday these causes will be eliminated that a better society is established for all.
Another World Is Possible.
Activists from the ongoing occupation in lower Manhattan called “Occupy Wall Street,” infiltrated an art auction at the famous Sotheby’s auction house and gallery to give voice to the demands of the Occupy Wall Street movement and to stand in solidarity with Sotheby’s workers who have been locked out in an ongoing labor dispute.
Video of the action is below:
Forty-three members of the Teamsters Local 814, the art handlers at Sotheby’s, were locked out on August 1, in the midst of contract negotiations. A press release issued by the Occupy Wall Street activists describes the hardball negotiating tactics of the Sotheby’s management as a bid to destroy their workers’ retirement protections and to replace the skilled handlers with temporary workers without benefits: “[Sotheby’s] wants the art handlers to give up their 401K plan and work a reduced 36-hour week, effectively a 10 percent wage cut. The company also wants to cap workers’ overtime, eliminate certain titles that pay more, and, in initial bargaining, wanted workers to give up their right to sue over charges of discrimination.”
This despite the fact that Sotheby’s just had its most profitable year ever in its 267 years of business and pays the CEO, Bill Ruprecht, approximately $60,000 a day, according to the union.
Occupy Wall Street activist released the following statement about the situation at Sotheby’s:
“Occupy Wall Street supporters are appalled at the persistent attack on workers rights. We support the right of the workers to collectively bargain. Sotheby’s wants all new hires to have no collective bargaining rights, no health benefits and no job security. After locking out their unionized work force, Sotheby’s continues to operate using scabs and a non-union subcontractor. Sotheby’s art auctions epitomize the disconnect of the extremely wealthy from the rest of us.”
Click here to sign our petition!
On Monday, April 11, 2011, we launched a petition to the largest Internet companies asking them to stand with their users and be transparent in their practices. Here’s a chart showing how we think each of the companies is doing right now — a gold star indicates that the company is doing a stellar job, a half-star indicates they are taking steps in the right direction. This page will be updated as companies change their practices in response to public demand.
(See details below the chart, including who to contact for changes.)
| Tell users about data demands | Be transparent about government requests | Fight for user privacy in the courts | Fight for user privacy in Congress | |
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Sign our petition to the largest Internet companies and ask them to stand with their users and be transparent in their practices.
Details on what we’re asking for:
- Promise to inform users when their data is sought by the government
Internet companies should promise to tell users when their data is being sought by the government and give users a chance to defend themselves, unless prohibited by law — like Twitter promises to do and did in the Wikileaks investigation. - Be transparent about when you hand over data to the government
Companies should publish reports on how often they provide user data to governments worldwide, like Google does. These reports should include all demands that can be disclosed under the law. Companies should also make public the policies they have about sharing data with the government such as guides for law enforcement, like Twitter does. - Fight for users’ privacy rights in the courts and in Congress
Companies should resist overbroad demands, like Yahoo did recently, and should disclose no more information than required by law. Internet companies should support efforts to modernize electronic privacy laws to defend users in the digital age, like the Digital Due Process Coalition members do.
Updates to the chart
We reviewed privacy practices and court histories to create our chart of company practices, but if we missed anything we’d like to hear from you. If you are a representative of one of the companies above, please contact cindy@eff.org to submit a change. This is a race to the top to see which companies are the most committed to user rights — so please let us know if you’ve improved your practices in any way. We’ll list improvements in the timeline below, and we’ll also post on the Deeplinks blog every time a company achieves 4 stars.Click here to sign our petition!
Timeline
| April 11, 2011 | EFF launched our chart. No company has four full stars. |
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| April 14, 2011 | After discussions with Google, we’ve reviewed the company’s briefing in Gonzales v. Google. In that case, the government tried to force Google to turn over users’ search records so that the Justice Department could use them as evidence to defend the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act (COPA). Google relied mostly on non-privacy arguments to fend off the demand, but did cite user privacy as a reason why it wouldn’t comply. For this reason, we’ve decided to give the company a full star for standing up for user privacy in the courts. |
| April 20, 2011 | The American Civil Liberties Union joined EFF by launching a parallel campaign calling on companies to stand their their users when the government comes knocking. |
via eff.org
