Hacker News with Generative AI: Labor

For Many of America's Aging Workers, 'Retirement Is a Distant Dream' (time.com)
Walter Carpenter walks across the ski resort’s dining room on a knee that needs to be replaced and a hip that’s going bad. Lumbering into the kitchen, he deposits a brown bin of dirty dishes on a counter before heading back out to collect more bowls of half-eaten tomato soup and plates littered with sandwich crusts. “One foot in front of the other,” he jokes to kitchen prep worker Kim Hopper, 72, as they pass each other.
Video game workers in North America now have an industry-wide union (engadget.com)
There’s now an industry-wide union for video game workers in the US and Canada.
As AI nurses reshape hospital care, human nurses are pushing back (apnews.com)
The future of Amazon coders is the present of Amazon warehouse workers (pluralistic.net)
The future of Amazon coders is the present of Amazon warehouse workers: It's here, it's just not evenly distributed.
Decathlon's Chinese subcontractor is suspected of using forced Uyghur labor [video] (youtube.com)
Doge Is Replacing Fired Workers with a Chatbot (gizmodo.com)
Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency are attempting to enact what some experts have called the “largest job cut in American history“—but don’t worry, these geniuses have a solution to pick up the significant amount of slack caused by letting go of tens of thousands of domain experts and civil servants all at once: a chatbot.
Occupational Downgrading: AI and Our Performative Work Future (stateofthefuture.substack.com)
I’m Lawrence. a pleasure . I invest in computing hardware. Lunar invests in deep tech. Lots of people JUST LIKE YOU subscribe to this newsletter. These people are so smart and work in [INSERT TOP FUND NAMES]. If you subscribe you will also be smart and loved. If you are trying to make the world better for my children, get in touch please lawrence@lunar.vc.
Bangladesh's factories turn to surveillance, automation; workers feel pressure (restofworld.org)
As Bangladesh’s factories turn to surveillance and automation, garment workers feel the pressure
Social Security Administration plans to cut some 7k jobs (npr.org)
The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced Friday that it aims to cut some 7,000 jobs to align with an executive order from President Trump to broadly slash the federal workforce.
Humanoid Robots Get Real Jobs (wsj.com)
Newly powered by AI brains, these creatures of science fiction are moving toward a practical reality—stacking, sorting and lifting
Y Combinator Supports AI Startup Dehumanizing Factory Workers (404media.co)
A venture capital-backed “AI performance monitoring system for factory workers” is proposing what appears to be dehumanizing surveillance of factories, where machine vision tracks workers’ hand movements and output so a boss can look at graphs and yell at them about efficiency.
Y Combinator Supports AI Startup Dehumanizing Factory Workers (404media.co)
A venture capital-backed “AI performance monitoring system for factory workers” is proposing what appears to be dehumanizing surveillance of factories, where machine vision tracks workers’ hand movements and output so a boss can look at graphs and yell at them about efficiency.
More than 1M federal workers have responded, claims White House (theguardian.com)
'Hey Number 17 ' (404media.co)
A venture capital-backed “AI performance monitoring system for factory workers” is proposing what appears to be dehumanizing surveillance of factories, where machine vision tracks workers’ hand movements and output so a boss can look at graphs and yell at them about efficiency.
Some agencies urge staff not to comply with Elon Musk’s performance email (nytimes.com)
Several Trump-appointed agency leaders urged federal workers not to comply with Elon Musk’s order to summarize their accomplishments for the past week or be removed from their positions, even as Mr. Musk doubled down on his demand over the weekend.
Gig workers worked more but earned less in 2024: study (businessinsider.com)
Gig workers for Uber, Instacart, and other services made less money on average in 2024 — even as the number of hours that they worked rose, in some cases.
Who wants to work in a factory? (arenamag.com)
For more than half a century, we Americans have distanced ourselves from the making of our everyday surroundings.
US wants to un-fire nuclear safety workers can't figure out how to reach them (nbcnews.com)
National Nuclear Security Administration officials on Friday attempted to notify some employees who had been let go the day before that they are now due to be reinstated — but they struggled to find them because they didn't have their new contact information.
75K federal workers accepted 'deferred resignation' offer (nbcnews.com)
About 75,000 federal employees have accepted the White House's "deferred resignation" offer to resign but be paid through September, according to a spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management.
Uline turned to Mexico to staff warehouses, paid them a fraction of US workers (theguardian.com)
Uline, a Wisconsin-based office supply company owned by one of Donald Trump’s biggest financial backers, paid workers it brought from Mexico to work at its US warehouses just a fraction of what their US counterparts were paid, according to four sources who spoke to the Guardian.
Reclassification is making US tech job losses look worse than they are (theregister.com)
The latest job numbers from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics make IT hiring look like it's in freefall, but that's not the case at all, says consultancy firm Janco.
The Job Market Rebound Is Going to Catch Everyone Off-Guard (inc.com)
I’ve got good news about the job market. And some bad news.
List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week (future4days.com)
Over 200 companies in the UK have started a four-day working week without reducing salaries.
US Air Traffic Control Facilities Are Understaffed (nytimes.com)
More than 90 percent of the country’s 313 air traffic control facilities operate below the Federal Aviation Administration’s recommended staffing levels, according to an analysis of staffing data from the union representing controllers obtained by The New York Times.
Trump Admin Emails Air Traffic Controllers: Quit Your Jobs (thedailybeast.com)
Federal employees were told they could use their paid time off to explore “dream destinations” before quitting.
Unintended workplace safety consequences of minimum wages (sciencedirect.com)
We investigate the unintended impact of minimum wage increases on workplace safety.
US Department of Labor to Cease and Desist All Investigation and Enforcement (dol.gov)
WASHINGTON – Acting Secretary of Labor Vince Micone today transmitted Secretary’s Order 03-2025 to all department employees, directing them to cease and desist all investigative and enforcement activity under the rescinded Executive Order 11246 and the regulations promulgated under it.
Inside South Africa's 'ruthless' gang-controlled gold mines (bbc.com)
Along with about 600 other men, Ndumiso lives and works in a small gang-controlled "town" - complete with markets and a red light district - that has grown up deep underground at a disused gold mine in South Africa.
Bernie Sanders: the H1B program replaces good-paying American jobs [video] (youtube.com)
TikTok tells staff impacted by wildfires to use sick hours if they can't work (techcrunch.com)
Wildfires are currently devastating the greater Los Angeles area, burning over 45 square miles, torching over 1,300 structures, and putting nearly 180,000 people under evacuation orders as of Thursday. And yet, TikTok’s LA-based employees are being told to either continue their work from home or use their personal/sick days if that’s not possible, while the company’s LA office remains closed due to power outages caused by high winds.