Welcome to our 2nd Newsletter
We had a few problems sending the 1st newsletter out, we know quite a few of you did not receive it but from now on this problem should not be a problem. Please add us to your contacts so you don’t miss our next newsletter. We will be sending a newsletter out once a month to keep you up to date with what is going on at Turkopticon. See the bottom of the newsletter for how you can submit short articles.
We have had some great success since the last newsletter with Amazon over the past few weeks, Turkopticon was able to help a few workers get their accounts reinstated that had been suspended by error. If you feel your account has been suspended in error please contact us worker.liaison@turkopticon.info and we will try and help you get your account reinstated.
Table of contents:
Workshop Invitation: How can work be made better during and after COVID-19?
Turking during COVID-19 Survey results
International payments to a US Bank Account
Participation in an Art Film
Amazon workers in New York, Chicago, and Detroit have walked out.
How can work be made better during and after COVID-19?
Share how work and livelihood has changed for you with COVID-19 and let’s decide together what we want to do about it. Come to a meeting for workers to share your thoughts and experiences with COVID-19 and the resources available to you. Let’s discuss how we can ride out this crisis with help from the government, Amazon, and one another. We will have facilitated small group discussions and end by setting priorities for how we as the Turkopticon community should advocate for our needs moving forward. Please RSVP here: Eventbrite. You can direct comments, questions, concerns, or accessibility needs to info@turkopticon.info.
Survey results
Turkopticon ran a survey two weeks ago to see how COVID-19 was affecting our worker community. Thank you to the almost 200 people who responded and helped us better understand the community’s needs. The survey asked how COVID affected Turkers’ income, family responsibilities, and needs for assistance.
Some highlights from the survey (View anonymized results here):
70% of Turkers report that their Turking time has stayed stable, but more than half report their family responsibilities have increased due to COVID-19 — elder care, homeschooling, more cooking, and entertaining family at home are all taking more time.
76% said they would welcome help from Amazon during this worldwide emergency, compared to 53% who said they would welcome charity and 91% said they would welcome support from the government.
55% said they could use financial assistance and 22% could use mental and physical health care. Some also asked for and are giving prayer.
With the passage of the Congress’ Covid-19 package, gig workers and freelancers now qualify for unemployment insurance in many circumstances. This is in addition to the $1200 of direct payment to most Americans. CNBC News reports delays for some as some government offices adjust to gig workers’ new eligibility. To help you navigate this, Team Turkopticon has built a spreadsheet of non-profit legal aid offices across 50 states that can help you understand what you qualify for, assist you in filling out forms, and lead you to the right places to get any help you may need.
Legal aid across 50 states: https://tinyurl.com/legalaid-50states
Also, we are here to help you any way we possibly can, contact Turkopticon with any questions at info@turkoption.info.
Or come to the forum turkopticon-discuss to share needs and ideas for improving our working conditions and lives. We are all in this together!
International payments to a US Bank Account
Are you having trouble withdrawing your balance from your Mturk account. If you live in the following countries Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom your best solution is opening a Transferwise Borderless Account and you can setup a US Bank account and get paid from Amazon directly into there.
It’s free to set up your TransferWise account.
It’s free to get your international bank details and free to receive money using those bank details. There’s a cheap, transparent fee to convert between currencies – either in your account or if you spend on your TransferWise debit Mastercard® in a currency you don’t have in your account.
When you convert money in your account it’s always with the real exchange rate, and you always see our low, transparent fee up front so there’s never any surprises. And if you spend on your debit Mastercard in a currency you don’t have, it autoconverts the balance with the lowest fee, so you never have to worry.
Participation in an Art Film
Hello, I am a visual artist that makes short films.
I am looking for Mturk worker participants for a short art film about the labor conditions of online work. Participants will re-perform moments from a failed utopian labor camp set up by Henry Ford in the 1920s in the Brazilian Amazon. We will re-perform scenes from this real history as if it was happening now. Participants will need to have the ability to shoot footage at their location on their own devices. At a later date, participants will be paid to travel to a specific location for a studio shoot with me and a professional film crew.
This position will be paid, and participants will need to agree to an ongoing involvement in the project from now until the end of the year.
During the Coronovirus pandemic, all work will happen online.
We will meet and shoot in person only when it is entirely safe to do so.
Please contact me if you are interested in participating:
Article submitted
Submitting articles to the Turkopticon newsletter
This newsletter is a space for us at the Turkopticon community to hear from each other. Submit short pieces up to 250 words to newsletter@turkopticon.net with Newsletter submission in the subject line.
Submissions should follow the civility guidelines. Want more than 250 words?
Get in touch and let us know your article idea.