Amazon Offers $2,000 “Resignation Bonuses” to Bust Union Drive in Alabama

As the historic union election at Amazon in Alabama heats up, Amazon is pulling all the tricks to stop the union. 

In violation of Amazon’s social distancing policy, Amazon has forced workers to attend anti-union meetings and sent workers constant text messages daily, hinting that a union could possibly lead to the warehouse closing. Amazon has even gotten the local authorities to shorten the time of stoplights outside of the plant so that union organizers can’t hand out pro-union literature to workers passing in their cars. 

Now, Amazon is doing something that labor observers have never seen before in a union election; they are offering $2,000 “resignation bonuses” to quit. 

Last night, workers throughout the plant received emails offering them bonuses if they simply quit their jobs. The emails offer workers, who worked for 2 peak seasons, at least $2,000 to quit. If workers have been there at least 3 peak seasons, they are offering them $3,000. 

Some Amazon workers, who dislike their job at the warehouse, may find the bonuses a tempting bridge to quit their job and seek something better. Workers are even being told that if they quit now that they could regain their jobs later after the union election.

However, if workers quit now, they won’t be eligible to vote in the ongoing union election.  In the meantime, many labor observers expect that Amazon will seek to hire replacements that will vote solidly anti-union.

“That should be illegal, how can you pay someone to resign,” says 48-year-old Black Amazon worker Jennifer Bates  “They are going all the way, they are pulling out all the stops”.

Under federal labor law, the bonuses could be considered a bribe and could lead to the union election being thrown out. Employers are strictly forbidden from improving the material conditions of workers in the lead up to elections and the “resignation bonuses” could be grounds for the union to petition the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to order a new union election if RWDSU loses this round. 

“The NLRB routinely finds violations for ‘conferring benefits’ to induce employees not to vote for a union during the “critical period” between the time the election petition is filed and the election is held,” says University of Wyoming Labor Law Professor Mike Duff, a former prosecutor for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). 

However, the bonuses could backfire on Amazon. Some union supporters have used the offer of the bonuses to argue that Amazon could easily afford to pay workers more if the company desired to. 

“If you know that they need it, why don’t you give it to them anyway as a bonus,” adds Bates. 

Union organizers are nervous, but despite the intimidation and anti-union tactics, they aren’t deterred in their fight to unionize.

“I think there is this wall in front of me right now. And it’s because I can’t see what’s on the other side,” says Bates of the union election set to end on March 30th. “And I think a lot of times in life, that’s when you really have to take a step. Because just because you don’t see what’s on the other side doesn’t mean that’s not victory”. 

Singtel Data Breach Compromises Personal Details Of 129,000 Customers

Singapore’s largest telco, Singtel has confirmed that the personal details of approximately 129,000 customers were leaked due to a cyberattack on a third-party file-sharing system that the company uses. The telco first made the incident known to the public last week and has just completed its initial investigations into what data was compromised via the attack.

The leaked information of the 129,000 customers is NRIC (National Registration Identity Card) details and some combination of name, date of birth, mobile number, and address. Also compromised are bank account details of 28 former Singtel employees, credit card details of 45 personnel from a corporate customer with Singtel mobile lines, and other unspecified information from 23 enterprises, which includes suppliers, partners, and corporate customers.

Singtel Group CEO Mr Yuen Kuan Moon apologised “unreservedly” to all those impacted by the breach, adding that, “Data privacy is paramount, we have disappointed our stakeholders and not met the standards we have set for ourselves.”

At the heart of the problem was a 20-year-old file-sharing system called FTA that Singtel used right up to the data breach. US-based Accellion, the product’s developer, described FTA as a legacy software that is nearing the end of its life and over the years has encouraged all FTA customers to migrate to the company’s latest enterprise firewall platform, kiteworks.

Singtel was not the only firm to suffer a cyberattack through its use of FTA, however. According to ZDNet, other recent victims of FTA-related hacks include the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the University of Colorado, and the Washington State Auditor Office.

Tesla Is Officially Back In Singapore Once Again; Model 3 Price Starts From SGD 113,000

After a botched attempt to enter the country a few years ago which has led to this tweet by Elon Musk, Tesla has once again brought its electric vehicles (EV) to Singapore. It has joined the likes of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Macau as the official markets for Tesla in Asia.

At this moment, only Model 3 is available for purchase through Tesla Singapore’s official website which apparently takes around 12 to 14 weeks to be delivered. Without a Certificate of Entitlement (COE), the Standard Range Plus model which has a rear-wheel drive motor, 0-100 km/h acceleration rate of 5.6 seconds, 225 km/h top speed, and an estimated range of 448 km is priced from SGD 112,845 (~RM 344,433) onwards.

For the Performance model which has a dual motor and all-wheel drive capability alongside a longer travel range of 567 km, it starts at SGD 154,815 (~RM 472,522). Equipped with 20-inch Uberturbine wheels, lowered suspension, performance brakes, carbon fibre spoiler, aluminium alloy pedals, and access to Track Mode, this particular variant also offers higher top speed at 261 km/h and much faster acceleration rate of 3.3 seconds.

Tesla also provides the self-driving option for the Model 3 although customers need to fork out an additional SGD 11,500 (~RM 35,100) to install the self-driving computer into their car. Once enabled, customers can have their Model 3 change lane and park automatically as well as summon the car to come to them.

While the price tag can be deemed as premium, some have pointed out that the Singaporean pricing for Model 3 is quite competitive. To put things into perspective, here is how much a Toyota Camry costs in Singapore:

Tesla re-entry into the Singaporean market is yet another interesting chapter for the South East Asian’s EV industry. Recently, the Indonesian government has invited Elon Musk to utilise the country’s massive nickel reserve for battery production and the Thai government has also revealed its intention to boost the production of EV over there.

Given that these three countries are our closest neighbours, Malaysia may feel the heat in some way or another. However, we doubt that Tesla is going to set up shop in Malaysia until our government finally makes up its mind and come out with a clear policy for the EV industry.

Seller Claims Fresh Database Sold Online Contains Details of 200,000 Malaysians

We have received a tip that another set of personal data that belongs to Malaysians have been listed online. It was listed on the same marketplace that featured the alleged E-Pay Malaysia database earlier this week.

According to the listing, the seller claimed that the database contained 200,000 entries and includes information such as name, address, phone numbers, and IC number. The seller also stated that the database belonged to the local e-commerce platform, Ifmal.

However, Ifmal has since refuted that claim through a statement on its official Facebook page. According to the post, the e-commerce company apparently don’t that many customers in its database and Ifmal also never asked for buyer’s IC number.

We have checked Ifmal’s claim ourselves and it is indeed true that the platform did not ask for user’s IC number. In general, the information that the platform asked from its customers are quite different, as shown in the screenshot below:

So, now comes the important questions: who is the actual owner of the said leaked database? Is it even real? Regardless of the answer though, we believe relevant authorities may want to look into this so-called fresh data leak anyway as it is better to be safe than sorry.

E-Pay Malaysia Customer Data Is Being Sold Online; Involving 380,000 Accounts

A significant number of user accounts belonging to local e-payment provider, E-Pay Malaysia has made their way to a popular database marketplace forum. According to the listing, the seller claims that the database which was dated January 2020 contained information belonging to 380,000 accounts.

The listing was first noted by Twitter user @Bank_Security  which often listed bank and cybersecurity threats from all over the world. The existence of the listing was then spread like wildfire after it was made viral by local IT-oriented Facebook page, OMG Hackers.

The seller claimed that the database contained a user name, e-mail address, date of birth, contact address, and a mobile phone number. However, the account password and related tokens have apparently been masked.

Our quick check into the said forum showed that the listing has been removed though. That being said, we have discovered through a search cache that the seller is offering the database for just USD 300 (~RM 1,216).

Even though the listing is no longer there in the said forum, we highly recommend all E-Pay Malaysia’s customers and merchants out there to change your password. We are now attempting to reach out to E-Pay Malaysia for clarification as well as the Malaysia Computer Emergency Response Team who apparently have been alerted about the listing.

YouTube Has Taken Down Over 500,000 COVID-19 Misinformation Videos

YouTube has removed over 500,000 videos containing false or misleading information about COVID-19 since February last year, said its CEO Susan Wojcicki in a recent update addressed to YouTube content creators. Like many other tech companies, YouTube has been trying to showcase its efforts against falsehoods even as the platform has become a repository for COVID theories that range from doubtful to the absurdly wild.

“We’ve updated our policies to remove egregious medical misinformation about COVID-19 to prohibit things like saying the virus is a hoax or promoting medically unsubstantiated cures in place of seeking treatment,” wrote Wojcicki. She also said the company is now reaching out to its countless content creators to help spread accurate and up-to-date information about the vaccines.

YouTube has an official policy document explaining what considers as COVID misinformation. And that document can be described as both amusing and depressing – given that it’s a window into the sort of nonsense people are uploading to the platform.

Among the examples listed of content not allowed on YouTube are: “claims that COVID-19 is caused by radiation from 5G networks” and “claims that the COVID-19 vaccine will contain a microchip or tracking device.” But the best of all is this: “videos alleging that if you avoid Asian food, you won’t get the coronavirus” – that’s clearly why COVID numbers in Malaysia are on the rise (we’re being sarcastic, of course).

This all isn’t to detract from the scale of the problem that YouTube is wrestling with. Last year, a study published by BMJ Global Health found that over a quarter of the most-viewed English YouTube videos on COVID-19 gave out misleading or false information. The problem has probably gotten a lot worse since then.