During 2023’s Hot Labor Summer, striking hotel workers didn’t expect to contend with the use of automated hiring apps to break their strike. When the Instawork app sent Thomas Bradley to a struck hotel, he spoke to members of UNITE HERE and decided to join their picket line — only to see Instawork delete his shifts. Ocean & Mountain helped introduce Thomas to award-winning labor journalist Alex Press at Jacobin and also brought the story to TK LINK Alfred Ng at Politico’s Morning Tech newsletter.

For years, employees of the United States’ leading Kombucha manufacturer GT’s Living Foods were pursuing their employer for nearly half a million dollars in unpaid wages. Through stakeholder interviews and analysis of court documents, we developed messaging that captured the scope of the abuses, wage theft, and retaliation experienced at the company’s Vernon, CA kombucha factory.

LA Times business reporter Sam Dean’s exclusive feature with the GT Living Foods workers led to coverage in multiple leading outlets, including industry publications such as Bon Appetit and BevNet, Inc.