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Labor Board Backs Startup Engineers Fired for Unionizing

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31–40 of 109 posts

Re: Labor Board Backs Startup Engineers Fired for Unionizing

#31
post #16
post #11

A little bit of a tangent, but, > Earlier this month, after five years of organizing, security officers for companies including Facebook, Google, and Genentech, many of whom were making between $12 and $14 an hour, ratified their first union contract. They won wage increases of up to $1.20 per hour, better health care, and, for the first time, paid holidays. How is this rational? Do Facebook and Google believe they a…

Those folks do physical security. Aside from access to buildings and stuff they have access to little else, plus they have supervisors and people at the company who supervise them, plus doing weird things will trigger alerts and stuff, so I don't think they can do a lot beside ignore alarms for an intruder who would not have access to digital assets. Plus, NDAs are pretty powerful tools. I mean, if a guard lets you i…

What about getting into a data center and causing a service disruption by physically destroying equipment?

Re: Labor Board Backs Startup Engineers Fired for Unionizing

#32
post #11

A little bit of a tangent, but, > Earlier this month, after five years of organizing, security officers for companies including Facebook, Google, and Genentech, many of whom were making between $12 and $14 an hour, ratified their first union contract. They won wage increases of up to $1.20 per hour, better health care, and, for the first time, paid holidays. How is this rational? Do Facebook and Google believe they a…

What’s rational is that people are accepting positions at those pay rates. If you don’t want $12 per hour, go somewhere willing to pay more — even fast food pays more than that in the Bay Area. Entry level at Target pays over $15. They don’t need a union, they just need to quit and go work somewhere else. No shortages of jobs in the Bay Area— essentially everyone is hiring right now. Why should the company be blamed…

Wages set by the free market can be below what is necessary to survive, and it is our job as citizens to ensure public policy exists (and yes, unions) to ensure wage floors that allow people to live with dignity and without chronic stress from the fear of destitution. You don’t have to agree with this sentiment of course, that’s what votes, elections, and the ability to organize are for.

Re: Labor Board Backs Startup Engineers Fired for Unionizing

#33
post #16
post #11

A little bit of a tangent, but, > Earlier this month, after five years of organizing, security officers for companies including Facebook, Google, and Genentech, many of whom were making between $12 and $14 an hour, ratified their first union contract. They won wage increases of up to $1.20 per hour, better health care, and, for the first time, paid holidays. How is this rational? Do Facebook and Google believe they a…

Those folks do physical security. Aside from access to buildings and stuff they have access to little else, plus they have supervisors and people at the company who supervise them, plus doing weird things will trigger alerts and stuff, so I don't think they can do a lot beside ignore alarms for an intruder who would not have access to digital assets. Plus, NDAs are pretty powerful tools. I mean, if a guard lets you i…

Physical access is always the single most important aspect of your security stance. There is almost no technical safeguard that will stop someone with physical access and time.

Re: Labor Board Backs Startup Engineers Fired for Unionizing

#34
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those folks do physical security. Aside from access to buildings and stuff they have access to little else, plus they have supervisors and people at the company who supervise them, plus doing weird things will trigger alerts and stuff, so I don't think they can do a lot beside ignore alarms for an intruder who would not have access to digital assets. Plus, NDAs are pretty powerful tools. I mean, if a guard lets you i…

What about getting into a data center and causing a service disruption by physically destroying equipment?

Datacenters, from my understanding are different. They may have hired guards but also have a smaller contingent of actual employees --guarding, doing maintenance, monitoring, upgrading, etc., etc. In addition to rings of security.

Re: Labor Board Backs Startup Engineers Fired for Unionizing

#35
post #16
post #11

A little bit of a tangent, but, > Earlier this month, after five years of organizing, security officers for companies including Facebook, Google, and Genentech, many of whom were making between $12 and $14 an hour, ratified their first union contract. They won wage increases of up to $1.20 per hour, better health care, and, for the first time, paid holidays. How is this rational? Do Facebook and Google believe they a…

Those folks do physical security. Aside from access to buildings and stuff they have access to little else, plus they have supervisors and people at the company who supervise them, plus doing weird things will trigger alerts and stuff, so I don't think they can do a lot beside ignore alarms for an intruder who would not have access to digital assets. Plus, NDAs are pretty powerful tools. I mean, if a guard lets you i…

I see you don't work in security of any kind.

Re: Labor Board Backs Startup Engineers Fired for Unionizing

#36
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those folks do physical security. Aside from access to buildings and stuff they have access to little else, plus they have supervisors and people at the company who supervise them, plus doing weird things will trigger alerts and stuff, so I don't think they can do a lot beside ignore alarms for an intruder who would not have access to digital assets. Plus, NDAs are pretty powerful tools. I mean, if a guard lets you i…

What about getting into a data center and causing a service disruption by physically destroying equipment?

The datacentre security is different. They tell you when you sign up for GCP.

Re: Labor Board Backs Startup Engineers Fired for Unionizing

#37
post #33
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those folks do physical security. Aside from access to buildings and stuff they have access to little else, plus they have supervisors and people at the company who supervise them, plus doing weird things will trigger alerts and stuff, so I don't think they can do a lot beside ignore alarms for an intruder who would not have access to digital assets. Plus, NDAs are pretty powerful tools. I mean, if a guard lets you i…

Physical access is always the single most important aspect of your security stance. There is almost no technical safeguard that will stop someone with physical access and time.

I don't think big companies allow employees to have the crown jewels on their co issued devices. They would have to remote into something even they don't have physical security access into.

Re: Labor Board Backs Startup Engineers Fired for Unionizing

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There was a very small detail that was almost overlooked in the article- it seemed like they were planning on keeping their more senior engineers and fire their junior ones. This seemed pretty clear in the article? They tried to buy off senior male employees with extra stock options last minute. >Maybe that really is the story, but so many details were left out to focus on the narrative that we won't know without be…

Were junior male engineers also fired? We’re female senior engineers retained? It seems like seniority was the issue.

If only the article had mentioned, multiple times, the senior female engineer who was fired.

Re: Labor Board Backs Startup Engineers Fired for Unionizing

#40

I'm firmly convinced that tech workers will come around to unionizing once they accidentally reinvent it under a different name

What tangible benefits would the average tech worker get? What benefits would a FAANGer get?

Not surprisingly I work in tech. I'm not morally opposed to unions - I just don't see how they would make my life any better.

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