Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
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Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
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Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
#2This is a big move on their part. If it’s successful for them, it could inspire a lot of others. I’m curious what their reason for unionizing is. Wanting more reasonable hours, perhaps?
Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
#3If this works out, this has the potential to be huge for the industry. I would love to see more unionization in tech, and this could be a first step in that direction.
Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
#4If Kickstarter can do it, the game industry can do it! Come on, game industry, it's your time to unionize!
Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
#5I wish the US would adopt the German model where unions are for whole sectors. That way it's a level playing field for all companies.
Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
#6This is a big move on their part. If it’s successful for them, it could inspire a lot of others. I’m curious what their reason for unionizing is. Wanting more reasonable hours, perhaps?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m 100% supportive of unionising for better conditions, but the thing I keep hearing from tech companies is that people want to unionise to have a voice in the ethical practices of their firms. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was as much about that as working conditions.
Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
#7I wish the US would adopt the German model where unions are for whole sectors. That way it's a level playing field for all companies.
Where did you get the idea that there aren't industry-wide unions in the US? UA is, for instance, a national plumbing union, with numerous local chapters.
Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
#8I wish the US would adopt the German model where unions are for whole sectors. That way it's a level playing field for all companies.
There's a lot of lobbying and work between the current generally anti-union situation of the US and that sort of setup. I'm quite sure the German model is the result of no small amount of work on the part of the unions.
Join the union at your job, ask why there isn't a union at your job if there isn't one, find a freelancer's union if you're not working for The Man, give some of your time/money/skills to people fighting for unions...
Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
#9This is fantastic news.
I'm one of the software engineers who was fired for organizing a union at a SF/DC based startup last year. The National Labor Relations Board found in our favor and we won a large cash settlement. But what we wanted was a union. Seeing others pick up the torch is extremely gratifying. Below are some links to news coverage of our case.
https://gist.github.com/bwestergard/a77744dc6f3095fd3fb769dd...
If anyone has questions about the process, I'm happy to answer what I can.
Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
#10I wish the US would adopt the German model where unions are for whole sectors. That way it's a level playing field for all companies.
Where did you get the idea that there aren't industry-wide unions in the US? UA is, for instance, a national plumbing union, with numerous local chapters.
That's good! My girlfriend works for SEIU and they have different contracts with pretty much every employer. this causes a lot of friction.