Kickstarter was founded as a public benefit corporation, so they've always been friendly towards social consciousness. Are there any other tech companies that are PBCs or worker co-ops?
Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
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Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
#12This 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/a77744dc6f3095fd3fb769d…
Has being in the news as an organizer significantly harmed your job search?
Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
#13I have long thought crowdfunding is ripe for disruption. We should not need a middleman to send people money over the internet. It can be accomplished via a smart contract and creator listings could be self-hosted (think openbazaar). It could also fix the censorship issue inherit to these platforms.
With Patreon raising prices and now this, maybe someone will crowdfund an alternative.
Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
#14So if they succeed, does that mean nobody can work for Kickstarter unless they are part of the union?
Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
#15I 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.
When I've described my experience with American unions it I hear a lot for Europeans who report their unions are far different than my experience.
The American union tradition / behavior seems quite different than what I hear about elsewhere.
I'm interested in the European systems, but very very wary of the US systems. Too many US unions are really just bureaucracies on their own, emphasize seniority for pay, advancement, and etc, and seem to limit options for workers in terms of flexibility. And to some extent american unions become their own bureaucracy serving the folks embedded in that bureaucracy. Granted for some jobs that probabbly is ok, but for technical things, I'm very wary about flexibility and etc.
My experience with American unions has been highly disappointing and I'm skeptical about their ability to handle a more technical / fast changing world.
Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
#16If Kickstarter can do it, the game industry can do it! Come on, game industry, it's your time to unionize!
Came up at GDC last year.[1] There's Game Workers Unite, but they haven't accomplished much.[2] The biggest success remains The Animation Guild, IATSE local 839.[3] They represent most of the Hollywood studio animators. Much of what their members do is very similar to what game industry employees do.
But they get overtime. From the IATSE contract with Disney:
"... all time worked in excess of eight (8) hours per day or forty (40) hours per week shall be paid at one and one-half (1½) times the hourly rate provided herein for such employee’s classification. Except as otherwise herein provided: Time worked on the employee’s sixth (6th) workday of the workweek shall be paid at one and one-half (1 ½) times the hourly rate provided herein for such employee’s classification. Time worked on the employee’s seventh (7th) workday of the workweek shall be paid at two (2) times the hourly rate provided herein for such employee’s classification."
"Crunch time" gets very expensive for employers.
[1] https://www.polygon.com/2018/3/22/17149822/gdc-2018-igda-rou... [2] https://www.gameworkersunite.org/ [3] https://animationguild.org/
Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
#17Kickstarter was founded as a public benefit corporation, so they've always been friendly towards social consciousness. Are there any other tech companies that are PBCs or worker co-ops?
[deleted]
Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
#18I have long thought crowdfunding is ripe for disruption. We should not need a middleman to send people money over the internet. It can be accomplished via a smart contract and creator listings could be self-hosted (think openbazaar). It could also fix the censorship issue inherit to these platforms. With Patreon raising prices and now this, maybe someone will crowdfund an alternative.
Throw the word blockchain in there and you’ll have a winner :)
Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
#19what are the pros/cons of unionizing? I dont know jack about this
Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing
#20If Kickstarter can do it, the game industry can do it! Come on, game industry, it's your time to unionize!
Came up at GDC last year.[1] There's Game Workers Unite, but they haven't accomplished much.[2] The biggest success remains The Animation Guild, IATSE local 839.[3] They represent most of the Hollywood studio animators. Much of what their members do is very similar to what game industry employees do. But they get overtime. From the IATSE contract with Disney: "... all time worked in excess of eight (8) hours per day…
Paid overtime is an excellent tool to get some time management discipline into an organization.