Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing • Hacker News Board

Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing

#21

Post by chrisseaton » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 7:00 PM UTC

baby_wipe wrote: post #14

So if they succeed, does that mean nobody can work for Kickstarter unless they are part of the union?

I don't know how unions work in the US, but most unions in the UK fund a single political party, which means you could be forced to pay to support a party with views you find abhorrent in order to work, so I hope not.

Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing

#22

Post by themagician » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 7:01 PM UTC

Prediction: if whoever is leading the charge is even moderately successful in getting employees to rally, they will be offered in job in management (at Kickstarter or somewhere else) at twice their current pay and the whole thing will crumble.

Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing

#23

Post by jerf » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 7:01 PM UTC

cableshaft wrote: post #4

If Kickstarter can do it, the game industry can do it! Come on, game industry, it's your time to unionize!

Yeah, my first thought on reading the headline was "That was not where I expected this to precipitate out first."

Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing

#24

Post by ckdarby » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 7:01 PM UTC

bwestergard wrote: post #9

This 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…

From the gist found the article: http://www.newsguild.org/mediaguild3/software-company-learns...

$775k for 15 people especially SF based I wouldn't exactly call that a large cash settlement considering what happened, rep damage, time to find new work, etc.

Just had expectations of at least a year salary per person.

Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing

#25

Post by nemo44x » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 7:02 PM UTC

baby_wipe wrote: post #14

So if they succeed, does that mean nobody can work for Kickstarter unless they are part of the union?

If you're management you won't be part of the union. As a non-manager person it's generally more complex. Often, non-union employees will work under the collective bargaining agreement and still have to pay union dues. At that point, you might as well join the union as you'll get other protections then.

Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing

#26

Post by maxxxxx » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 7:03 PM UTC

duxup wrote: post #15

maxxxxx wrote: post #5

I 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, advance…

From my experience the US workplace is much more hostile both ways. Either the employer will screw over the employees or the union will try screw the employer. At least in Germany it'a little more collaborative partially because of laws that give employees some say how the company is run.

Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing

#27

Post by holymacaral » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 7:03 PM UTC

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #18

holymacaral wrote: post #13

I 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 :)

It would use a cryptocurrency of course and probably a stablecoin. That means there's a blockchain somewhere along the line although crowdfunding would be an excellent use case for lightning-style payment channels to compress fees. If you pay a recurring fee every month then that's 12 fees a year. With payment channels we can reduce it to 2 - the fee to open the channel and the fee to close it.

Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing

#28

Post by the_bear » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 7:04 PM UTC

Is anyone aware of an example where (a) a really small company unionized and/or (b) a workforce unionized without any real demands?

I run a 17 person company and I've heard employees mention that they think all companies should be unionized even if there aren't currently any problems that the union would seek to address. I strongly support the big tech companies unionizing and so it would be hypocritical of me to be opposed to it for my own company, but at the same time it seems like the overhead for such a small company would be really significant and I'm not sure what it would accomplish given that I'm not aware of current employees having any demands that we haven't satisfied already.

Even if nothing comes of it, I think it's an interesting thought experiment.

Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing

#29

Post by diminoten » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 7:04 PM UTC

baby_wipe wrote: post #14

So if they succeed, does that mean nobody can work for Kickstarter unless they are part of the union?

I don't think that's how unions work unless the company has agreed to that in collective bargaining.

I think it's more like you join a company, and there is a set RoE for both the company and the union to talk to you about the union, and joining the union as an individual is usually, politics aside, a strong option because of all the extra benefits and protections union workers receive.

Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing

#30

Post by JoshTriplett » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 7:05 PM UTC

sf_rob wrote: post #12

bwestergard wrote: post #9

This 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?

Here's an interesting question: The NLRB says you can't fire someone for union organizing, but does it say you can't refuse to hire someone for union organizing?