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Kickstarter’s Year of Turmoil

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Re: Kickstarter’s Year of Turmoil

#21

Post by comex »

paulddraper wrote: post #15
SamReidHughes wrote: post #3

Well that is gangsta. It's an unlikely coincidence that these three people had poor performance with such timing that led to firing in the same week or two. You gotta space out the firings to give the cover story more plausibility.

> give the cover story more plausibility Do they need to? Many employers would rather publicize it: we don't tolerate a union.

Retaliating against someone for trying to unionize is a violation of the National Labor Relations Act, as well as New York state law (Kickstarter is headquartered in New York) – hence the need for a cover story.

Re: Kickstarter’s Year of Turmoil

#23

Post by [deleted] »

baron816 wrote: post #18

Why are American companies so afraid of their employees unionizing? Because American unions have a history of creating an adversarial relationship between managers and employees. They’re self serving and have a zero sum game outlook where they try to grab as much as they can from a company. The unions were a major contributor towards the collapse of the American auto industry. European unions differ in that they are…

[deleted]

Re: Kickstarter’s Year of Turmoil

#24

Post by chroma »

freeone3000 wrote: post #8
anovikov wrote: post #2

I might be missing something, but that's a plain out crime to do it right?

So's operating a taxi without a license or running a hotel in a residential area. If you can get enough investor money to ignore the consequences, laws don't stop this.

You are smuggling a connotation in with your denotation. When most people think of "crime", they think of robbery, assault, and other violent acts. They don't think of disregarding various business laws or (to use an example I think you'd agree with) possessing and using certain drugs. To give another example: By the technical definition, Martin Luther King committed crime by violating the racist laws of the south. Yet one should immediately become suspicious of anyone who says, "MLK was a criminal."

The technical term for this is the noncentral fallacy.[1]

1. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/yCWPkLi8wJvewPbEp/the-noncen...

Re: Kickstarter’s Year of Turmoil

#25

Post by djrogers »

Not a big fan of this headline - it's inflammatory and incomplete. This is one (unproven and completely unsubstantiated) accusation from one side of the story, made in a handful of tweets. Kickstarter also tweeted, and of course denies this:

https://twitter.com/kickstarter/status/1172230162588536833

The problem with this type of link on HN is that it's not a 'story' - there's no investigative reporting - heck there's no reporting at all. Unfortunately this is a story is that most people will look at it and believe whichever side lines up with their personal belief system, in spite of a complete absence of facts.

The pro-union people will believe this is union busting no matter what is said or proven, and the pro-corporate people will believe that this individual deserved to be fired for other reasons.

Re: Kickstarter’s Year of Turmoil

#27

Post by pmyteh »

notyourwork wrote: post #17
Animats wrote: post #16

Don't be a scab! Don't put your project on Kickstarter! Don't contribute to Kickstarters!

For the uninformed can you elaborate on why?

The union movement has a long history of solidarity, which amongst other things generally includes boycotting unionbusting companies.

Re: Kickstarter’s Year of Turmoil

#28

Post by deogeo »

unions23143 wrote: post #9

Aren't Kickstarter salaries quite high already? https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Kickstarter-Salaries-E49199...

Ignoring for the moment the non-salary benefits of a union: Look at it this way - aren't corporate profits quite high already? Yet they still merge and consolidate and cut costs and try to increase them further.

Why should labor not do the same?

Also, this seems like a reasonable question (with source for the claim!), that no doubt many others would share. I don't think the downvotes are warranted.

Re: Kickstarter’s Year of Turmoil

#29

Post by abeppu »

baron816 wrote: post #18

Why are American companies so afraid of their employees unionizing? Because American unions have a history of creating an adversarial relationship between managers and employees. They’re self serving and have a zero sum game outlook where they try to grab as much as they can from a company. The unions were a major contributor towards the collapse of the American auto industry. European unions differ in that they are…

> American unions have a history of creating an adversarial relationship between managers and employees

But it seems like with this sort of reaction, it's the companies who are feeding an adversarial relationship. Companies responding to labor organization in the US have had crazy, even violent reactions. Perhaps rather than justifying why American companies are so afraid of unions, it would be enlightening to ask why American workers feel so positively about employers?

Re: Kickstarter’s Year of Turmoil

#30

Post by jacquesm »

djrogers wrote: post #25

Not a big fan of this headline - it's inflammatory and incomplete. This is one (unproven and completely unsubstantiated) accusation from one side of the story, made in a handful of tweets. Kickstarter also tweeted, and of course denies this: https://twitter.com/kickstarter/status/1172230162588536833 The problem with this type of link on HN is that it's not a 'story' - there's no investigative reporting - heck there's…

What are the chances of three people trying to unionize in a company being fired in a very short span of time for 'performance' reasons? Are you holding out until the company says 'Ok, caught, yes, we did fire them for trying to unionize'?
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