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GitHub tries to quell employee anger over its ICE contract

latimes.com

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Re: GitHub tries to quell employee anger over its ICE contract

#231

Post by undersuit »

sneak wrote: post #177
hnruss wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you pay taxes, you "support" the entire government. That doesn't mean that you are in favor of all of the things that it is doing. If you pay taxes, you are a citizen, not a "customer". These things are not the same.

Taxes are not voluntary. I pay taxes for the sole reason that I do not support armed men coming to my house to jail me for not paying taxes. They are paid under duress. I do not consent.

No. You entered into an agreement with your employer and the US government when you were hired. You gave them permission by consenting to work within the system and you probably filled out some sort of form with a W in front of it.

You may work outside of the system.

Re: GitHub tries to quell employee anger over its ICE contract

#232

Post by vinay427 »

sneak wrote: post #171
umeshunni wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if a significant portion of GitHub's employees are non-US citizens, it's highly unlikely they're illegals.

No person is illegal.

I think it's fairly clear the commenter meant that they're "illegal immigrants," which approriately describes people that immigrated illegally. While the abbreviated colloquial form may not be strictly accurate on its own, it's quite reasonable to assume the full form given the context.

Re: GitHub tries to quell employee anger over its ICE contract

#233

Post by walshemj »

jcampbell1 wrote: post #66
nrook wrote: post #9

There is a well-known strategy by which employees can exert influence over their employer and change the decisions it makes. It is called a union. Unionization has been slow for various reasons in the tech sector; when it comes to rich, well-known companies, people don't want to go through the effort to unionize and get more money when they already are being paid a lot. But if workers want to influence decisions like…

Unions are majority rule democratic. When I worked at a plant for one of the big 3, the candidates the union submitted for trades promotions were universally white men. The union didn’t look out for women or minorities particularly well because the majority rules. People assume a tech union will lead to things being somehow more just, but be careful for what you wish for. James Damore might just have the votes.

What is a trades promotions - is this jargon for the executive ?

Re: GitHub tries to quell employee anger over its ICE contract

#234

Post by finnthehuman »

mfer wrote: post #20

Topics like this, I think, give us an opportunity to go deeper on the issues and concepts surrounding what's going on. I realize that the common quick answer these days is to harshly reject people and organizations we deeply disagree with. But, there may be some things worth pondering, like... Is there a way technology companies can influence these organizations and the situations of the people they touch for the bet…

>Is there a way technology companies can influence these organizations and the situations of the people they touch for the better?

What? With the ethical compass those surveillance system running, addiction-pushing assholes have? We should be talking about how to dial down their power in society.

If they want to repent for their lack of self control in their own actions by pushing their moral standards onto others, then they can go get fucked.

Re: GitHub tries to quell employee anger over its ICE contract

#235

Post by ken »

> The results of GitHub’s quarterly anonymous employee survey — which showed a decline in trust of leadership ...

In 100% of cases where I've known a small company that got bought by a much bigger company, this has occurred. It's amazing anyone still believes that their small company can get bought and somehow they'll be able to preserve (what they think is) their "company culture".

Re: GitHub tries to quell employee anger over its ICE contract

#236

Post by house9-2 »

umeshunni wrote: post #166
commandlinefan wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also have to wonder what percentage of GitHub’s employees _are_ non-US citizens. Every programming job I’ve ever had in the U.S. was for a company that was staffed by at least 90% foreigners; if they see U.S. immigration as an adversary, they may be opposing any contract on personal grounds.

Even if a significant portion of GitHub's employees are non-US citizens, it's highly unlikely they're illegals.

> it's highly unlikely they're illegals

I consider 'illegals' to be a derogatory term used by racists (whether they think they are racist is another matter)

Did you drive a car today? Did you speed? If so that is an illegal activity so maybe you are also an 'illegal'?

Maybe I am way off base? I should probably go hug a tree or something.

Re: GitHub tries to quell employee anger over its ICE contract

#237

Post by standardUser »

refurb wrote: post #223
shadowgovt wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious what side you perceive standardUser to be on. They are making the case that this wasn't acceptable under the Obama administration either to younger generations, but they lacked the political power and voice to do anything about it. Voice and political power that they are now finding as they age into voting enfranchisement and build political action blocs.

Gitmo’s a great example. Under Bush it was immoral. Under Obama? Barely heard a thing. Sure standardUser might have thought it immoral all along, but did he attack both parties (when in power) with the same zeal?

Bush started Guantanamo as an extrajudicial prison and stocked it full of prisoners. Obama managed to release many of those prisoners and tried (and failed) to shut it down.

Obama got plenty of criticism from the left for things like drone strikes, extrajudicial killings, deportations, the intervention in Libya, the weakness of Obamacare and TPP to name a few. Most of this was during his second term (when that massive group of people I keep mentioning started becoming politically active).

Re: GitHub tries to quell employee anger over its ICE contract

#238

Post by paulddraper »

ken wrote: post #235

> The results of GitHub’s quarterly anonymous employee survey — which showed a decline in trust of leadership ... In 100% of cases where I've known a small company that got bought by a much bigger company, this has occurred. It's amazing anyone still believes that their small company can get bought and somehow they'll be able to preserve (what they think is) their "company culture".

> It's amazing anyone still believes

Has anyone ever believed that?

Re: GitHub tries to quell employee anger over its ICE contract

#240

Post by ianleeclark »

olah_1 wrote: post #61
pm90 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ICE is not a partisan organization, Only if you have your head deliberately under the sand in the face of all the reporting that has been done so far about wanton cruelty inflicted on human beings by this agency, including but not limited to: * separation of toddlers from their parents * horrific conditions in detention facilities * detaining immigrants for as long as they possibly can * arresting and trying to dep…

People that deliberately commit crimes typically suffer all of these things, yes. If you believe that illegally crossing a border is not a crime, then that's a different discussion that could be had.

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