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Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

latimes.com

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Re: Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

#341

Post by BigJono »

awb wrote: post #247
jakelazaroff wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's use Facebook as an example. The median employee salary is $240,000 [1], but Facebook makes an average of $1,620,000 in revenue per employee [2]. Why is it okay for a company to extract a so much more money from an employee than they pay them, but not okay for employees to band together to get paid what they're worth? [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-median-pay-240000-2... [2] https://www.businessins…

> Why is it okay for a company to extract a so much more money from an employee than they pay them, but not okay for employees to band together to get paid what they're worth? Salaries are based on supply and demand, not value generated. More developers at your skill level = lower salaries for everyone. More successful companies competing for talent = higher salaries for everyone. If you want compensation based on va…

> And running a business isn't exactly easy. If it was so easy to generate $1.6M off of a $300k employee, you'd be flooded with other companies willing to pay higher and higher salaries. It's really, difficult and rare.

This logic is completely flawed. In-fact reality is almost the complete opposite. The difficulty of running a business is inversely proportional to your moat, and the first to market has a much easier path in almost every sector of the tech industry.

Facebook doesn't have competitors offering more compensation because they're in a sector with an enormous barrier to entry. It's got fuck all to do with how good their competitors are, and even less to do with how "difficult" it is for them to run their business.

Re: Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

#342

Post by unapologetic »

friendlybus wrote: post #326
unapologetic wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good on Gary. "I don't do non-union work" is a perfectly reasonable position to take.

What wealth did he gain from being restrained by union rules? What benefit did he get from being collared? You can't claim unions lift workers and then rope them in from opportunity with the other hand.

a decades long career as one of the more respected actors in the world and eventually an oscar.

Re: Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

#343

Post by strbean »

jahaja wrote: post #268
dragonwriter wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US has federally mandated (job-protected, but not necessarily paid) parental leave, and a number of states have mandated paid parental and sick leave. Of course, these are largely a product of lobbying by unions, which don't just do collective bargaining.

"Under the FMLA, most new parents can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave without the threat of job loss. That’s most parents, not all parents. Employees qualify for leave under the FMLA when they’ve worked 1,240 hours over 12 months at a company that employs more than 50 people. With part-time workers and small business employees left in the lurch, only about 60 percent of American workers are entitled to leave unde…

Not to mention that with at-will employment this is essentially a moot point. If you qualify for FMLA and take paternal leave, they can still just fire you "just because we felt like it".

Re: Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

#344

Post by unapologetic »

throw_14JAS wrote: post #289
unapologetic wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They just shouldn't be allowed to prevent other employees from not unionizing and working without the union. Yes they should. Repeal all right to work laws.

How do you justify taking away my right to choose where and how I work?

You're free to quit a union job whenever you want.

Be part of the group or don't work here. My justification is that it drastically increases the strength of the union.

Re: Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

#345

Post by zemo »

bob1029 wrote: post #5

I read all of this as "Major union seeks to extract rent from an additional sector". I agree that putting developers on death marches is antithetical to everything that is human, but it's not like you don't have options in this industry... Tech work isn't like coal mining where your health is legitimately at risk on a daily basis, and where the number of alternative options available to the average worker is low to n…

> it's not like you don't have options in this industry...

have you ever worked in video games?

Re: Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

#346

Post by friendlybus »

0x5f3759df-i wrote: post #306
friendlybus wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a weird claim to make in the games industry. The vast amounts of cash Fortnite made for Epic is being poured back into buying up indie games and supplying a better store for game sales and creating a better game engine that anyone can pick up and use for 5% of sales. It is empowering the little guy way more than could be imagined in the past. Is that 100% of their revenue? No, but it is well above what anyone…

>The vast amounts of cash Fortnite made for Epic is being poured back into buying up indie games and supplying a better store for game sales and creating a better game engine that anyone can pick up and use for 5% of sales. For the sole reason of trying to replace Steam as the dominant store platform on PC. Epic isn't just doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. This will not continue once Epic achieves their…

They don't need to replace Steam, they have 80 million active users from Fortnite alone. Steam has 90 million active users.

Were they to compete with Steam properly they would crush Steam's store feature set. The Epic store is still under-developed compared to Steam by a lot. Regardless of their perceived intent the entire point is that the little guy is being rewarded and the system works even if it appears 'evil'.

Re: Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

#347

Post by unapologetic »

wang_li wrote: post #251
unapologetic wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why we need to fight right to work laws. If the entire staff is unionized and ready to fight, facebook can't just hire outside staff. Too much knowledge. Also the historical union attitude towards scab labour is another way to prevent this.

>Also the historical union attitude towards scab labour is another way to prevent this. You mean violence? This is one of the reasons many people don't like unions.

Yes, I do mean violence.

Employers have also heavily utilized violence. Then they turned to the law and misinformation.

Violence is a last resort.

Re: Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

#348

Post by unapologetic »

ticmasta wrote: post #312
unapologetic wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds insanely bad. Why should they get 40% margins? Form a union, demand more money.

>> Why should they get 40% margins? Form a union, demand more money. Why should they pay you more? Form the next FB and pay your employees 3x what they currently pay. Pretty ridiculous response, right?

Because if they don't then the union has the capability to severely harm the company.

This is why we need unions.

Re: Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

#349

Post by everdev »

hpoe wrote: post #97
Tiktaalik wrote: post #54

I would strongly consider supporting a video game union, if only to help formalize the things that the good shops do and bring those practices industry wide. Personally I haven't done a day of overtime in seven years and I feel reasonably compensated but there are clearly other places out there that are still exploiting their workers. Improving worker input into production schedules and creating clear guidelines arou…

> creating more opportunities for young new grads to break in Just going to point out, everywhere, I have ever heard of a union it generally made it harder for new people to come in, not easier, by increasing the commitment an employer is expected to make to an employee, and by making it harder to remove employees that need to be removed but can't because of their seniority with the union.

> everywhere, I have ever heard of a union it generally made it harder for new people to come in

I'd imagine unions are most prevalent in industries with a surplus of workers.

If you have a rapid growth industry with competitive hiring practices, you're probably getting treated great and courted to switch jobs for higher pay pretty frequently.

If your industry is stagnant and management is constantly trying to replace you with less expensive workers that can be quickly trained to do the same job I can see why there would be a strong desire to unionize.

In that sense, I can see how the union would be protecting it's workforce by stemming the inflow of new employees. The fewer the supply of workers, the higher demand for the one's you have.

Re: Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers

#350

Post by friendlybus »

unapologetic wrote: post #342
friendlybus wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What wealth did he gain from being restrained by union rules? What benefit did he get from being collared? You can't claim unions lift workers and then rope them in from opportunity with the other hand.

a decades long career as one of the more respected actors in the world and eventually an oscar.

Which he obtained from his talent, something he advertised as something he can do and others can't. Unionizing credit for his performances is as the same claiming credit for another man's work that nationalists do.

https://youtu.be/CIaWo-BlBjs?t=74

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