What's the benefit of being in a union for highly specialized tech workers that are very in demand?
You should ask members of the AMA or the SAG or The Bar.
Kickstarter employees vote to unionize
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Re: Kickstarter employees vote to unionize
#42Is Kickstarter in a right-to-work state? Because if not, 46 people are forcing 37 to support a union that they might not agree with, which is distasteful in the extreme.
Re: Kickstarter employees vote to unionize
#43“ I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.” -Eugene Debs
> one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful Assuming all of the risk is useful. I understand the point, but it's undercut by that woefully inaccurate jab.
Workers assume risk taking on an opportunity cost with their employers, and the very wealthy often mitigate their risk by pushing it onto the government.
Re: Kickstarter employees vote to unionize
#44Speaking as an IAM union member, congratulations! now comes the hard part. You're probably (still) going to hear a lot of FUD from your employer but dont worry, things really do only get better from here. Once you get a union youll get more quarterly insight into your companies profits, losses, and a MUCH better picture of what the company intends to do in the next six to twelve months. Youll also get a direct say in…
This is the first post i've ever truly liked on HackerNews
Re: Kickstarter employees vote to unionize
#45Is Kickstarter in a right-to-work state? Because if not, 46 people are forcing 37 to support a union that they might not agree with, which is distasteful in the extreme.
Thankfully, New York is not a right-to-work state.
Re: Kickstarter employees vote to unionize
#46“ I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.” -Eugene Debs
Nobody at kickstarter is living a wretched existence.
Do they have to live a wretched existence? Exactly how wretched does it have to be to allow them the ability to organize.
Or perhaps they are justified to want a better share of the value created at kickstarter by their labor.
Re: Kickstarter employees vote to unionize
#47They'd be wise to learn from history: There are many people willing do your job for cheaper, most of them in other countries working for smaller wages.
>They'd be wise to learn from history
Seems like they did learn from history. Unions are they only thing that have proven consistently, across the world, to protect wages, rights, and give workers a say in their workplaces.
Re: Kickstarter employees vote to unionize
#48What's the benefit of being in a union for highly specialized tech workers that are very in demand?
I think most Americans mostly have experience with blue collar unions, often ones that represent relatively unskilled labour. Consider though that even in the US, there are plenty of unions (or things which are effectively unions) which represent highly differentiated and skilled professions.
Notably, directors, actors, and writers in American film and television are unionised. That does not mean that everyone is paid the same, nor that there is any concept as "seniority" (very rare in unions that represent highly skilled workers), nor that it is assumed that everyone has the same level of skill.
While the AMA and ABA are not conventionally considered unions, they do effectively control entry into and regulation of their respective professions. (Medicine and Law).
If brain surgeons benefit from being in a union, javascript developers probably do as well.
Re: Kickstarter employees vote to unionize
#49What's the benefit of being in a union for highly specialized tech workers that are very in demand?
Just off the top of my head: transparency in promotions and evaluations, greater pay equity, and just cause protections against arbitrary discipline and termination
Re: Kickstarter employees vote to unionize
#50[deleted]