Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's an enormous amount of infrastructure behind the big ones. They save up enough money to pay wages during strikes, they lobby heavily on the state and federal level, etc.
Sounds like a non-profit startup problem to build out tooling to rapidly form, run, and govern unions.
Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA
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Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA
#32I wonder why they need a union. Is something currently not working in their favor?
I can't tell if there's a trace of sarcasm in the comment, so for the avoidance of doubt, I'll link to a pretty good lay read on issues in the game industry. https://time.com/5603329/e3-video-game-creators-union/
Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA
#33I wonder why they need a union. Is something currently not working in their favor?
I can't tell if there's a trace of sarcasm in the comment, so for the avoidance of doubt, I'll link to a pretty good lay read on issues in the game industry. https://time.com/5603329/e3-video-game-creators-union/
I'm still however not sold on the idea that tech in general needs unions, but am open to the idea that it may be a variable need company to company for certain groups of people.
Just don't make me have to join one, because I am fairly convinced it's not in my best personal interest and same for a lot of other tech workers like me.
Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't tell if there's a trace of sarcasm in the comment, so for the avoidance of doubt, I'll link to a pretty good lay read on issues in the game industry. https://time.com/5603329/e3-video-game-creators-union/
As a side note on the gaming industry: That industry seems notoriously bad so I wonder why people keep joining it. It also seems competitive to get in. So, to me, it seems like people know what they're getting themselves into before joining.
Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sounds like a non-profit startup problem to build out tooling to rapidly form, run, and govern unions.
I don't know how you'd replace decades worth of strike warchest funding and long-term relationships with legislators.
Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA
#36Interesting development. Glitch used to be Fog Creek, where Joel Spolsky talked of treating developers well (latest hardware, private offices etc) and paying them well. I wonder if the culture has changed and that's why the developers felt the need to create a union. [ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/09/07/a-field-guide-to-d... ]
Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Throwaway account because duh. Note that I am not a current Glitch employee, but am well-connected to Glitch née Fog Creek. Management was basically incredibly incompetent, for a long time, and were so unfair to employees at the company that they felt this was the only option. There is a Tweet stream a couple months ago from someone who left the company who highlighted the amazing degree to which they were unfairly r…
>Management was basically incredibly incompetent, for a long time seems to be a correlation - back then like 10 years ago HN had various FG blogposts/articles appear on the front page relatively frequently while in recent years i don't remember any.
That said, I have no idea if that's why Glitch has fewer articles or not. It could also be different culture; the FogBugz, Kiln, and Trello teams have all gone away. I don't think I even know anyone who works at Glitch these days. They may just emphasize blogging less.
Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA
#38Ignorant question. But how do union dues work? Is it a percentage of your paycheck or a fixes cost? Also I assume there’s a formation/founding cost. How does that work?
It depends, some unions have it as a percentage of salary, others have a set rate per position (all juniors pay X, all mids pay Y, etc.), and yet other have a single fixed amount for all members.
Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA
#39I wonder why they need a union. Is something currently not working in their favor?
I can't tell if there's a trace of sarcasm in the comment, so for the avoidance of doubt, I'll link to a pretty good lay read on issues in the game industry. https://time.com/5603329/e3-video-game-creators-union/
Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't tell if there's a trace of sarcasm in the comment, so for the avoidance of doubt, I'll link to a pretty good lay read on issues in the game industry. https://time.com/5603329/e3-video-game-creators-union/
As a side note on the gaming industry: That industry seems notoriously bad so I wonder why people keep joining it. It also seems competitive to get in. So, to me, it seems like people know what they're getting themselves into before joining.
--EDIT: It's also worth noting that if you are on the digital content side of game dev like modeling and mapping there's not a ton of alternative options for practicing those skillsets professionally, unlike programming.