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Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA

cwa-union.org

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Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA

#41

Post by NullInvictus »

quest88 wrote: post #2

I wonder why they need a union. Is something currently not working in their favor?

A myth Americans believe is that you only need to form unions when there is an existing problem. That's like wanting medical coverage only after you get sick. You will not have the resources and voice if you wait until a crisis to organize. The employers relationship with unions is only antagonistic because of this waiting until crisis.

on a secondary note, there is nothing wrong with living in a democracy and wanting representation in your community. Our work is a part of our community as much as any other space, especially since we spend so much time there and center our lives around it.

Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA

#44

Post by bglusman »

ceejayoz wrote: post #31
toomuchtodo wrote: post #21

Earlier 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.

I wonder if the unions would be friendly to a kind of affiliate relationship, and/or paying dues into a kind of program like the deposit insurance that banks pay to FDIC, but for strike insurance or something?

Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA

#45

Post by danharaj »

Apocryphon wrote: post #30
danharaj wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Government Vs. Industry and Liberal vs. Conservative are distinctions that serve to obfuscate the true divide in our system: Capitalists vs. everyone else. Capital doesn't care about these distinctions. The difference between the Cabinet and the Boardroom is akin to a room with a curtain in the middle. It is all the same with the large corporate unions. They are designed to be run by those cozy with the ruling class…

Some of the endorsement antics during the Democratic primaries exposes that, but I'm making a less partisan point: our healthcare system simultaneously includes incomplete or bad private insurance plans, yet U.S. spends a larger amount per citizen for health care than most other developed nations. It's an unholy mess of inefficient bureaucracy and failed private-public relations, rent-seeking, crony capitalism, unhel…

> that pleases nobody

Somebody is making a lot of money this way. They donate to both parties.

Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA

#46

Post by mamoswined »

quest88 wrote: post #26
throwaway10018 wrote: post #17

Earlier 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…

Thanks for the report, exactly what I was looking for! This is something I wish had been in the article. Even something vague, like "Employees reported they were unhappy with management and the performance evaluation system. The union with CWA will work with management to blah blah blah". Agree that it sounds like a management failure. Thanks!

https://glitch.com/glimmer/post/the-year-in-glitches/ > But as we rapidly grew our team, we failed to commensurately grow the processes and infrastructure necessary to support everyone properly. The result has been a lot of needless stress and tension and frustration. On its own, this is a significant problem, but when we’ve talked a lot about wanting to build a company that does these things better, a failure here is twice as painful for the people on our team who are affected. As the person who most often talks publicly about the positive ambitions we have here at Glitch, I’m also the person ultimately responsible for the times we haven’t delivered on those promises.

Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA

#47

Post by pmoriarty »

The recent flowering of union membership in the tech industry really warms my heart and makes me hope that this is the start of a pro-union resurgence nation-wide that reverses the conservative anti-union backlash that has dominated the US for decades.

Unfortunately, conservatives have been mostly successful in gaining control of the courts, so expect union-busting measures to be rubber-stamped by them.

There is likely to be much conflict between labor and owners.

Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA

#50

Post by baybal2 »

lbotos wrote: post #5

Here is a question: Why don't we have more smaller unions in America, but instead these GIANT mega unions? I get collective bargaining is better with more numbers, but it feels like there is no way to have a "new" union exist?

Bigger union == bigger bargaining power

Other countries have much less liquid labour markets, or have bargaining powers of unions backed by governments, so they don't have to grow so much to make a difference.

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