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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

#81

Post by jschwartzi »

bglusman wrote: post #44
ceejayoz wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

That's effectively what the unions are providing. Strikes are not random events, so there's no way to use actuaries to establish minimum costs for the policies though.

Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA

#82

Post by fiter »

dragonwriter wrote: post #77
fiter wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this one of the angles that unions use to sell themselves to companies? They can help by providing a well of valuable resources to draw on in an as-needed basis. When both hiring and firing would be an easier proposition, I could see more activity occurring as a result. These people would have experience at different companies and could provide their knowledge like many say is the benefit of people rotating jobs a…

> Is this one of the angles that unions use to sell themselves to companies? Unions don't sell themselves to companies in the first place.

Why not? I would presume that would help with regard to union busting, scabs, outsourcing, etc.

Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA

#83

Post by pkaler »

m0zg wrote: post #65
Apocryphon wrote: post #4

My highlights: > 90% of the workers indicated their support for joining CWA and authorized CWA to be their bargaining representative > about half of whom work in the New York City headquarters and half of whom work remotely throughout the country > Employees at major American tech and game companies have grown increasingly active and outspoken about workplace issues, including sexual assault and harassment, ageism, u…

Game studios especially need this. I'm a conservative in most other labor-related things (liberal on social issues), but holy shit the devs are abused by the game studios.

Former game developer here. Game studios don't need unions, they need better management. Basically, an 18-year-old QA tester gets promoted to lead QA then associate producer then assistant producer and then producer. The producer manages by industry lore. And industry lore is terrible.

Unionization is not going to fix the management training problem.

Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA

#84

Post by ilikehurdles »

bennysonething wrote: post #74
m0zg wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Game studios especially need this. I'm a conservative in most other labor-related things (liberal on social issues), but holy shit the devs are abused by the game studios.

Completely disagree. They aren't miners working in horrible conditions where that's the only job in town. Game developers are highly talented, skilled individuals. There is a high demand for such people outside the game industry they choose to stay there. I'm a developer in the finance industry. Worked in a few other sectors too. If games industry is harsh, jump ship. Abused? Get real, the working populations outside…

Unions don't require graded pay scales. You don't have to be a miner to be systemically taken advantage of. If one employer offers an unfair employment contract, you can try another company. If every employer offers an unfair employment contract, you don't have the option of another company. I can name a few clauses that favor only the company that are present at every software employment contract in almost every state.

There are more potential employees than potential employers, and most companies will survive understaffed longer than US laborers will survive unemployed. Inherently, the negotiations favor the employer. The more output the employer has stolen from its workers, the more of an advantage it will have. Unionizing and collective bargaining balances those scales.

Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA

#85

Post by gatsby »

throwaway10018 wrote: post #17
quest88 wrote: post #2

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

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 context.

"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"

Why not just quit and get a new role? I don't really understand how being unionized under terrible management is desirable.

Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA

#86

Post by Apocryphon »

pkaler wrote: post #83
m0zg wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Game studios especially need this. I'm a conservative in most other labor-related things (liberal on social issues), but holy shit the devs are abused by the game studios.

Former game developer here. Game studios don't need unions, they need better management. Basically, an 18-year-old QA tester gets promoted to lead QA then associate producer then assistant producer and then producer. The producer manages by industry lore. And industry lore is terrible. Unionization is not going to fix the management training problem.

But if management has no incentive to fix itself, what pressure is there to force them to? Negative press and bad reputation of industry conditions doesn't seem to be helping. The investors don't care. Customers don't care. So the workers themselves need to push back.

Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA

#87

Post by einpoklum »

Macha wrote: post #78
fiter wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate your opinion in your comments on this post. All of them read to me as balanced and nuanced. Regarding 2, is there any reason the union achievements must apply to non-union workers as well?

You then give encouragement to employers to hire non-union workers or exclude union workers if they don't have to have the same rights/wages. It seems a bit of an own goal for a union to give more incentives for employers to fight them

"Hire non-union workers" is a phrase that's only meaningful in world states where the employer can be forced to only hire union members. It requires a great deal of organizational/political power to force workplaces to do that unless they are union-owned to begin with. It is therefore a rarity, which occurs mostly where there is some arrangement between large corrupt unions, the government and enough large corporations, which includes:

* Unions putting a lid on actual rank-and-file demands and initiatives.

* No or rare collective action.

* No solidarity action with non-unionized workers, workers from oppressed social groups etc.

* Political support by unions for the regime in general and for dominant factions within government in particular.

* Employers acting in concert with union by dues checkoff and requiring new hires to join (or go through the union to be employed).

* Legislation enshrining this arrangement, or preventing legal action against it.

... which explains why I didn't mention this consideration.

Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA

#88

Post by meowface »

bennysonething wrote: post #74
m0zg wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Game studios especially need this. I'm a conservative in most other labor-related things (liberal on social issues), but holy shit the devs are abused by the game studios.

Completely disagree. They aren't miners working in horrible conditions where that's the only job in town. Game developers are highly talented, skilled individuals. There is a high demand for such people outside the game industry they choose to stay there. I'm a developer in the finance industry. Worked in a few other sectors too. If games industry is harsh, jump ship. Abused? Get real, the working populations outside…

>If games industry is harsh, jump ship.

If the industry you work in sucks, jump ship? That's not exactly great advice when you've spent decades honing your craft in a certain industry. Even if someone did genuinely want to switch, game development skills aren't necessarily easily transferable to other kinds of development, even if it helps.

That advice makes sense if a company you works for sucks, but if an entire industry is broken, you can't just tell people to suck it up and find a new industry.

Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA

#89

Post by fiter »

ilikehurdles wrote: post #84
bennysonething wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely disagree. They aren't miners working in horrible conditions where that's the only job in town. Game developers are highly talented, skilled individuals. There is a high demand for such people outside the game industry they choose to stay there. I'm a developer in the finance industry. Worked in a few other sectors too. If games industry is harsh, jump ship. Abused? Get real, the working populations outside…

Unions don't require graded pay scales. You don't have to be a miner to be systemically taken advantage of. If one employer offers an unfair employment contract, you can try another company. If every employer offers an unfair employment contract, you don't have the option of another company. I can name a few clauses that favor only the company that are present at every software employment contract in almost every sta…

Could these unemployed employees start their own cooperatives that do not take advantage of employees? I want to focus on making this possible. I am, personally, concerned that trying to create some two sided balance of power will not end up representing me as both sides will have their own interest.

Re: Glitch employees vote to form union, joining CWA

#90

Post by [deleted] »

Macha wrote: post #78
fiter wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate your opinion in your comments on this post. All of them read to me as balanced and nuanced. Regarding 2, is there any reason the union achievements must apply to non-union workers as well?

You then give encouragement to employers to hire non-union workers or exclude union workers if they don't have to have the same rights/wages. It seems a bit of an own goal for a union to give more incentives for employers to fight them

[deleted]
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