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Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

latimes.com

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Re: Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

#41

Post by elihu »

giantg2 wrote: post #20
minikites wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Only defense against it is to be as careful choosing your employer as possible. That's not the only defense, this is example #25360432 showing how necessary labor unions are.

Unions can be useful for industry specific protections or benefits. This would provide different protections specific to a type of work. I think arbitration protections and restrictions on employment contracts to preserve employee rights should be handled through legislation since it should be universally applicable to all workers. This would remove the variance in protections from one union to another.

Legislation would be ideal, but in the absence of such legislation (such as the bill mentioned in the article to limit mandatory arbitration that was attempted in 2019 and passed the House but was never voted on in the Senate) unions still might be the best option in the short term.

Re: Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

#42

Post by EliRivers »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #31
EliRivers wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are some other examples of how well they work out? Paid holiday? Days off? Working environments that weren't deathtraps? Sounds pretty good to me.

You don’t have those in your non-union job? Everyone I know in tech already gets paid time off, and safe work environments.

Of course I do. Don't be a childish, passive-aggressive dickhead [0]. You know as well as everyone else here that these were fought for and won by unions.

[0] I make no apology. I really don't like that kind of phony bullshit pretend question. Its dishonesty is corrosive to discourse.

Re: Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

#43

Post by mgh2 »

falcolas wrote: post #36
jasondclinton wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have 500 karma and I don't see a UI element to try to vouch for it.

You can't vouch for stories. You'd have to contact the mods by email.

I have 1556 and can't either. Contacted them by email. They did unflag it :)

Re: Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

#44

Post by lawnchair_larry »

EliRivers wrote: post #42
lawnchair_larry wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t have those in your non-union job? Everyone I know in tech already gets paid time off, and safe work environments.

Of course I do. Don't be a childish, passive-aggressive dickhead [0]. You know as well as everyone else here that these were fought for and won by unions. [0] I make no apology. I really don't like that kind of phony bullshit pretend question. Its dishonesty is corrosive to discourse.

That seems like an inappropriate overreaction. Also, no, they were not. Companies who have never had unions offer these things, because we would not work there if they didn’t.

Even if they were, the fact that they are ubiquitous today without unions would mean that this is historical trivia, and not an argument that supports having a union today.

Re: Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

#46

Post by pbreit »

gamblor956 wrote: post #24
jjulius wrote: post #23

Genuinely curious, why was this flagged?

There is a large contingent of pro-Tesla readers on HN that cannot abide by any criticism of Tesla. Articles critical of Tesla always get flagged, and most of the time dang unflags them, especially if they're from newspapers like LAT.

Can they build in a mechanism to mitigate baseless flagging?

Re: Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

#47

Post by soperj »

tptacek wrote: post #39
soperj wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4 of the last 10 Governors of Illinois have gone to prison.

That's funny, because your chosen statistic requires you to go back to 1961.

Illinois had a governor arrested while in Office just 12 years ago for corruption. They've had it repeatedly over the last 60 years. Seems like a trend, and not just limited to 1929.

Re: Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

#48

Post by laviamo »

gamblor956 wrote: post #24
jjulius wrote: post #23

Genuinely curious, why was this flagged?

There is a large contingent of pro-Tesla readers on HN that cannot abide by any criticism of Tesla. Articles critical of Tesla always get flagged, and most of the time dang unflags them, especially if they're from newspapers like LAT.

But what's their point? Are those odd TSLA shareholders?

Re: Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

#49

Post by tptacek »

soperj wrote: post #47
tptacek wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's funny, because your chosen statistic requires you to go back to 1961.

Illinois had a governor arrested while in Office just 12 years ago for corruption. They've had it repeatedly over the last 60 years. Seems like a trend, and not just limited to 1929.

The governor of Missouri was indicted in that same time frame, and the governor of Alabama convicted.

Re: Former Tesla engineer sues for defamation

#50

Post by giantg2 »

elihu wrote: post #41
giantg2 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unions can be useful for industry specific protections or benefits. This would provide different protections specific to a type of work. I think arbitration protections and restrictions on employment contracts to preserve employee rights should be handled through legislation since it should be universally applicable to all workers. This would remove the variance in protections from one union to another.

Legislation would be ideal, but in the absence of such legislation (such as the bill mentioned in the article to limit mandatory arbitration that was attempted in 2019 and passed the House but was never voted on in the Senate) unions still might be the best option in the short term.

Maybe. Unions can become corrupt or politically influenced too. In fact, organized labor is one of the main money makers for organized crime. I'm not saying all unions are bad, just that some can be. Just as any power structure like governments or company management can be too.

I wonder if the major unions have banned together to get that bill introduced and voted on? It could be possible that they wouldn't support legislation like that because more legislative protections can make the union seem less useful.

If the unions don't have incentive to push the bill and more workers are covered by unions and don't see the benefit of the bill because they are already protected, then could that delay or even prevent the passage of those protections? It may end up as a long term fix that leaves non-uninonized groups and groups that seem unlikely to organize, like IT. Of course with widespread existing adoption, a counter point could be less opposition to it.

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