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A group of Google workers have announced plans to unionize

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Re: A group of Google workers have announced plans to unionize

#181

Post by germinalphrase »

karl11 wrote: post #60

Don't think we've ever seen Hollywood in the modern era without unions, so not sure how you can claim it's "undeniable" the industry is better off. We basically have no clue if it's better off or not. Unions are intended for industries where a worker doesn't have a marketplace of options as there is a single or just a few employers (e.g. Hollywood, teachers, coal mining towns, hospital staff, etc.). Unionizing at Goo…

I am a former film industry worker and former member of Local 600 Cinematographers Guild.

You have two incorrect assumptions here:

1. Non-union filmmaking is absolutely a common thing. Most crew members start their careers on nonunion shoots. Further, not all filmmaking related unions prevent their members from participating in non-union shoots (though some do and others will encourage you to call the shoot in if the budget is high enough to justify union participation).

2. Most crew on a film are not working for a specific employer on an ongoing basis. Generally, crew are hired on a contract basis for individual projects.

Re: A group of Google workers have announced plans to unionize

#182

Post by UncleMeat »

karl11 wrote: post #110
avianlyric wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People don't want to leave a cushy job for one where they would have to work harder for their money, so instead, they are trying other means to have their cake and eat it too. You're saying this like it's a bad thing. Why shouldn't employees expect, and get, better working conditions? > engineers can "collectively bargain" with Google by simply leaving and working somewhere "better" How is individuals leaving "coll…

Employees can ask for better, but when you already work at the company that pays and treats their employees like Google, I'm not sure what more you are entitled to. It seems clear to me that these are people who are unwilling to sacrifice some of the money they earn to follow their ideals and principles, so they are trying this instead. There are very few perils of leaving Google - a top tier company in an industry t…

> but when you already work at the company that pays and treats their employees like Google, I'm not sure what more you are entitled to.

Google made something like 300,000 in profit per employee in 2019. There are regular complaints about benefits and pay multipliers being cut back. Why shouldn't workers seek to capture as much of their labor as possible? People don't seem to complain when businesses do that.

Re: A group of Google workers have announced plans to unionize

#183

Post by tsjq »

piker wrote: post #156

Honest question: are there good examples of unionized companies that continue to innovate post unionization? Unionization seems at the surface like the end stage of disruptor where stakeholders begin jockeying for slices of a pie that now grows linearly.

Is this the beginning of the end of Google?

Re: A group of Google workers have announced plans to unionize

#184

Post by ur-whale »

maxehmookau wrote: post #160

Before US-based workers jump on this and start talking about how unions are a bad thing in general, remember to look to Europe. Trade unions are a huge part of the workforce culture here and are mostly a force for good.

>Trade unions are ... a force for good.

As witnessed by how much Europe innovates in tech.

lol.

Re: A group of Google workers have announced plans to unionize

#185

Post by appleflaxen »

ahelwer wrote: post #168

On a corp-cultural level it's interesting this is originating at Google, as opposed to say Amazon which is generally considered a more burnout-causing/crushing place to work on the engineering side in some teams. The Google employees I've talked to all seemed remarkably uncynical about their jobs, and still took a certain amount of pride in working at their company. I can contrast this with Amazon, Microsoft, and (to…

This is a great point / comparitor

Re: A group of Google workers have announced plans to unionize

#186

Post by giantg2 »

John23832 wrote: post #175
giantg2 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw that it was mostly that the contract workers don't get the same benefits. But how is this different than other places? In some cases, benefits need to restricted or you risk them becoming shadow employees (ie hands are tied by law).

Again more details in the article. The verge article links a NYT article which goes in depth on the “two tier system” within google. That’s not to say that even outsourced contractors couldn’t benefit from unionizing with google employees. Google has the leverage to improve the lives of its subcontractors, but pressuring the contracting company.

I guess my real question is, how is this different from anywhere in the industry?

Re: A group of Google workers have announced plans to unionize

#187

Post by rdgthree »

avianlyric wrote: post #111
rdgthree wrote: post #94

It seems incredibly significant that only 230 people are officially involved with these plans to unionize. As of 2019, Google had nearly 120,000 employees.[0] That seems quite small, relatively speaking. Legally (I think, just learning about this now), to form a union, a majority of workers must show their willingness to form a union. Alternatively, to choose an existing union to join, an election with 30% of the wor…

Reading the article, it sounds like they do need to find ~40,000 votes. The article mentions that now they've announced the unionisation attempt, they're gonna starting doing lots of public campaigning to collect the votes they need.

Yeah, they definitely need to gather support of some sort, I'm just curious about the scale. 40,000 people from within the 120,000+ organization seems huge. If that's really the case, the coverage so far would seem fairly sensationalist - 0.25% of employees signing on to unionize is a drop in the bucket next to a required minimum 30% of the workforce signed on.

Re: A group of Google workers have announced plans to unionize

#189

Post by dathinab »

rdgthree wrote: post #94

It seems incredibly significant that only 230 people are officially involved with these plans to unionize. As of 2019, Google had nearly 120,000 employees.[0] That seems quite small, relatively speaking. Legally (I think, just learning about this now), to form a union, a majority of workers must show their willingness to form a union. Alternatively, to choose an existing union to join, an election with 30% of the wor…

Due to all kinds of reasons people tend to not wanting to be officially associated with an budding union until it becomes reality.

I mean you can guess which 230 people are more likely to lose their job, then they had been before (if the union fails).

(I don't mean Google will target them, but that if Google considers letting them go for whatever other reason it's now more likely that they will let them go.)

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