331–340 of 1001 posts
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Unions have also been centers of corruption and organized crime. This is what gave them such a bad name in the 1980s and is why it's so easy to "tie" anyone in construction to the mob, such as one famous person in charge these days.
The insinuation seems to be Trump. Sure, he has had buildings built/remodeled, but I don't see how you can say he is in construction.
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…
And we have court cases documenting that Google, Apple, etc. will do their worst to collectively reduce job mobility and artificially reduce wages. You can't use a better paying position at Apple to bargain for better wages at Google because they (and dozens others) agreed not to hire each others workers.
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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.
I think the article is pretty accurate, the title looks pretty spot on > Google workers announce plans to unionize I agree that the number involved is quite small at the moment, but given how hostile Google has been to any unisation effort, the fact the 230 people have organised anyway, and now put their jobs on the line, is quite a big thing. I suspect that there are many at Google that would happily join a union, j…
You're assuming a lot here. The Google Walkout had a huge attendance because it had zero teeth and zero commitment. People took their lunch break outside to say "I don't like sexual harassment". Then they went back to their desks and back to work. Google refused all but one of their demands, fired or drove out all of the organizers, and went on with it's day.
Essentially, very few people who walked out would put their cushy Google job on the line for what they believe in. The organizers did, they're gone. A handful of other people since then have also put their jobs on the line for their principals, they've also now been fired. Every time Google has fired organizers, it has made it much harder for the remaining workers to organize, both because the people who would organize are gone, and those left have a cautionary tale of what happens if they do.
Everyone at Google today is someone who had a chance to stand up for what's right in a manner that risks their employment, and has chosen not to do so.
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How would you describe your experience being a unionized digital worker?
It's pretty good. For example, initially the company was reluctant to transition to remote work for COVID-19 pandemic, but workers' concern was well represented. My impression is that among South Korean digital companies, unionized companies transitioned to remote work earlier.
2) Most US companies had no problem going full remote some time during the spring of 2020, doesn't look like "unions" play a big role there.
When I talk to colleagues in tech about unions I hear a lot of misconceptions, seemingly based in stereotypes about what unions are for and who they serve. People often seem to think of unions as being purely blue-collar operations, and this just isn't true. For example, I've had people tell me that they don't support unions in tech because they'll be "paid less", or less competent engineers will be promoted faster.…
Here in Germany unions (in tech) will for example make sure that older employees can't be fired, so the younger employees will be fired instead. So I don't think you can simply claim they are beneficial for everybody.
As such, it's still in your own interest to join a union and be represented. And, with Boomers retiring, this power imbalance in unions can be lessened or reversed.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unions have also been centers of corruption and organized crime. This is what gave them such a bad name in the 1980s and is why it's so easy to "tie" anyone in construction to the mob, such as one famous person in charge these days.
The insinuation seems to be Trump. Sure, he has had buildings built/remodeled, but I don't see how you can say he is in construction.
There are recordings of one of the mob bosses discussing Trump buildings and their concrete. The likelihood that Trump never spoke to a mob boss is just about 0%, either willfully or accidently. But judging from his behavior the last 4 years, there is a decent chance Trump knew and liked it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I think the article is pretty accurate, the title looks pretty spot on > Google workers announce plans to unionize I agree that the number involved is quite small at the moment, but given how hostile Google has been to any unisation effort, the fact the 230 people have organised anyway, and now put their jobs on the line, is quite a big thing. I suspect that there are many at Google that would happily join a union, j…
I'm hopeful that you're right, but I also suspect that a lot of engineers will look at the fees and decide "hey, 1% of my total compensation is actually a hefty amount." The walkouts were free.
I've asked before and no one seems to know: what is unionising meant to achieve for these workers? Are they under compensated? Are they getting fired for unfair reasons? I thought big tech had the opposite problem: everyone gets 6 figures, no one gets fired you just get moved to a do nothing team...
It seems that Hacker News is rather anti union. I am not sure I fully understand what peoples opposition towards a union is. I've honestly never heard of a negative thing about unions beyond silly unproven things like "unions don't innovate" or other nonsense.
One example of negative things of an union: It makes harder for company to fire people.
Look at teachers union right now, they are fighting by all means to refuse to come back teaching in person. Teaching online benefit the teacher but really sucks for the kids and parents.