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Will Alphabet’s Unionization Effort Spread to Other Big Tech Companies?

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Re: Will Alphabet’s Unionization Effort Spread to Other Big Tech Companies?

#11

Post by Retric »

csense wrote: post #7

I predict within 5-10 years, any tech company with an activist union will have moved most of their operations to countries where workers don't have rights. They managed to do this in the manufacturing sector. And a car factory or a steel plant is a lot harder to move than a mere office building filled with developers and sysadmins who all work remotely already.

You mean like how the actors union killed off Hollywood?

After literally decades of outsourcing software development to other counties it isn’t much of a threat to the remaining US jobs at this point. There are various arguments about why this is or what might change over time, but unions aren’t going to change the landscape over a few years. Change like this takes decades.

Re: Will Alphabet’s Unionization Effort Spread to Other Big Tech Companies?

#13

Post by dang »

Forbo wrote: post #4
ggm wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dead? In what sense dead? I found it just fine.

That's because I vouched for it. Before that it was labelled [dead], possibly due to downvoting. Edit: Thanks for the clarification, dang!

It was killed by new software that tries to detect promotional submissions.

Re: Will Alphabet’s Unionization Effort Spread to Other Big Tech Companies?

#14

Post by dafty4 »

csense wrote: post #7

I predict within 5-10 years, any tech company with an activist union will have moved most of their operations to countries where workers don't have rights. They managed to do this in the manufacturing sector. And a car factory or a steel plant is a lot harder to move than a mere office building filled with developers and sysadmins who all work remotely already.

I was leaning on your explanation at first, but there is the counter-example in California of the Screen Actors Guild and Writer's Union.

Re: Will Alphabet’s Unionization Effort Spread to Other Big Tech Companies?

#15

Post by thomasahle »

csense wrote: post #7

I predict within 5-10 years, any tech company with an activist union will have moved most of their operations to countries where workers don't have rights. They managed to do this in the manufacturing sector. And a car factory or a steel plant is a lot harder to move than a mere office building filled with developers and sysadmins who all work remotely already.

I don't know. Having more organization among workers may be beneficial for the company as well. It creates a shared interface for communication and negotiation, much more efficient than negotiating with employees individually. Besides, Alphabet workers own a large part of the company shares.

Re: Will Alphabet’s Unionization Effort Spread to Other Big Tech Companies?

#16

Post by saiya-jin »

Retric wrote: post #11
csense wrote: post #7

I predict within 5-10 years, any tech company with an activist union will have moved most of their operations to countries where workers don't have rights. They managed to do this in the manufacturing sector. And a car factory or a steel plant is a lot harder to move than a mere office building filled with developers and sysadmins who all work remotely already.

You mean like how the actors union killed off Hollywood? After literally decades of outsourcing software development to other counties it isn’t much of a threat to the remaining US jobs at this point. There are various arguments about why this is or what might change over time, but unions aren’t going to change the landscape over a few years. Change like this takes decades.

Let's see in couple of years, I wouldn't be so optimistic. There might be a push back after covid is somehow managed and people start coming back to cities, but maybe not

Re: Will Alphabet’s Unionization Effort Spread to Other Big Tech Companies?

#17

Post by greatgirl »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #8

My guess is that the “unionization effort” will spread to other companies but it won’t get anything more than a few percentage of the workforce to join. Most workers at the big tech companies are fairly happy and comfortable and not nearly as politically vocal as the organizers of the union. I suspect that it will be limited to a small vocal minority.

Not on a long term scale. Tech's revenue is eventually going to dry up, regulations will become tighter and the low hanging fruit will be picked. They'll be less willing to pay engineers a senator's salary and there will be more engineers to go around too. With this comes discomfort if you're a software engineer. Your job begins to become less thinking and more maintenance. Your salary isn't what it was, or you get outsourced, or you simply get fired because the company doesn't need more than one smart engineer. With this comes politicization. Why does one person get to decide my fate? Why isn't the workplace a democracy?

Then you will see unions in the tech industry.

Re: Will Alphabet’s Unionization Effort Spread to Other Big Tech Companies?

#20

Post by greatgirl »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #12

Is there an actual effort? I thought a few dozen people made announcement. That’s a start. But it’s far from traction.

They have about 300 employees on board. It probably wont get as high as 10 thousand, but it's not insignificant and this is, in my opinion, more of a preparatory organisation for the inevitable tech bubble burst, probably from some regulation.
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