Clickbait title for a highly opinonated piece that would never see the light of day in a respectable publication like the Washington Post, WSJ, NYT, Economist, etc. WilmerHale is a well-known top-100 law firm with a long history -- it's definitely not a "notorious union-busting firm." I'm flagging this story because it doesn't belong on the front page of HN, IMHO.
Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale
81–90 of 379 posts
Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale
#82I am usually against unions in tech because the free market tends to allow a proper balance of supply and demand. However, gaming might just be the perfect sub-domain of tech to benefit from unionization. The supply is massively saturated, with dreamy eyed programmers ready to give their lives to work in gaming. On the other hand, a very small group actually gets to make any of the creative decisions that every gamer…
Collective bargaining is not at all incompatible with a "free market." It's just a smarter way to negotiate (more power collectively) and the end result is a contract between a company and a group of workers. It's not like, say, a minimum wage where government sets a price.
Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
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> Ie why would Blizzard be okay with workers unionizing for better work conditions? It seems unlikely that would favor Blizzard in the short term[1]. Well, if everyone reading about Blizzard's malfeasance decides to not do business with them, as some commenters in this thread are doing, then they will suffer a problem in the short term as well.
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Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's dystopian to see Chinese people consume American products at the expense of American workers.
And not dystopian to see American people consume American products made in China at the expense of Chinese workers? The manufacturing industry in Asia isn't very pretty.
Of course it is. My god, there have been like 100+ documentaries and an uncountable number of news articles and literature written about this exact topic for like the last 30 years.
Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is this better? https://kotaku.com/activision-blizzard-hires-union-busting-f...
In my experience Kotaku has not been a reliable source for much of anything, although I don't know the OP domain either
Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale
#86I am usually against unions in tech because the free market tends to allow a proper balance of supply and demand. However, gaming might just be the perfect sub-domain of tech to benefit from unionization. The supply is massively saturated, with dreamy eyed programmers ready to give their lives to work in gaming. On the other hand, a very small group actually gets to make any of the creative decisions that every gamer…
> media production. It works. Does it work? Wasn't it medium (or someone) who when faced with unionization pivoted the company (left severance packages) to a substack like model?
Media production such as film, tv, etc. The online world is not indicative of the benefits brought by the media guilds. I am no expert on their benefits but thought it would help to clarify what media has historically had soft power unions.
Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale
#87WilmerHale is not a notorious union-busting firm. The older set might know their work from A Civil Action, and their grandparents might remember the phrase that turned the red scare, "At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"[1] The marketing material is unfortunate, though, and the connection with Amazon labor work is notable. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmer_Cutler_Pickering_Hale...
What does any of that have to do with whether or not the firm is notorious for union-busting? Representing a polluting corporation against citizens suing it for making them sick is 100% compatible with busting unions. [Originally I had gotten this backwards and stated that WilmerHale represented the citizens]
Their Wikipedia page doesn't mention anything about union-busting. If you are "notorious" for something in this day and age, it should at least show up in ten paragraphs of Wikipedia.
The main controversy mentioned there is them representing people who are held in Guantanamo under suspicion of terrorism. It seems more like Wilmer Hale is a huge bunch of lawyers doing all sorts of things, than some union-busting hacks.
Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why wouldn't there be? Gamergate generally? Also remember the example of Ellen Pao at reddit. Influential people can lose.
Ellen Pao was always meant to be temporary. She didn't lose only played the role she was brought on to do.
> only played the role she was brought on to do
How is that different from losing? Just because she was set up to lose?
Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale
#89I am usually against unions in tech because the free market tends to allow a proper balance of supply and demand. However, gaming might just be the perfect sub-domain of tech to benefit from unionization. The supply is massively saturated, with dreamy eyed programmers ready to give their lives to work in gaming. On the other hand, a very small group actually gets to make any of the creative decisions that every gamer…
What exactly do you mean by proper balance? What you said later in the comment basically applies to all large companies: > The wages are below what the market pays, hours are exploitative and the companies are making massive profits
It is impossible for the wages at all large companies to be below what large companies pay. What large companies pay is what defines the market rate because most people work for large companies.
Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale
#90I cut my teeth on Diablo, and played Diablo II for probably fifteen years after its release off and on as a way to stay connected with a friend who loved it similarly. More recently, I have consistently played Starcraft II since its release and enjoy a sense of mastery over that game unparalleled by my experience in any other. I haven't purchased new Blizzard products since the Hong Kong censorship debacle[1] and qui…
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the problem you have is that you think fighting the unionization is amoral, when in fact doing what is right bye shareholders is the moral thing to do. shareholders is small private investors like me (although I don't invest in Blizzard), your 401ks, etc, to whom they are managing our money for us.
unions sounds nice, but we are just giving up money and freedoms for another layer of corrupt bureaucracy. I don't know much about this particular story, but more often than not I find these union pushes are done by people looking to increase their own power. its a very lucrative career move.