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Big Tech is using layoffs to crush worker power

latimes.com

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Re: Big Tech is using layoffs to crush worker power

#281

Post by eropple »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #266
jakelazaroff wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have the right to build a business. You have the right to try , of course, but it's not like there's some natural law that you should be able to succeed. So appeals to "it's hanging on by a thread!" don't really do much for me; maybe the viability of your business relies on an imbalance of power vs. your employees, in which case I'd really rather the thread be cut. Your comment about firing people is kinda…

People have the right to freely associate with who they want, ergo the right to build a business.

If they'd like to operate as a sole proprietorship with unlimited liability, perhaps.

If they'd like to operate as a virtual person that insulates personal assets from liability, then the society that grants such a charter absolutely should get to put boundaries on what, as a collective deployer of potentially significant capital, that business is allowed to do.

Re: Big Tech is using layoffs to crush worker power

#282

Post by chimeracoder »

bushbaba wrote: post #153
JackFr wrote: post #86

So big tech has 220,000 layoffs and there is not the merest hint of a blip in the unemployment rate. This is not a tragedy - these people are going to find jobs, good jobs. In fact it's quite likely that they will go into roles which might do something other than online advertising. You know, something useful.

Unemployment doesn’t show laid off employees who aren’t yet collecting unemployment benefits. These tech workers got at least 60 days of severance thanks to the warn act.

> Unemployment doesn’t show laid off employees who aren’t yet collecting unemployment benefits.

That is not true. The fact that they are receiving severance does not change their classification as unemployed.

The unemployment rate, which is calculated using a standard approach across the country, is completely unrelated to unemployment benefits, which are handled at the state level with a high degree of variation.

In fact, workers are counted as unemployed even if the layoffs are temporary and they are expected to be recalled (e.g. furlough).

Re: Big Tech is using layoffs to crush worker power

#283

Post by p0pcult »

bitwize wrote: post #69
bedhead wrote: post #63

Ahhh, legacy mainstream media, where tech companies doing desperately needed layoffs just like practically every company in the world over an economic cycle is a nothing more than a singular conspiracy to "crush worker power." Never change my liberal echo chamber journalist friends, never change...

I hear DEI initiatives in HR departments were particularly hard hit. So it's not just capitalists breaking workers' backs, there's a strong current of white resentment as well...

Cool story bro.

Re: Big Tech is using layoffs to crush worker power

#284

Post by tracker1 »

Apocryphon wrote: post #239
tracker1 wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been very libertarian (increasingly so over the decades) for a while and pretty pro union. My issues come from govt forced union jobs in some places, and likewise when govt interferes with planned strikes etc... as much as a railway strike would literally hurt for most of the country, as an example.

Would you say you’re a left-libertarian?

God no... I think communal leftist libertarianism is just wacky and doesn't make any sense at all. I think most of the left-libertarian movement is disenfranchised left-authoritarians who realize forcing things isn't ok, but haven't dealt with the fact that an idealistic communal utopia isn't really possible.

Aside, I tend to get along with most conservatives okay, I'm just far more in favor of more limited govt than they tend to be, and more personal liberty, which tends to collide when they want to make religious views law.

Re: Big Tech is using layoffs to crush worker power

#286

Post by wheats »

AlwaysRock wrote: post #175

Right before COVID-19 stay at home order in Chicago, a bunch of improvisers who preformed at the popular i.o theater put together a list of demands which basically asked for a bunch of changes to make the lives of performers better. They were not going to perform until those changes were made. The owner didnt respond for a few days and then said, "Hey! Heard you. Great valid concerns. But I'm actually shutting the th…

>as the individual its so hard to get any meaningful change

When the union's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run,

There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun;

Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one

But the union makes us strong.

Re: Big Tech is using layoffs to crush worker power

#287

Post by ttobbaybbob »

JackFr wrote: post #86

So big tech has 220,000 layoffs and there is not the merest hint of a blip in the unemployment rate. This is not a tragedy - these people are going to find jobs, good jobs. In fact it's quite likely that they will go into roles which might do something other than online advertising. You know, something useful.

part of the point, too, is that now that there's the pressure of unemployment instead of the moving as opportunistic jump many may be willing to accept a commensurate (possibly lower) salary/tc than they had previously instead of demanding an increase

Re: Big Tech is using layoffs to crush worker power

#288

Post by kilgnad »

renewiltord wrote: post #254
kilgnad wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a side note I feel we can take Unionization into the tech world as a start up or an App. Imagine a blind-esque App that just allows everyone participating to vote anonymously for a union. Then AFTER a union is official then leaders and instigators could reveal themselves or maybe there were no leaders or instigators the whole thing was p2p. I feel something as easy and convenient as blind can allow "unions in limb…

That's a pretty clever idea. I'm against tech unions entirely, but I have to say that the just-in-time union is a pretty neat idea.

Really? it was generated by chatGPT. Just kidding. Thanks!

Re: Big Tech is using layoffs to crush worker power

#289

Post by dehrmann »

jklinger410 wrote: post #160
theptip wrote: post #104

I just don’t buy it. To be clear this is claiming that the CEOs are sitting behind a desk stroking a cat, thinking “now I will crush the labor movement and make all my workers feel less secure”. This is just not a problem that Pichai is facing. Occam’s Razor points to the very simple, non-conspiratorial answer that it really is just stock-price driven (ie market-driven) thinking (one could say “lack of actual strateg…

And I don't buy the coincidental timing of the fed trying to push us into a recession, which they were not being successful at, following shortly with public companies like Google suddenly finding a bunch of inessential staff to cut. It's not like Google is taking out loans for payroll, or that it was obvious that this move was necessary. These inessential employees have been inessential for years.

The standard argument is that tech companies hired-up for 2021 lasting forever, but people spent less time shopping online in 2022. The poster child for this is Peloton. On top of the shift in demand, higher interest rates hit other companies that would otherwise advertise on Google.

Did Google need to do layoffs? No. Did it over-hire for revenue that never materialized? Yes.

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