171–180 of 303 posts
Does anybody know what motivated the unionization effort? This is relevant to me as a Fastmail customer, because if the employees aren't being treated well that's a very poor reflection of the company.
As a Fastmail customer: great! More power to them. If anything, any negative reaction by Fastmail, the corporation will act as a signal for me to start thinking about moving away. You know a company is morally bankrupt if they fight their employees unionizing. I don't think Fastmail will do that though.
> You know a company is morally bankrupt if they fight their employees unionizing Any company would oppose their employees unionizing; they have a fiduciary duty to do so
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is wrong. This is like saying that the whole relationship of employer/employee is inherently hostile because the employer can threaten wages/livelihood as negotiation leverage. Unions are kind of like HR that serves the employees
Unions almost never negotiate in the long-term interest of a business, they're collectively overly-short-term-focused cash/productivity drags on a business. If unions were truly long-term focused they'd be negotiating things like employee equity, but you almost never see that. Ceteris paribus non union shops are more long-term focused and trend towards better long-term outcomes.
Does anyone have any resources for stopping unions from being formed? I've started taking steps to join the "Union" at my FAANG, in hopes of sabotaging it. I can't think of anything worse for software developers than having some politically motivated organization to deal with in addition to management. You can see how well unions have gone for software engineers in the past, (Boeing is one example that has a strong u…
But I doubt you’ll get any advice for stopping it here. hn has turned into a midwit reddit when it comes discussion quality. I assume you should be allowed to continue working without joining the union or paying their dues.
1. Why did the Fastmail employees decide to form a union? Were the working conditions poor? Was the pay below market rate? Abnormal working hours? Not enough vacation or maternal/paternal leave?
2. Has Fastmail released a statement on this? What is their position?
3. Who comprises the leadership of this union?
4. What is the charter or mission of the union? (What are they seeking to accomplish or remedy?)
5. What percentage of Fastmail workers are members of the union? (Does the union have a target membership percentage?)
6. Is the union seeking to renegotiate the employment contracts of its members at this time? If not, are they expecting to in the future?
7. Will it be possible to work at Fastmail in the future without being a union member, or will union membership be (formally or informally) compulsory?
8. Who are the members of the union? (By job type, I mean. Engineers? HR? Janitorial staff? Managers?)
9. Does the union charge dues and how much?
10. Are there union meetings and if so, how often?
11. What action can a union member take if they disagree with a union decision, or the overall direction the union is taking?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm a happy Fastmail customer, but I would not recommend them on the basis of their spam filter. It's competent but makes at least a few mistakes a week. Google's was better for me.
for me both are far better than o365, which even marked legit business mail (o365 invoices :)) from microsoft itsef as spam! I'm generally content with fastmail, but the webmail would need some polish. (and by polish I do not mean the user hostile react rewrites MS and Google are pushing)
Does anyone have any resources for stopping unions from being formed? I've started taking steps to join the "Union" at my FAANG, in hopes of sabotaging it. I can't think of anything worse for software developers than having some politically motivated organization to deal with in addition to management. You can see how well unions have gone for software engineers in the past, (Boeing is one example that has a strong u…
Congrats to the team! This might be the reminder I needed to finally subscribe. Gmail’s spam filter has been nonexistent for the past month (300+ clearly spammy email reaching my inbox).
I'm a happy Fastmail customer, but I would not recommend them on the basis of their spam filter. It's competent but makes at least a few mistakes a week. Google's was better for me.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As long as there's an option to not be in the union, it's completely fine IMO. In a free market, the best option will win. When non-union jobs are better than union jobs the need for the union should vanish (in theory).
If the market is free, why can't employees decide to group together and negotiate a contract with a company that precludes the hiring of non-union employees? Sounds like freedom of association with me. You wouldn't complain about a corporation signing an exclusive contract with another corporation (even for supplying labor), why is it a problem when it's a collective of workers imposing that restriction rather than a…
> Sounds like freedom of association with me.
Hey as long as it goes both ways. It would equally be freedom of association to fire any union employees.
Oh wait, that's illegal.
So instead of that, a fair compromise is that it should be equally illegal for firing someone either if they join or don't union a union.
That's what right to work laws do. They give equal protections to both union and non union employees.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You know a company is morally bankrupt if they fight their employees unionizing Any company would oppose their employees unionizing; they have a fiduciary duty to do so
> fiduciary duty to do so Is that actually so?