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Bandcamp's Entire Union Bargaining Team Was Laid Off

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Re: Bandcamp's Entire Union Bargaining Team Was Laid Off

#101

Post by pastacacioepepe »

bananaquant wrote: post #32
extraduder_ire wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seeing the headline, and remembering that 50% of employees were laid off, my first thought was: "what're the odds?" I assume I'd have to use NCR or something to calculate that. I know the upper (rarest) bound is 1/2^40, but it's likely much more likely, and not random.

As an HR would say, those people are "a bad cultural fit", which legitimately raises the probability of them being laid off to 100%. Simple.

You might need an /s, this is a perfectly plausible comment on HN.

Re: Bandcamp's Entire Union Bargaining Team Was Laid Off

#102

Post by calpaterson »

the_other wrote: post #50

In the UK we have large unions that represent the individuals regardless where they work. I’ve not heard of company-specific unions here, although I’ve not looked for them either. Presumably companies must still recognise the unions. Is it more common in the US to have company-specific unions? Are the large “independent” unions present at all? I would assume that being larger and independent of an employer would make…

They weren't a company-specific union but a branch of OPEIU which looks like a general union for what letting agents call "professionals". To translate what I think was happening into British parlance: they were trying to negotiate employer recognition plus a collective bargaining arrangement.

I don't know if their leadership was good or not but American trades unionism is pretty different to ours. Employees typically don't have a huge amount of legal rights and so getting your workplace unionised is much more of a battle than here. On the other hand, America has de facto closed shops which are illegal pretty much everywhere in Europe.

Re: Bandcamp's Entire Union Bargaining Team Was Laid Off

#103

Post by mandmandam »

0xpgm wrote: post #92
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone is too worried about the layoffs, but these look like targeted layoffs, reinforcing the notion that union members / representatives are troublesome. At the very least, for the sake of optics, they shouldn't have fired the union reps. Not all of them anyway.

> At the very least, for the sake of optics, they shouldn't have fired the union reps. Not all of them anyway. We're all making assumptions here, but let's assume they had legitimate business reasons for the layoffs. What you suggest is that they make less optimal decisions for the sake of optics. In a free-market economy, the companies that make less optimal decisions will have their lunch eaten by those that don't.

> In a free-market economy, the companies that make less optimal decisions will have their lunch eaten by those that don't.

In a race to the bottom, concern for others is a liability. Ugh.

Re: Bandcamp's Entire Union Bargaining Team Was Laid Off

#104

Post by bythreads »

ivalm wrote: post #81
derrida wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And in the EU it is probably why they have free healthcare, high minimum wage, work weeks of 34-38 hrs, welfare, 8 hour work days, overtime after, high proportion of part time workers, and highest productivity per hour in Germany. But yeah, unions, hate what you gotta hate. I personally hate long hours for bullshit pay.

US median income, even disposable income after all the medical/housing costs, is higher than all of the large EU countries (France, Germany, etc). So if anyone has bullshit pay, it’s the Europeans.

Show me those numbers!.

adjusting for cost of Living, healthcare, insurance, childrearing costs (free education) and taxes i betcha that statement is factually wrong

Re: Bandcamp's Entire Union Bargaining Team Was Laid Off

#105

Post by b3lvedere »

whoknowsidont wrote: post #27
hipadev23 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They just acquired the company two weeks prior and layoffs are extremely common after one.

Coincidences happen all the time, but I don't _trust_ coincidences.

Once i worked for a company which had to lay off some people due to reorganisations. Management told and wrote to us that these people would be chosen based upon their performance only.

It was quite the weird coincedence that people who had an excellent performance, but refused to renegotiate their old contracts in an earlier stage, were all laid off.

Re: Bandcamp's Entire Union Bargaining Team Was Laid Off

#106

Post by mandmandam »

nabla9 wrote: post #97
ivolimmen wrote: post #49

I find it so weird to read these stories on how Americans cope with unionizing. In the Netherlands where I live it is very common and normal to be member of a union. Most branches have a union, IT sector is a "free sector" and does not have a union. My wife works as a teacher and she is member of a union.

American unions are not like European unions. In Europe sectoral unions and sectoral bargaining is the norm. In the US federal law does not allow that. Each firm must unionize individually. In the US unions and enterprices play zero sum game against each other. If the firm unionizes, the firm loses relative to non-unionized competition. Example: the current UAW (United Auto Workers) dispute in the US. If UAW wins, un…

> In the US federal law does not allow that

If I understand correctly, this isn't true. There are laws that make this effectively true, but that's not quite the same thing.

For example, secondary boycotts are banned. This limits the rights of workers and unions to freely associate and mobilize for their interests. That little doozy was rationalized by the excuse of protecting the economy (read: the status quo).

Ianal, and idk if this is a distinction without a difference; but it seems worth pointing out.

Re: Bandcamp's Entire Union Bargaining Team Was Laid Off

#107

Post by [deleted] »

nielsbot wrote: post #26
jszymborski wrote: post #4

Anyone willing to speculate if there is any legal recourse?

I think the NLRB recently changed their rules and any interference or law breaking automatically confirms the union. The problem then becomes bargaining—companies (see Starbucks) can drag out negotiations indefinitely. This part of labor law probably can’t be changed without congress unfortunately. The PRO Act included rules which forced companies to negotiate within a certain time window but it didn’t pass.

[deleted]

Re: Bandcamp's Entire Union Bargaining Team Was Laid Off

#108

Post by taejavu »

pastacacioepepe wrote: post #101
bananaquant wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an HR would say, those people are "a bad cultural fit", which legitimately raises the probability of them being laid off to 100%. Simple.

You might need an /s, this is a perfectly plausible comment on HN.

I believe it’s a sincere comment actually.

Re: Bandcamp's Entire Union Bargaining Team Was Laid Off

#109

Post by MediumOwl »

ivalm wrote: post #81
derrida wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And in the EU it is probably why they have free healthcare, high minimum wage, work weeks of 34-38 hrs, welfare, 8 hour work days, overtime after, high proportion of part time workers, and highest productivity per hour in Germany. But yeah, unions, hate what you gotta hate. I personally hate long hours for bullshit pay.

US median income, even disposable income after all the medical/housing costs, is higher than all of the large EU countries (France, Germany, etc). So if anyone has bullshit pay, it’s the Europeans.

Citation needed

Re: Bandcamp's Entire Union Bargaining Team Was Laid Off

#110

Post by [deleted] »

rsolva wrote: post #99

Bandcamp has served me well for many years, but I don't use it anymore. I would really like to see something like Castopod [0], but for artists! Spinning up a website where you showcase and sell your music should (and could!) be as easy as using Wordpress, either via a subscription or self-hosted – on your own domain. Being plugged into the Fediverse makes it much easier to interact with fans and build a connection w…

[deleted]
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