Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://i.imgur.com/lziE8QA.jpg It's open, but we got it because we loved the building, and we have two conference rooms with doors for calls. (My "desk" is a big couch with a monitor arm mounted to the wall.)
I wish I could invest in whichever back doctor is closest to you
Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave
141–150 of 266 posts
Re: Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've talked to people in the past who associate a union with factory work, and they don't feel like it applies to them. I sometimes point out that every movie star they've ever heard of is a member of a union. I think part of the problem comes from the decline in unions in the US over the last few decades. New industries aren't unionizing, and older unions are being undermined where possible.
Can you even work as an actor in Hollywood without being part of the SAG?
Re: Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave
#143I thought this was interesting because if knowledge workers like journalists can do so, why not programmers, or what ever term you'd prefer to be called?
Re: Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave
#144For those people suggesting programmers shouldn't unionize, read the op-ed in Financial Times written by Sequoia's Michael Moritz this week to see why programmers should unionize ASAP: https://www.ft.com/content/42daca9e-facc-11e7-9bfc-052cbba03... In this article, he suggests Silicon Valley engineers should be worked to the bone like their Chinese counterparts. Some of the things he suggests in the articles: 1) End…
Re: Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's your argument here? Every assembly line worker in 70s Detroit was unionized.
The "here we are today, look how good we have it" narrative is complacent and dangerous. Eventually you will be disrupted.
Re: Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do we need a union in a seller's market? If I'm unhappy with my job I can quit and get a new one in a week. It's not about being a knowledge worker. Screenwriters are unionized because there are many more people who want to write than there are gigs, therefore there's a high potential for abuse.
If it's a "seller's market", why do so many developers work under onerous IP contracts that grant their employers rights to what they build in their spare time? If it's a "seller's market", why do so many developers work in noisy bullpen environments where they have to blast music into their ears with headphones to focus their attention on what they're building? If it's a "seller's market", why do so many developers…
BRAVO.
We are the beating heart of this world. We have way more leverage than industrial workers ever did - yet they won the weekend, the eight hour day and workplace safety.
What could we win once we set aside the moronic idea that we are each embryonic billionaires whose assholes spray gold coins every time we update a git repo?
Civilized health care, for starters. That alone would make the disruption worth it.
Re: Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its amazing that none of the replies (so far) have pointed out something in the very article that spawned this thread, the status of women and minorities. Literally in the title its noted that the publisher is being put on leave, if you read the article it goes on to note that was because of sexual harrassment and his attitude toward gay men. These are bread and butter union issues.
Indeed, one of the reasons for why tech unionization became a discussed topic was the Susan Fowler revelations about Uber.
Re: Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Maybe it's possible that the people actually doing the work know better about how to run a successful media company than the Troncs do? Why don't they start their own media company then rather than resort to short-term value extraction tactics which will likely drive said "cathedral of journalism" into the ground?
It wasn't the reporters that Tronc'd The Tribune Corporation; it was owners that did that. Why am I required to accept the premise that it's labor that's pathologically short-termist, and not management? I reject that premise.
Re: Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its amazing that none of the replies (so far) have pointed out something in the very article that spawned this thread, the status of women and minorities. Literally in the title its noted that the publisher is being put on leave, if you read the article it goes on to note that was because of sexual harrassment and his attitude toward gay men. These are bread and butter union issues.
> Its amazing that none of the replies (so far) have pointed out something in the very article that spawned this thread, the status of women and minorities. It's not that surprising; Hacker News comments tend not to sympathize with victims of harassment, sexism, or racism when stories about those topics come up. So it's not surprising that it doesn't become the focus of the thread here, since it's not the lede in the…
Re: Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
It wasn't the reporters that Tronc'd The Tribune Corporation; it was owners that did that. Why am I required to accept the premise that it's labor that's pathologically short-termist, and not management? I reject that premise.
Unions (aka parasites) have a rich history of running their hosts into the ground. Just look at Detroit pensions, or any of the hundreds of municipalities that got fucked by Police/Fire pensions in the subprime crisis (e.g. Vallejo), or the fact that there are bus/train drivers in SF that make $100k+/year. Unions are responsible for running things into the ground far more often than management is. (or they just creat…