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Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave

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141–150 of 266 posts

Re: Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave

#141
post #129
post #98

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

I've been doing the laptop and easy-chair thing for years. Posture isn't bad, pressure is somewhat easily distributed. It's great as long as you have a chair that supports the head/neck.

Re: Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave

#142
post #88
post #7

Earlier 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?

Yes, there are many non-union acting roles available. You aren't going to get rich from them.

Re: Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave

#143

I 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?

Because Programmers as a profession can be easily outsourced? Can't really think a profession, where location is as unimportant as programming. Union will drive employers away, which is a fact. To prevent this, there has to some regulation in place, where forbid employers to hire unlicensed programmers from doing programming job. Pretty much the whole programming culture will need to be overhauled for union to be a real option.

Re: Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave

#144
post #72

For 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…

Except none of these are happening in SV, and I can't imagine them happening in the foreseeable future.

Re: Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave

#145
post #122

Earlier 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.

And the point is unions didn't help to counter it.

Re: Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave

#146
post #83
post #5

Earlier 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…

>Tech workers should organize. United they bargain, divided they write anonymous complaints on HN.

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

#147

Earlier 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.

I was unaware of this, thanks for that.

Re: Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave

#148

Earlier 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.

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 create the conditions for it then blame management of course)

Re: Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave

#149

Earlier 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…

Fair enough to your second point, though I honestly doubt its more or less common in working class unions vs white collars. Sexual harassment doesn't seem to be something that respects class lines as much as people would like it to. I'm still waiting on a "This is what a Trump Voter looks like" profile pieces that covers, say, an intellectual living and working in Cambridge MA, or an upper middle class manager from Sugarland in Houston.

Re: Union Is Formed at Los Angeles Times and Publisher Put on Leave

#150

Earlier 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…

Who are you going to persuade with rhetoric like that? I don't even disagree with the point you're making about public-sector unions, which I too have misgivings about, but I feel repulsed by the way you've chosen to make that point --- which has little to do with what I'm saying.
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