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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

#31

Well that's one negotiation tactic. Bandcamp is heading for the dead pool, and it fucking sucks because it's my go to online music store. God damnit Epic.

And Bandcamp CEO Ethan Diamond, who agreed to the original acquisition. Looking back 2 years ago he was making the usual promises that nothing would happen to it, after all his parachute depended on saying so.

They always say nothing will change. It's the surest indication that there will be changes.

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

#32
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I understand the statement below right, 27 of the union members received offers > “Of those laid off, 40 were in the union bargaining unit out of a total 67 members. None of the eight (8) democratically elected bargaining team members received a job offer.”

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.

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

#35
post #29
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Epic sold it to Songtradr.

Yes. They acquired the company for no logical reason, did nothing with it, and then dumped it rather than spin it out because they don't care and want their money back. Epic ruined it.

From the perspective of a Bandcamp customer, does any of this actually affect their ability to browse, buy, and listen to music? "ruin" implies the quality degraded, while "nothing" implies a neutral progression.

The only degregation here is the layoffs from the torch passing, but I believe Bandcamp still has more employees now than they did before being acquired.

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

#36

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.

You want the binomial distribution. ( https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/binom-dist-functi... , https://help.libreoffice.org/6.2/en-US/text/scalc/01/0406018... if you want to use Excel; https://help.libreoffice.org/6.2/en-US/text/scalc/01/0406018... ("B") for LibreOffice Calc.) 1/2^40 doesn't come into it. There are 67 relevant employees. Given that 50% of all employees were laid off, what were the odds of at…

There’s an implicit assumption that the layoffs were evenly distributed and that the union bargaining team was also evenly distributed within the organization. If those aren’t true, this analysis is going to give deceiving results (could be either direction).

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

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you define exploitation?

Unless you have shares - you are exploited for your surplus value. This is true for any and all wage based labour.

Not really - if you are salaried worker - you get paid even if the project that you are working on fails. You trade potential profit for stability. But if you are a founder/investor who works on your own stuff then you will lose your own money if the project fails.

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

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you define exploitation?

Unless you have shares - you are exploited for your surplus value. This is true for any and all wage based labour.

When in the world will this meme end.

If I am paid to dig holes, then a hole is not worth anything to me except for what someone will pay for it.

I'm not going to stay at home and dig all these holes in my back yard and glimmer with glee at all this surplus value that I've kept to myself.

Code is the exact same. Me writing a python module to process a CSV file is not at all valuable to me, but the wage I'm paid for making it, is.

It's not exploitation. It's a very easy trade.

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

#39

Here's the bit of the article they put in the middle after all the outrage: > "On Monday, October 16, 2023 over half of Bandcamp was laid off as a result of Epic Games’ divestiture to Songtradr,” Bandcamp United said in a statement. “Of those laid off, 40 were in the union bargaining unit out of a total 67 members. None of the eight (8) democratically elected bargaining team members received a job offer." I can't be…

> the kinds of people who have time to lead a union are likely to be the kinds of people without important jobs

... Wow. That's something you'd never hear in Europe (outside of a golf course, at least).

For the record, leading a union is an important job, and all that's required to want the job is a sense of fairness.

In reality, many people balance multiple responsibilities, including leadership roles in unions alongside demanding jobs.

The statement undermines the significance and complexity of leading a union. Union leadership often requires strategic thinking, negotiation skills, and a strong understanding of labor laws, which many would consider important skills.

People with high-responsibility jobs may still prioritize union involvement because they see it as a vital activity that aligns with their career or personal values.

Stereotyping people who are involved in union leadership as having anunimportant job is a damn near uniquely American notion. It's the result of decades of mind-warping propaganda.

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

#40
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. They acquired the company for no logical reason, did nothing with it, and then dumped it rather than spin it out because they don't care and want their money back. Epic ruined it.

From the perspective of a Bandcamp customer, does any of this actually affect their ability to browse, buy, and listen to music? "ruin" implies the quality degraded, while "nothing" implies a neutral progression. The only degregation here is the layoffs from the torch passing, but I believe Bandcamp still has more employees now than they did before being acquired.

Well, it shows a different philosophy that will eventually get spilled in the rest the service.
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