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Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing

theverge.com

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Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing

#61

Post by justaman »

msghacq wrote: post #48

"America’s political climate is changing; among other things, the 2016 presidential election brought up the issue of wealth inequality in this country and made people consider more closely the structural forces that define class here." What on earth does the 2016 election have to do with wealth inequality (or unions for that matter)? Inequality has been on the rise for decades and Clinton was also a member of the 1%.…

There are a lot more socialists in the US than there were 5 years ago. Some attribute that to Bernie Sanders and his run for the dem's nomination.

Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing

#63

Post by icelancer »

matthewowen wrote: post #36
baby_wipe wrote: post #14

So if they succeed, does that mean nobody can work for Kickstarter unless they are part of the union?

No. You're describing a closed shop, and closed shops are illegal in the USA. They _could_ require that _after_ joining Kickstarter either join the union or pay equivalent dues.

How is that different?

Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing

#64

Post by mises »

chrisseaton wrote: post #21
baby_wipe wrote: post #14

So if they succeed, does that mean nobody can work for Kickstarter unless they are part of the union?

I don't know how unions work in the US, but most unions in the UK fund a single political party, which means you could be forced to pay to support a party with views you find abhorrent in order to work, so I hope not.

Completely correct. Three of the top 10 election cycle 2018 contributors were unions.

* Carpenters & Joiners Union gave $38,366,262 with $37,822,215 to democrats and $529,000 to republicans.

* Service Employees International Union gave $28,224,658 with $28,219,509 to democrats and $132 to republicans.

* Laborers Union gave $27,538,080 with $26,810,870 to democrats and $708,100 to republicans.

Source: https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php?id=

As you can see, there's a massive amount of political spending by unions, and it's almost completely on one side. The "right to work" laws which are so demonized do at least provide one huge advantage: people are no longer forced to contribute to a political campaign which they do not wish to support. There has been court ruling around this area in the past few years, but it was a problem for a long time and, to an extent, remains one.

Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing

#65

Post by lazyasciiart »

czbond wrote: post #47

Why are tech company staff wanting to unionize? For the most part, aren't tech staff reasonably to well paid - with good working conditions and moderate hour expectations (say 40-50)?

Well, when the Kickstarter staff unionized, they said "The goal of our union is to have a formal seat at the table to negotiate with management. We’re negotiating to promote our collective values, and ensure Kickstarter is around for the long haul. We care about preserving what’s great about Kickstarter and improving what isn’t.” In the last year, employees at Google and Microsoft have begun to agitate collectively to end sexual harassment and their companies’ respective involvements in the military-industrial complex and overseas censorship. Employees at Amazon and Salesforce have also implored their executives to stop selling technology to the US government. All of these requests could have more impact if made with a union behind them. All of this information was in the article linked in this post.

Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing

#66

Post by the_bear »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #53
the_bear wrote: post #28

Is anyone aware of an example where (a) a really small company unionized and/or (b) a workforce unionized without any real demands? I run a 17 person company and I've heard employees mention that they think all companies should be unionized even if there aren't currently any problems that the union would seek to address. I strongly support the big tech companies unionizing and so it would be hypocritical of me to be…

What is the overhead?

I'll admit I'm not very knowledgeable about the logistics of unions, but I imagine there's some kind of up-front legal overhead. Like, maybe there are contracts between the union and the company, or within the union itself to determine how it's governed? I also get the impression there is some overhead in an ongoing basis in the form of extra meetings, more complicated negotiations, etc.

All of those things seem like relatively minor costs when spread out across a large employee base, but I could see it being prohibitive for a smaller company. Or maybe this is a solved problem and you can just find some boilerplate stuff online that takes care of the whole process.

Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing

#67

Post by fareesh »

> America’s political climate is changing; among other things, the 2016 presidential election brought up the issue of wealth inequality in this country and made people consider more closely the structural forces that define class here.

What is a structural force that defines class in America?

Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing

#68

Post by lazyasciiart »

gbear605 wrote: post #2

This is a big move on their part. If it’s successful for them, it could inspire a lot of others. I’m curious what their reason for unionizing is. Wanting more reasonable hours, perhaps?

According to The Verge “The goal of our union is to have a formal seat at the table to negotiate with management,” the Kickstarter Union organizers write in their email to staff. “We’re negotiating to promote our collective values, and ensure Kickstarter is around for the long haul. We care about preserving what’s great about Kickstarter and improving what isn’t.”

Re: Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing

#70

Post by chrisseaton »

matthewowen wrote: post #36
baby_wipe wrote: post #14

So if they succeed, does that mean nobody can work for Kickstarter unless they are part of the union?

No. You're describing a closed shop, and closed shops are illegal in the USA. They _could_ require that _after_ joining Kickstarter either join the union or pay equivalent dues.

> They _could_ require that _after_ joining Kickstarter either join the union or pay equivalent dues.

That sounds like exactly the same thing as a closed shop. How is that practically any different?

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