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While I myself was not part of a union, I have worked for a company that had a large-ish ( order of 100's) unionized software engineering team. It did not creat

While I myself was not part of a union, I have worked for a company that had a large-ish ( order of 100's) unionized software engineering team. It did not create a better dynamic. If the goal is to have a union that contains both high paid and low paid employees to that the more highly paid employees speak up for the others, that certainly didn't happen. I'm proud to say I work for Amazon. It's not a perfect place. That doesn't mean there aren't many good things about it. Universally when I tell people that I work for Amazon, they tell me how much easier we make life for them as customers; how it's really hard to get a baby in the car to buy diapers and how Amazon's ease of use and delivery saves them many trips to a store each week; how much they love Echo, Kindle, AWS, Prime or one of the many other services we offer. I work for a team that builds primarily internally facing tools, and our team has been told that we're "doing the Lord's work" and I have been asked to hug one of my teammates by our internal customers because of a new feature my teammate pushed out. So, no, I don't think it has to be so soul crushing as the article makes it out to be.

extragood 8y ago
I don't know that there needs to be a union per-se (it's actually never brought up in the article at all), but collective bargaining can work without one, on a company level. It would take a tremendous effort to make that change within a company like Amazon, but that company is probably one of the best examples where that change needs to happen. Costco is an example of a company where even the lowest paid employees are still fairly compensated, are guaranteed vacation, and receive good benefits. It's the company culture and values that dictates how the lowest paid employees are treated, and that can be directed and redefined, at least according to the author, in large part by the highest paid employees.

extragood 8y ago

I don't know that there needs to be a union per-se (it's actually never brought up in the article at all), but collective bargaining can work without one, on a company level. It would take a tremendous effort to make that change within a company like Amazon, but that company is probably one of the best examples where that change needs to happen. Costco is an example of a company where even the lowest paid employees are still fairly compensated, are guaranteed vacation, and receive good benefits. It's the company culture and values that dictates how the lowest paid employees are treated, and that can be directed and redefined, at least according to the author, in large part by the highest paid employees.