4 ms·

The union can act as a third party and provide a similar site. Where then the interests are more closely aligned and not affected by the profit motive. The purp

The union can act as a third party and provide a similar site. Where then the interests are more closely aligned and not affected by the profit motive. The purpose of such a union would be to get developers jobs at equitable rates for their living conditions and their home market.

simion314 7y ago
Is there a legal way to create a union to represent people from different countries,that work as free lancers? I can see this attempts getting stuck in the laws that probably were not designed for such a scenario. Some competition would help but the big ones buy the small competitors.
- dbpatterson 7y ago
  Not sure about actually having protected collective bargaining rights (i.e., in the US subject to the NLRA), but pooling resources to have staff attorneys, etc -- certainly possible. e.g., the IWW tries to do this, organizing "unorganizable" workforces (most recently, for freelance journalists https://freelancejournalistsunion.org/ https://freelancejournalistsunion.org/)
  - simion314 7y ago
    The only issue I see is that lawyers are expensive in US relative to how low most of the beginner developers get paid on freelancer.com (you could earn 2.5$/hour or less).
- AJ007 7y ago
  I’m not sure how you have any kind of collective bargaining when the talent pool represents hundreds of millions of potential workers. Many of those are people who will spend 12 hours a day working and commuting to earn a few hundred dollars a month. The legal systems of the workers range everywhere from, the United States, to countries where you can get your head chopped off if someone thinks you might be gay. How does all of that get reconciled? It could turn in to something that goes in to trade agreements. Then you potentially have a situation where work is just getting subcontracted out instead of contracted directly.

4 ms·

The union can act as a third party and provide a similar site. Where then the interests are more closely aligned and not affected by the profit motive. The purp

by devoply 7y ago

simion314 7y ago
Is there a legal way to create a union to represent people from different countries,that work as free lancers? I can see this attempts getting stuck in the laws that probably were not designed for such a scenario. Some competition would help but the big ones buy the small competitors.
- dbpatterson 7y ago
  Not sure about actually having protected collective bargaining rights (i.e., in the US subject to the NLRA), but pooling resources to have staff attorneys, etc -- certainly possible. e.g., the IWW tries to do this, organizing "unorganizable" workforces (most recently, for freelance journalists https://freelancejournalistsunion.org/ https://freelancejournalistsunion.org/)
  - simion314 7y ago
    The only issue I see is that lawyers are expensive in US relative to how low most of the beginner developers get paid on freelancer.com (you could earn 2.5$/hour or less).
- AJ007 7y ago
  I’m not sure how you have any kind of collective bargaining when the talent pool represents hundreds of millions of potential workers. Many of those are people who will spend 12 hours a day working and commuting to earn a few hundred dollars a month. The legal systems of the workers range everywhere from, the United States, to countries where you can get your head chopped off if someone thinks you might be gay. How does all of that get reconciled? It could turn in to something that goes in to trade agreements. Then you potentially have a situation where work is just getting subcontracted out instead of contracted directly.