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The union would be stronger if it included the engineers too, who have more leverage.

by ihm 7y ago

consumer451 7y ago
In my idealized universe FB engineers would have to rotate through moderation for 1 week per year. In my impossibly idealized universe the C suite would do the same.
zamber 7y ago
I'm convinced that unionizing at this scale does not work. They'll always find cheaper people to do the grunt work which presumably is there only to teach the AI. Maybe when the AI is stable enough this AI "caretaker" position will take over and the burden of traumatic content will be alleviated. Maybe. Up until then people should unionize. Do whatever it takes to create a workplace whichd by human eyes at all, or worst case just once. reply Miner49er 10 hours ago [-] Facebook won't do anything to help these moderaters unless the cost of the negative PR exceeds the cost of doing something. Engineers at FB could help achieve this by causing agitation, for sure. Maybe the best solution is for the moderaters to unionize. reply plankers 1 hour ago [-] If you can think of a practical way to unionize workers on a 1-2 year contract with a high turnover rate, I'd love to hear it. The deck is stacked against employee organizatio does not drain sanity from people. Personally I understand browsing toxic content to foster "immunity" or at least familiarity. Doing it for money sounds like a lose-lose scenario. Call centers seem to sound better given the conditions.
esoterica 7y ago
Every single union in the planet was formed because workers wanted to improve their own wages and working conditions. Nobody organizes to protect other people’s interests. Why should engineers be the only rubes on the planet using their bargaining power to help other people instead of themselves?
- mistersquid 7y ago
  > Every single union in the planet was formed because workers wanted to improve their own wages and working conditions. Nobody organizes to protect other people’s interests. This overlooks the possibility that workers with different statuses can recognize commonality and, so, unionize as a coalition. This is precisely what happened when the graduate students at the University of Virginia unionized with the University classified staff under UAW for health care and a living wage in 1996ish (? IIRC). Workers can unionize across pay grades and professional classification if and when it suits such workers to do so.

The union would be stronger if it included the engineers too, who have more leverage.

by ihm 7y ago

The union would be stronger if it included the engineers too, who have more leverage.

In my idealized universe FB engineers would have to rotate through moderation for 1 week per year. In my impossibly idealized universe the C suite would do the same.

zamber 7y ago

I'm convinced that unionizing at this scale does not work. They'll always find cheaper people to do the grunt work which presumably is there only to teach the AI. Maybe when the AI is stable enough this AI "caretaker" position will take over and the burden of traumatic content will be alleviated. Maybe. Up until then people should unionize. Do whatever it takes to create a workplace whichd by human eyes at all, or worst case just once. reply Miner49er 10 hours ago [-] Facebook won't do anything to help these moderaters unless the cost of the negative PR exceeds the cost of doing something. Engineers at FB could help achieve this by causing agitation, for sure. Maybe the best solution is for the moderaters to unionize. reply plankers 1 hour ago [-] If you can think of a practical way to unionize workers on a 1-2 year contract with a high turnover rate, I'd love to hear it. The deck is stacked against employee organizatio does not drain sanity from people. Personally I understand browsing toxic content to foster "immunity" or at least familiarity. Doing it for money sounds like a lose-lose scenario. Call centers seem to sound better given the conditions.

esoterica 7y ago

Every single union in the planet was formed because workers wanted to improve their own wages and working conditions. Nobody organizes to protect other people’s interests. Why should engineers be the only rubes on the planet using their bargaining power to help other people instead of themselves?

mistersquid 7y ago
> Every single union in the planet was formed because workers wanted to improve their own wages and working conditions. Nobody organizes to protect other people’s interests. This overlooks the possibility that workers with different statuses can recognize commonality and, so, unionize as a coalition. This is precisely what happened when the graduate students at the University of Virginia unionized with the University classified staff under UAW for health care and a living wage in 1996ish (? IIRC). Workers can unionize across pay grades and professional classification if and when it suits such workers to do so.