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I think it's a very good question. Google employees have some of the best salaries, generous benefits, plentiful vacations, massages, psychological help, free

I think it's a very good question. Google employees have some of the best salaries, generous benefits, plentiful vacations, massages, psychological help, free food - you name it. I see how a union can make things worse for googlers. I cannot see how unions can make things better.

ramphastidae 7y ago
The Google employees advocating for unionization are contractors and do not enjoy the benefits you mentioned.
- S_A_P 7y ago
  Which again brings to mind the question- if you want those great benefits you could try to get hired as an employee. Or come on as a contractor and prove yourself to the company. If you are a contractor you are trading that for higher per hour wages. In my industry in the Houston area the most I could ever expect to make as a developer a specific niche is roughly 150k plus or minus 30k. As a contractor on a good year I can triple that. Unionizing Would only bring that number down.
  - S_A_P 7y ago
    This isn’t a hill I am trying to die on. And I would be happy to hear dissenting opinions. From my perspective, a contractor!= to an employee and there are trade offs associated with this difference. If you want benefits and more(again theoretical most of the time) job security then you go the FTE route. I’m not going to use examples of bad unions to argue my point and I even think in some cases they could make sense. I even think employees at google in a union make sense. But contractor? It is a low drag way to get people in and out the door without a bunch of red tape. Unionizing would make this not the case and likely just prevent contractors from being used. This is a case by case scenario and I think a lot of start ups are using contractors as employees just to try and make their business viable. Again I would love to hear a different view on this, I don’t know that I’m an expert on this but seeing things from the perspective of being an employee/contractor/business owner is what has informed my point of view here.
- alkibiades 7y ago
  they’re not talented enough or worth those benefits. if they were, they’d be full time. unionizing is a good way to get themselves fired

ramphastidae 7y ago

The Google employees advocating for unionization are contractors and do not enjoy the benefits you mentioned.

S_A_P 7y ago
Which again brings to mind the question- if you want those great benefits you could try to get hired as an employee. Or come on as a contractor and prove yourself to the company. If you are a contractor you are trading that for higher per hour wages. In my industry in the Houston area the most I could ever expect to make as a developer a specific niche is roughly 150k plus or minus 30k. As a contractor on a good year I can triple that. Unionizing Would only bring that number down.
- S_A_P 7y ago
  This isn’t a hill I am trying to die on. And I would be happy to hear dissenting opinions. From my perspective, a contractor!= to an employee and there are trade offs associated with this difference. If you want benefits and more(again theoretical most of the time) job security then you go the FTE route. I’m not going to use examples of bad unions to argue my point and I even think in some cases they could make sense. I even think employees at google in a union make sense. But contractor? It is a low drag way to get people in and out the door without a bunch of red tape. Unionizing would make this not the case and likely just prevent contractors from being used. This is a case by case scenario and I think a lot of start ups are using contractors as employees just to try and make their business viable. Again I would love to hear a different view on this, I don’t know that I’m an expert on this but seeing things from the perspective of being an employee/contractor/business owner is what has informed my point of view here.
alkibiades 7y ago
they’re not talented enough or worth those benefits. if they were, they’d be full time. unionizing is a good way to get themselves fired