4 ms·

I'm also a tech worker and I know plenty of things we can agitate for: * Better treatment against the rampant ageism in our industry (eg. access to lawyers whe

I'm also a tech worker and I know plenty of things we can agitate for: * Better treatment against the rampant ageism in our industry (eg. access to lawyers when IBM decides to do mass layoffs of people above a certain age...) * Guaranteeing reimbursement for self-education materials, time off for self-education purposes like conventions and hacker spaces * Better treatment for H1B visa holders, a political push to stop the abuse of workers who cannot leave employers or risk losing immigration status * Support for and communal funding for OSS * A group pushback against flagrantly unethical, insecure, or straight up illegal behavior on the part of companies (eg. that non-poaching agreement back in the day that kept people's wages from being as high as they should've been) * Standard establishment of making sure remote workers are paid for the value they bring to the company and aren't stiffed purely because of where they are geographically located at the time.

yeetman21 6y ago
To reply to your point about H1B: Unions are normally very nativist and would be the last group pushing for better/ more H1B visas. The Union reaction to the TPP should have indicated something. I feel as if the ageism is more on the worker's shoulders. Many of us are young, and the field is on the younger side on average
- KittenInABox 6y ago
  Unions can be nativist but a tech union shouldn't have to be just because another labor union might've been. Ageism is on the worker's shoulders, but those workers are also managers who choose to do bullshit like lay off workers above a certain age across a company. We need ways to protect ourselves from that.
  - yeetman21 6y ago
    Unions are meant to increase wages for the workers. How will added X thousands of new workers (willing or forced to work for less) increase wages for the workers. It is by its design that unions are nativist. Agree with the second point on ageism
  - JAlexoid 6y ago
    Tech workers are no more or less nativist, than anyone else.
  - ThrowawayR2 6y ago
    > "Unions can be nativist but a tech union shouldn't have to be just because another labor union might've been." There is no "might have been". It's pretty much a matter of historical record that labor unions were fiercely anti-immigrant. Judging by nativist comments even on a heavily moderated forum like HN whenever the topic of H1-Bs comes up, the many, many immigrants in the tech industry would be have to be bonkers to trust that a tech union wouldn't become nativist.
    - teachrdan 6y ago
      Here is one big counter-example: The Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, a union with two million members in the US. They call for comprehensive immigration reform tied with labor conditions. Teachers' unions like the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association also call for compassionate immigration reform. The old stereotype of nativist unions is just that. It's true in some cases--see the Teamsters, who also supported Trump, or police unions--but the actual union movement in the US has long fought for better treatment for immigrants. https://www.seiu.org/cards/solutions-for-immigration-reform-explained/our-framework-for-comprehensive-immigration-reform/p2 https://www.seiu.org/cards/solutions-for-immigration-reform-...
bumby 6y ago
>Better treatment against the rampant ageism in our industry I don’t know your location, but in the US it’s already illegal to discriminate against someone’s age if they’re over 40

yeetman21 6y ago

To reply to your point about H1B: Unions are normally very nativist and would be the last group pushing for better/ more H1B visas. The Union reaction to the TPP should have indicated something. I feel as if the ageism is more on the worker's shoulders. Many of us are young, and the field is on the younger side on average

KittenInABox 6y ago
Unions can be nativist but a tech union shouldn't have to be just because another labor union might've been. Ageism is on the worker's shoulders, but those workers are also managers who choose to do bullshit like lay off workers above a certain age across a company. We need ways to protect ourselves from that.
- yeetman21 6y ago
  Unions are meant to increase wages for the workers. How will added X thousands of new workers (willing or forced to work for less) increase wages for the workers. It is by its design that unions are nativist. Agree with the second point on ageism
- JAlexoid 6y ago
  Tech workers are no more or less nativist, than anyone else.
- ThrowawayR2 6y ago
  > "Unions can be nativist but a tech union shouldn't have to be just because another labor union might've been." There is no "might have been". It's pretty much a matter of historical record that labor unions were fiercely anti-immigrant. Judging by nativist comments even on a heavily moderated forum like HN whenever the topic of H1-Bs comes up, the many, many immigrants in the tech industry would be have to be bonkers to trust that a tech union wouldn't become nativist.
  - teachrdan 6y ago
    Here is one big counter-example: The Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, a union with two million members in the US. They call for comprehensive immigration reform tied with labor conditions. Teachers' unions like the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association also call for compassionate immigration reform. The old stereotype of nativist unions is just that. It's true in some cases--see the Teamsters, who also supported Trump, or police unions--but the actual union movement in the US has long fought for better treatment for immigrants. https://www.seiu.org/cards/solutions-for-immigration-reform-explained/our-framework-for-comprehensive-immigration-reform/p2 https://www.seiu.org/cards/solutions-for-immigration-reform-...

bumby 6y ago

>Better treatment against the rampant ageism in our industry I don’t know your location, but in the US it’s already illegal to discriminate against someone’s age if they’re over 40