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I predict within 5-10 years, any tech company with an activist union will have moved most of their operations to countries where workers don't have rights. The
by csense 6y ago
I predict within 5-10 years, any tech company with an activist union will have moved most of their operations to countries where workers don't have rights.
They managed to do this in the manufacturing sector. And a car factory or a steel plant is a lot harder to move than a mere office building filled with developers and sysadmins who all work remotely already.
- Retric 6y agoYou mean like how the actors union killed off Hollywood? After literally decades of outsourcing software development to other counties it isn’t much of a threat to the remaining US jobs at this point. There are various arguments about why this is or what might change over time, but unions aren’t going to change the landscape over a few years. Change like this takes decades.
- saiya-jin 6y agoLet's see in couple of years, I wouldn't be so optimistic. There might be a push back after covid is somehow managed and people start coming back to cities, but maybe not
- Retric 6y agoPeople working from home due to covid are still operating in the same time zones and culture etc. If you want top talent in India or China they don’t want to work the night shift which means communication with the rest of the organization becomes difficult, even ignoring culture. The real impact IMO is going to be the erosion of the SV salary premium to other US workers. This might actually raise minimum US salaries due to increased competition with major tech companies in places like Oklahoma without huge tech salaries. However, the real losers from that will be property owners in SV not programmers.
- d1zzy 6y ago> However, the real losers from that will be property owners in SV not programmers. Those aren't necessarily exclusive categories.
- Groxx 6y agoI'm not sure that's a valid comparison tbh. I assume it'd be rather hard to do Hollywood acting remotely, but remote (even other-country) engineering teams are fairly common. Broadly I agree / hope so too, but I don't find hollywood to be a convincing example at all.
- Clubber 6y ago>it isn’t much of a threat to the remaining US jobs at this point. There's 12 million US tech jobs currently in the US, and Eric The Executive gets a bonus every quarter for cutting costs (read jobs). I'd say as long as that dynamic holds, it's always a threat. I mean it would be ugly if we only lost 1 million. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-tech-employment-surpasses-12-million-workers-accounts-for-10-of-nations-economy-301044415.html https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-tech-employment-...
- dafty4 6y agoI was leaning on your explanation at first, but there is the counter-example in California of the Screen Actors Guild and Writer's Union.
- thomasahle 6y agoI don't know. Having more organization among workers may be beneficial for the company as well. It creates a shared interface for communication and negotiation, much more efficient than negotiating with employees individually. Besides, Alphabet workers own a large part of the company shares.
- rathel 6y agoDo you realize that most locations where tech companies would seek talent have much better employee protection? No at-will employment, guaranteed annual and parental leave.