9 ms·

Kickstarter also voted itself to become a Public Benefits Corporation [1] so you would hope they were already out in front of ensuring contributor rights are fa

Kickstarter also voted itself to become a Public Benefits Corporation [1] so you would hope they were already out in front of ensuring contributor rights are fairly represented in concert with other stakeholders. [1] https://medium.com/kickstarter/kickstarter-is-a-pbc-heres-what-that-means-and-why-it-matters-d90b2389ea6c https://medium.com/kickstarter/kickstarter-is-a-pbc-heres-wh...

busterarm 4y ago
Also a large chunk of the employees who didn't want to unionize (25-35% of their peak headcount) left the company over some of the tactics employed in the contested fight over unionizing the company.
- gnicholas 4y ago
  Can you link to details about this?
  - busterarm 4y ago
    Link? No. I'm personally in tight with a whole bunch of (ex-)Kickstarter people from rank and file to leadership. Glad to be friends with people but happy they're not my coworkers.
  - native_samples 4y ago
    It's worth remembering that the event that, uh, kickstarted their drive for unionization was the site's management banning a project that was raising money to support violence against conservatives (the actual physical kind, not words). The details are a bit fuzzy now but iirc some of the hard-left employees didn't like the ToS being enforced in that case, because whilst they accepted the project was calling for violence they felt that encouraging people to "punch Nazis" should explicitly be allowed. They felt that strongly enough that they unionized to force management to acquiesce. So this isn't a classical union that's requesting more money for the workers or anything. It's the new sort of union which tries to force companies to take sides in the culture war. It's thus not a surprise that a significant proportion of workers wouldn't want to be a part of that, and well, the sort of people who were unionizing the firm were doing so explicitly to support physical violence. US unions have a long history of violence already. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/10/10/how-debate-about-punching-nazis-sparked-fight-create-techs-first-name-brand-union/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/10/10/how-debat...
    - ceejayoz 4y ago
      > raising money to support violence against conservatives Let's be clear; the title was "Always Punch Nazis", not "Always Punch Conservatives". If you're mixing the two up, that's more on you than the author.
      - rayiner 4y ago
        Except the kind of people who donate to something like that think that all conservatives are nazis.
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
      - BitwiseFool 4y ago
        >"Let's be clear; the title was "Always Punch Nazis", not "Always Punch Conservatives". If you're mixing the two up, that's more on you than the author." I've definitely noticed an overlap between the kinds of folks who want society to embrace and normalize violence against "Nazis" and the kinds of folks who go around accusing opponents of Nazism with little to no restraint. Edit: I'm struggling to articulate this, but I also sense a rhetorical sleight-of-hand along the lines of "By definition, we only go after Nazis. If you claim that Nazi we went after was actually a conservative, that says more about you than it does about us and it makes us question your sympathies."
        zozbot234 4y ago
        > I've definitely noticed an overlap between the kinds of folks who want society to embrace and normalize violence against "Nazis" and the kinds of folks who go around accusing opponents of Nazism with little to no restraint. Indeed, there was a very high profile example of just that a few months ago. It even made headline news, you've probably heard about it.
        deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
- kieselguhr_kid 4y ago
  A recently unionized workplace can get hostile to workers who opposed it. This is fine by me: if you opposed the majority of your coworkers in their struggle for better material working conditions, then you should feel their resentment.
  - djbebs 4y ago
    Can we also make a hostile work environment to pro-union employees? Or is this another one of those hypocrite things?
    - pessimizer 4y ago
      The people who could create that hostile work environment refuse to cooperate with each other.
    - vkou 4y ago
      > Can we also make a hostile work environment to pro-union employees? That's already the default in any non-union workplace, which is to say, the majority of workplaces.
    - lostcolony 4y ago
      What...sort of environment do you think caused them to unionize?
      - throwaway_95283 4y ago
        One where people were expected spend more time working than being offended.
        andrepd 4y ago
        Ah yes, labour unions, that invention of 2010s woke culture... You seem to be a bit confused.
        4y ago
pastor_bob 4y ago
Isn't that designation basically BS? So was Etsy, and they ditched it and went full capitalism mode.

busterarm 4y ago

Also a large chunk of the employees who didn't want to unionize (25-35% of their peak headcount) left the company over some of the tactics employed in the contested fight over unionizing the company.

gnicholas 4y ago
Can you link to details about this?
- busterarm 4y ago
  Link? No. I'm personally in tight with a whole bunch of (ex-)Kickstarter people from rank and file to leadership. Glad to be friends with people but happy they're not my coworkers.
- native_samples 4y ago
  It's worth remembering that the event that, uh, kickstarted their drive for unionization was the site's management banning a project that was raising money to support violence against conservatives (the actual physical kind, not words). The details are a bit fuzzy now but iirc some of the hard-left employees didn't like the ToS being enforced in that case, because whilst they accepted the project was calling for violence they felt that encouraging people to "punch Nazis" should explicitly be allowed. They felt that strongly enough that they unionized to force management to acquiesce. So this isn't a classical union that's requesting more money for the workers or anything. It's the new sort of union which tries to force companies to take sides in the culture war. It's thus not a surprise that a significant proportion of workers wouldn't want to be a part of that, and well, the sort of people who were unionizing the firm were doing so explicitly to support physical violence. US unions have a long history of violence already. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/10/10/how-debate-about-punching-nazis-sparked-fight-create-techs-first-name-brand-union/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/10/10/how-debat...
  - ceejayoz 4y ago
    > raising money to support violence against conservatives Let's be clear; the title was "Always Punch Nazis", not "Always Punch Conservatives". If you're mixing the two up, that's more on you than the author.
    - rayiner 4y ago
      Except the kind of people who donate to something like that think that all conservatives are nazis.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - BitwiseFool 4y ago
      >"Let's be clear; the title was "Always Punch Nazis", not "Always Punch Conservatives". If you're mixing the two up, that's more on you than the author." I've definitely noticed an overlap between the kinds of folks who want society to embrace and normalize violence against "Nazis" and the kinds of folks who go around accusing opponents of Nazism with little to no restraint. Edit: I'm struggling to articulate this, but I also sense a rhetorical sleight-of-hand along the lines of "By definition, we only go after Nazis. If you claim that Nazi we went after was actually a conservative, that says more about you than it does about us and it makes us question your sympathies."
      - zozbot234 4y ago
        > I've definitely noticed an overlap between the kinds of folks who want society to embrace and normalize violence against "Nazis" and the kinds of folks who go around accusing opponents of Nazism with little to no restraint. Indeed, there was a very high profile example of just that a few months ago. It even made headline news, you've probably heard about it.
        deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
kieselguhr_kid 4y ago
A recently unionized workplace can get hostile to workers who opposed it. This is fine by me: if you opposed the majority of your coworkers in their struggle for better material working conditions, then you should feel their resentment.
- djbebs 4y ago
  Can we also make a hostile work environment to pro-union employees? Or is this another one of those hypocrite things?
  - pessimizer 4y ago
    The people who could create that hostile work environment refuse to cooperate with each other.
  - vkou 4y ago
    > Can we also make a hostile work environment to pro-union employees? That's already the default in any non-union workplace, which is to say, the majority of workplaces.
  - lostcolony 4y ago
    What...sort of environment do you think caused them to unionize?
    - throwaway_95283 4y ago
      One where people were expected spend more time working than being offended.
      - andrepd 4y ago
        Ah yes, labour unions, that invention of 2010s woke culture... You seem to be a bit confused.
        4y ago

pastor_bob 4y ago

Isn't that designation basically BS? So was Etsy, and they ditched it and went full capitalism mode.