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I honestly don't know why the initial reaction is to have a union. To me, this immediately puts you at a position of distrust with your employer. And, I sim

by rtp4me 4y ago

I honestly don't know why the initial reaction is *to have a union*. To me, this immediately puts you at a position of distrust with your employer. And, I simply don't understand all the HN hate toward management. I highly doubt most management teams see workers as "easily replaceable" especially considering how hard it is to get workers these days.

xg15 4y ago
> To me, this immediately puts you at a position of distrust with your employer. Well yes, it does. After all, the employer doesn't trust me either, otherwise we wouldn't have a whole industry of performance monitoring tools, time tracking systems, access control solutions, etc. You cannot expect one side to pretend we're all a big family while the other does not. > I highly doubt most management teams see workers as "easily replaceable" especially considering how hard it is to get workers these days. Then go ahead and chat with a few Amazon warehouse workers or Starbucks Baristas or Uber drivers. Or Amazon developers for that matter: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31789381 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31789381
ddingus 4y ago
The reason "have a union" is high on the list of potential solutions to the need to improve both the work place and compensation comes down to having power, and that boils down to being able to present real costs and risks to management they need to respect. As for mistrust, not necessarily. The basic idea of a better balance of power can simply insure good people stay good. In the case of newly formed unions, the overwhelming majority already have mistrust and cause for it. Hate towards management is simple and works like auto mechanics do; namely, there are enough shoddy ones to give the good ones a challenge to maintain a good reputation. At lower wage scales, there is a lot of bad management. Your last statement varies considerably by industry. Let's just say making people replaceable or even making them feel replaceable or have the perception of being replaceable is very high on the priority list for a lot of management.

I honestly don't know why the initial reaction is *to have a union*. To me, this immediately puts you at a position of distrust with your employer. And, I sim

by rtp4me 4y ago

xg15 4y ago

> To me, this immediately puts you at a position of distrust with your employer. Well yes, it does. After all, the employer doesn't trust me either, otherwise we wouldn't have a whole industry of performance monitoring tools, time tracking systems, access control solutions, etc. You cannot expect one side to pretend we're all a big family while the other does not. > I highly doubt most management teams see workers as "easily replaceable" especially considering how hard it is to get workers these days. Then go ahead and chat with a few Amazon warehouse workers or Starbucks Baristas or Uber drivers. Or Amazon developers for that matter: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31789381 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31789381

ddingus 4y ago

The reason "have a union" is high on the list of potential solutions to the need to improve both the work place and compensation comes down to having power, and that boils down to being able to present real costs and risks to management they need to respect. As for mistrust, not necessarily. The basic idea of a better balance of power can simply insure good people stay good. In the case of newly formed unions, the overwhelming majority already have mistrust and cause for it. Hate towards management is simple and works like auto mechanics do; namely, there are enough shoddy ones to give the good ones a challenge to maintain a good reputation. At lower wage scales, there is a lot of bad management. Your last statement varies considerably by industry. Let's just say making people replaceable or even making them feel replaceable or have the perception of being replaceable is very high on the priority list for a lot of management.